Female Role Models

I am leaving for Paris today where I will attend the Arab International Women's Forum conference , "From Partnership to Prosperity: Women in the Arab World, France and the International Community".

The program is exciting. It includes great topics like how to help women leaders manage an internal investment portfolio and the formation of biotechnology clusters in the Arab World.

I always get to meet inspiring women at AIWF's conferences.

As you know, I am constantly on the look-out for female role models.

I found one this week in the latest issue of Columbia University's magazine.

Wafaa El-Sadr is the founder of the International Centre for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs, which works with 700 hospitals and clinics in sub-Saharan Africa.

She rose to fame during her years at the TB clinic of the Harlem Hospital Center in New York.

While working with poor and socially isolated patients, she developed a new approach based on a family dynamic that would help them complete their treatment. Within one year,  the TB treatment completion rate at the clinic had jumped from 11 to 89% and El-Sadr became famous for her "surrogate family approach".

Reading this got me thinking. Wouldn't it be great to use social media to create surrogate families to support socially-isolated AIDS patients?

This post appeared originally on www.chandacom.com , Silvia's blog on cross-cultural communication.