A dose of perspective(exposure.watsi.org)
exposure.watsi.org
A dose of perspective
http://exposure.watsi.org/a-dose-of-perspective
41 comments
Nice, I had stopped donating for a few months because apparently I'm that lazy ;) Just signed up for monthly donations - I'm #87.
#89 here, let's keep it going!
Boom, #88.
#100 here. Watsi does great things for people and I hope to help as much as I can.
Edit: Its up to 115 people now. Glad to be a part of this community.
Edit: Its up to 115 people now. Glad to be a part of this community.
The vanity of having a low number got me to consider signing up, and the joy I foresee in getting the progress emails sealed the deal. I put in $5 a month, and hope to add more when I graduate!
Now 103. Thanks for the push.
Late to the game, sorry Watsi, #108 here. Thank you for doing this.
I didn't know about that - thanks for highlighting. #123
133 :)
Awesome, gave me a great glimpse of something, I'm not sure what you guys are, but it looks cool.
Web usability suggestion: Click as I might, I could not find a link anywhere to the Watsi home page. Call me lazy, but I still have not visited it. If there was a link to it I might have clicked on it and gone there.
Web usability suggestion: Click as I might, I could not find a link anywhere to the Watsi home page. Call me lazy, but I still have not visited it. If there was a link to it I might have clicked on it and gone there.
In the hopes that you'll get involved https://watsi.org/ :)
Watsi is a wonderful glimmer of hope. I don't particularly have the money for it, but I've made 4 donations over the last couple of weeks. It's easy, you just read the stories and think to yourself, "do I really need to buy that coffee this week?"
Watsi is a wonderful glimmer of hope. I don't particularly have the money for it, but I've made 4 donations over the last couple of weeks. It's easy, you just read the stories and think to yourself, "do I really need to buy that coffee this week?"
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This post does a great job of showing a simple truth that many people forget: when you genuinely help a person, you are also helping everyone in that person's "sphere". There is a kind of exponential echoing effect when you are good-to.
This was absolutely beautiful.
Highlighting: FOOTNOTES: PS - We're hiring a senior full-stack engineer. Email [email protected] for more info.
Highlighting: FOOTNOTES: PS - We're hiring a senior full-stack engineer. Email [email protected] for more info.
I'm not entirely sure that as a patient in one of these hospitals, I'd appreciate the (white) girl with a camera strapped to her forehead walking through the place.
Trading patient privacy for donations seems like a worse deal than needs to be made here.
Trading patient privacy for donations seems like a worse deal than needs to be made here.
Grace from Watsi here. I totally understand where you're coming from based on how the post is written - our fault for being hyperbolic. Of course, we would never walk through a hospital and record people without their explicit permission.
Patient privacy is something we take really seriously. It is so important to us that Watsi funds cases regardless of whether or not the patient wants to publicly share their story with the world (https://watsi.org/faq#how-does-watsi-handle-patient-privacy) so that patients are never trading privacy for access to healthcare. More info here: http://blog.watsi.org/post/62445601517/patient-privacy
That said, what I've learned after talking with dozens of Watsi patients is that the overwhelming majority of them feel compelled to share their stories. They hope it will enable more people to access the healthcare they deserve.
Patient privacy is something we take really seriously. It is so important to us that Watsi funds cases regardless of whether or not the patient wants to publicly share their story with the world (https://watsi.org/faq#how-does-watsi-handle-patient-privacy) so that patients are never trading privacy for access to healthcare. More info here: http://blog.watsi.org/post/62445601517/patient-privacy
That said, what I've learned after talking with dozens of Watsi patients is that the overwhelming majority of them feel compelled to share their stories. They hope it will enable more people to access the healthcare they deserve.
I recently dropped 70k rupees on elective surgery. If the girl with the camera paid for my surgery I'd be happy to let her film the whole thing.
I've had medically necessary surgery done also. If this girl or her org were to pay for that, and all I had to do was fulfill stupid racial stereotypes on camera while being mocked by silly foreigners (or something equally offensive), I'd be thinking "yay, I can walk again!"
Now being a bunch of do-gooder western types, I'm sure Watsi actually goes to great effort to maintain patient privacy. But even if they didn't, patient privacy is really a small price to pay for important medical interventions.
I've had medically necessary surgery done also. If this girl or her org were to pay for that, and all I had to do was fulfill stupid racial stereotypes on camera while being mocked by silly foreigners (or something equally offensive), I'd be thinking "yay, I can walk again!"
Now being a bunch of do-gooder western types, I'm sure Watsi actually goes to great effort to maintain patient privacy. But even if they didn't, patient privacy is really a small price to pay for important medical interventions.
I imagine the Watsi team (Grace in this case) has earned the respect and trust from both the hospital and patients to walk through with a camera like that.
