By: Luis Gay Ly Thi Minh, a Vietnamese woman, has returned home after four years of forced marriage in rural China. In April of 2011, three young men invited her and her two sisters to a festival. Once they were all alone, Minh says that they were beaten, threatened and smuggled across the border into China. She explains that they were taken to a house seven hours away from the heavy surveillance border. The owner of the house, a man in his 50’s, ran a trafficking business se

By: Kristine Alarcon There is a growing number of pediatricians who decided to go beyond a check up of their child patients. Some are looking into their family history and digging deeper. Doctors, including Dr. R.J. Gillespie, are taking into account the adverse experiences of parents when treating a child. This information could help with preventing and decreasing emotional and physical issues in adulthood of the child as well as prevent any detrimental brain development. R

By: Linda Jacobs Many children experience untold stress during and after a divorce. We know stress can cause undue harm to our mental and physical health. Now we understand through much research that a child’s learning ability is also affected. When a child is stressed and living in the fight-flight part of the brain, they are incapable of learning, processing information or functioning in a reasonable manner. It becomes all about surviving in the moment. When you can get the

By: Kristine Alarcon “Frequent fliers” is a small group of people who spend their time continuously in and out of jail. They are often incarcerated for nonviolent crimes instead of receiving the help they need. “Frequent fliers” may face homelessness, severe mental illness, or even substance abuse. The American Journal of Public Health reports that “at least one person was jailed 66 times during the six-year period” in New York City jails (Davis O’Brien). Most of the time, th

By: Charmaine Santos At the young age of 10 yrs. old, Ivan Nunez was bullied for his cough and the lump in his neck. Classmates avoided him and he couldn’t make friends because they were in fear of catching his symptoms. Little did they know Ivan had a rare cancer called Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Being affected by his son’s loneliness at school, Ivan’s father, Jose, asked the teachers to intervene. In reply, teachers told him they would handle it. Ivan’s treatment started near the

By: Luis Gay A viral campaign is subtly helping domestic abuse victims with the help of a simple black dot. The Black Dot Campaign encourages victims to draw a black dot on their hand as a nonverbal signal for help. Their mission is for friends, family, doctors, and many more to recognize that a person needs help but cannot ask for it. This initiative was started by a domestic violence survivor who was been through physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Because of her experie

By: Charmaine Santos Most pimps in America brand their victims with tattoos as a permanent reminder that they are property and that they will forever be tied together. However, these tattoos are permanent scars often reminding them of the physical and emotional abuse they have to endure. Police can now recognize certain tattoos that differentiate victims of the slave trade. Common ones that police regularly see are the pimp's initials or name with a crown above, dollar signs,

By: Kristine Alarcon Health problems such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease have recently been increasing in countries outside of the Western world. Dr. Jeremy I. Swartz, an assistant professor of general medicine and senior author of a research paper focusing on the East Africa region, says “There are major transitions underway in the epidemiology of disease throughout the world from communicable to chronic disease.” (Kashef) It can be difficult for poorer countries as

By: Luis Gay When there are headlines in the news of child pornography, people tend to focus on the person who committed the act. However, too often, people neglect to recognize how difficult it must be for the child to cope with this situation. In a recent Marie Claire Magazine article, one woman shares her story of being forced into child pornography and being sexually abused. Due to the sensitivity of this issue, the woman requested to remain anonymous. For ease of reading