Giving Compass' Take:

• Emaline Laney explains how she stumbled upon the global health crisis of burns, which gets little international coverage and is a serious health threat in countries like Nepal. 

• How can funders work to reduce burns and improve care around the world? 

• Learn about the need for burn data.

Emaline Laney is the reason that Global Health NOW sent journalist Joanne Silberner to Nepal to cover the devastating problem of burns, culminating in the 3-part "Blazing Injustice" series. Laney, who recently completed her MSc in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, nominated burns in Nepal for the 2017 Untold Global Health Stories contest, sponsored by CUGH, NPR’s Goats and Soda blog, and Global Health NOW.

GHN: How did you end up in a Nepali operating room watching a burn-contracture surgery, and how did it change you?

Laney: Really by chance. Upon arriving in Nepal, I reached out to Dr. Shankar Rai, thinking he might be able to connect me with a doctor working on cholera. To discuss this possibility in person, I went to visit Dr. Rai at his outpatient clinic in Kathmandu. Sitting on a stool in the office, watching him attentively listen to each patient, I realized then that burns was the story that needed telling.

GHN: What changes do you hope this series will help bring about?

Laney: Despite having considered myself relatively well read in global health issues, I had no idea about burns until I traveled to Nepal. I was shocked. So, I hope this series will shed light on burns, particularly within the global public health community. In doing so, we can begin to divert more resources towards better understanding the epidemiology and improving advocacy and prevention of this ‘forgotten’ global health issue.

Read the full article about burns in Nepal at Global Health NOW.