In my limited experience visiting West Africa, there's rightful skepticism of expats but once you build trust they're very warm to you. The level of trust you have as a foreigner is sometimes higher than a local. My sister moved to Burkina Faso a year ago. She's not white (Indian) and no one there knows she's a doctor since she doesn't have her license yet. The locals trust her medical advice based entirely on the fact that she's an expat.
I'm not sure how different Kenya is from West Africa and realize the Watsi team was only there for a couple weeks but I think the same applies considering their comittment to the area.
In my limited experience visiting West Africa, there's rightful skepticism of expats but once you build trust they're very warm to you. The level of trust you have as a foreigner is sometimes higher than a local. My sister moved to Burkina Faso a year ago. She's not white (Indian) and no one there knows she's a doctor since she doesn't have her license yet. The locals trust her medical advice based entirely on the fact that she's an expat.
I'm not sure how different Kenya is from West Africa and realize the Watsi team was only there for a couple weeks but I think the same applies considering their comittment to the area.
Probably a lot of room for discussion here, but I think it's problematic to conflate this documentary trip with Watsi's general practices for dealing with patient information – doesn't appear that they gave out any of their patients' personal information in this piece, and they generally do a great job limiting the amount of information listed on any given patient's page.
Of course, there are a lot of health care needs that are by nature private or could endanger the patient well-being if it became public that some procedures were done. I believe they have an anonymous fund that receives a percentage of all donations to attend to just those types of issues.
If any information on any patient should be given out is a bit of a different question.
Of course, there are a lot of health care needs that are by nature private or could endanger the patient well-being if it became public that some procedures were done. I believe they have an anonymous fund that receives a percentage of all donations to attend to just those types of issues.
If any information on any patient should be given out is a bit of a different question.
It's always amazing to see people travel the world and make an impact. It's easy to be hyper-focused on growth metrics and silicon valley that you can lose sight of the bigger picture.
Maybe it's my browser but I only see a picture, no story.
Or is it the picture that's cool?
Or is it the picture that's cool?
Had to allow javascript from d1dh4fomm3d62b.cloudfront.net for the page to work.
Worked for me on Firefox. It's one of those scroll-down tablety things.
Why doesn't Watsi open source its code so developers can donate their time?
As a developer for Kiva, and with some knowledge of Watsi's systems, I can probably answer this question, maybe I'll write a blog post about it actually, but the short of it is, the amount of effort involved for Watsi is going to be almost invariably greater than the reward gained from community contributions. (There's more to that but too much to fit into this format).
That said, take in to consideration that Watsi is quite likely using a bunch of the open-source software you are already familiar with. You can contribute to these projects, and thus indirectly be contributing to Watsi.
What I would like to see is non-profits sharing a list of the open-source software they are using (perhaps even weighted to what piece is most important to their operation) and thus giving eager developers such as yourself a roadmap towards helping them. (Bonus points for ability to reference specific bugs in said software, but that's somewhat rare).
That said, take in to consideration that Watsi is quite likely using a bunch of the open-source software you are already familiar with. You can contribute to these projects, and thus indirectly be contributing to Watsi.
What I would like to see is non-profits sharing a list of the open-source software they are using (perhaps even weighted to what piece is most important to their operation) and thus giving eager developers such as yourself a roadmap towards helping them. (Bonus points for ability to reference specific bugs in said software, but that's somewhat rare).
because the website is a trivial part of the operation, and coding it is easier than coordinating drop-in volunteers?
Is that a question or a statement?
Pretty slick storytelling design. Anyone know if this blog is built on top of something (medium/wordpress) or is it custom?
Thanks! We used https://exposure.so/.
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From Conkeror I cannot find any text, only a photogram.
just got an error while trying to sign up for a monthly donation
Yikes, sorry to hear that. What was the error message? Feel free to email me - grace at watsi dot org - and we'll sort it out.
Thanks for wanting to sign up!
Thanks for wanting to sign up!
I immediately stopped reading upon the first sentence: "Our trip started with a RTY (Read This Yo) Level 1,000 text."
Look, I like RPGs as much as the next nerd, but there's no reason to purposefully obfuscate what you're trying to say by needlessly throwing in garbage like this.
And "Read This Yo"? Seriously?
Look, I like RPGs as much as the next nerd, but there's no reason to purposefully obfuscate what you're trying to say by needlessly throwing in garbage like this.
And "Read This Yo"? Seriously?
I immediately stopped reading this post about a fucking medical charity serving poor people in Africa to nitpick on a tiny stylistic choice that mildly confused me for about a quarter of a second while sitting in my air conditioned SF office sipping a cappucino so that other well-to-do Western assholes would give me invisible Internet points...
Oh, no, I didn't. That was you (with some leeway to artistic representation). Out of everything there, this is what you wanted to talk about?
EDIT: The title of this post is "A dose of perspective". Think about that for a sec.
Oh, no, I didn't. That was you (with some leeway to artistic representation). Out of everything there, this is what you wanted to talk about?
EDIT: The title of this post is "A dose of perspective". Think about that for a sec.
Never been to SF, I'm not sitting in an office, and I'm not drinking a cappuccino.
Nice try.
In all seriousness, though, I had no idea what Watsi is. This was their chance to tell me about themselves. They blew it.
Nice try.
In all seriousness, though, I had no idea what Watsi is. This was their chance to tell me about themselves. They blew it.
Like I said, artistic license taken with the caricature. Hyperbole is the soul of wit, etc.
The benefit of HN over other similar sites that shall remain nameless is a very high signal-to-noise ratio - the community tends to have interesting, meaningful, detailed conversations about specific topics. Your post was precisely the opposite of that, and it's a perfect example of this community's biggest problem, one which those of us who enjoy the community here try to combat: a pervading, cynical, nitpicking negativity, often about things completely tangential to the actual topic of discussion, that adds nothing to the conversation and serves only as a way to smugly imply how much smarter/more cultured/less douchey (the irony!) than whoever put together the link.
That's noise, not signal. It contributes nothing. Feel free to make your snide comments to yourself, but please don't bring down the quality of discussion here by using this forum to show off your nitpicking skill. If you don't feel like reading the article, then don't take over the conversation about the article with your reasons for not reading it.
I apologize for my overly heated language in my initial - I don't have anything against you personally, and my caricature was more harsh than deserved.
The benefit of HN over other similar sites that shall remain nameless is a very high signal-to-noise ratio - the community tends to have interesting, meaningful, detailed conversations about specific topics. Your post was precisely the opposite of that, and it's a perfect example of this community's biggest problem, one which those of us who enjoy the community here try to combat: a pervading, cynical, nitpicking negativity, often about things completely tangential to the actual topic of discussion, that adds nothing to the conversation and serves only as a way to smugly imply how much smarter/more cultured/less douchey (the irony!) than whoever put together the link.
That's noise, not signal. It contributes nothing. Feel free to make your snide comments to yourself, but please don't bring down the quality of discussion here by using this forum to show off your nitpicking skill. If you don't feel like reading the article, then don't take over the conversation about the article with your reasons for not reading it.
I apologize for my overly heated language in my initial - I don't have anything against you personally, and my caricature was more harsh than deserved.
Let's get one thing straight: I'll comment when I please and on whatever article I please, and there's nothing that you can do about it. Do I make myself clear?
Now, having said that, I did take a closer look at Watsi, and decided to be their 109th monthly donor. Of course, I'm just another well-to-do Western asshole, so I'm sure you'll downvote this post, too.
Now, having said that, I did take a closer look at Watsi, and decided to be their 109th monthly donor. Of course, I'm just another well-to-do Western asshole, so I'm sure you'll downvote this post, too.
"when I please and on whatever article I please"
I don't think the grandparent was asking you to stay within a time or quantity constraint. His/her point was about the quality of your comment, which this forum has pretty hard-defined guidelines for [1].
I think you made a valid point in your first comment here (and I thought your feedback was valuable), but you added some unnecessary rudeness. Imagine if you met Grace at a party and she excitedly tells you what she does. Then she whips out her phone and shows you the posted page. You catch the issue you pointed out (which in my mind is a legitimate point of concern), how would you bring it to her attention? If you imagine that scenario and compare it to your original comment then it might make more sense. At least that is how I try to think about it. I hope you find it helpful and thanks for adding yourself to the list of monthly donors [2].
[1] http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
[2] I am not affiliated with Watsi in any way except I am starting to donate very small amounts.
I don't think the grandparent was asking you to stay within a time or quantity constraint. His/her point was about the quality of your comment, which this forum has pretty hard-defined guidelines for [1].
I think you made a valid point in your first comment here (and I thought your feedback was valuable), but you added some unnecessary rudeness. Imagine if you met Grace at a party and she excitedly tells you what she does. Then she whips out her phone and shows you the posted page. You catch the issue you pointed out (which in my mind is a legitimate point of concern), how would you bring it to her attention? If you imagine that scenario and compare it to your original comment then it might make more sense. At least that is how I try to think about it. I hope you find it helpful and thanks for adding yourself to the list of monthly donors [2].
[1] http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
[2] I am not affiliated with Watsi in any way except I am starting to donate very small amounts.
Currently only 84 people are signed up for it -- let's see how far up we can get that.
Edit: Up to 90 in an hour! That's just pure awesome.