with Dr. Jack Underschultz, UAlberta

2:30 pm - 3:00 pm in person (ECHA 4-036)

In poverty stricken areas like the informal settlements of Kenya, thinly veiled sextortion driven by food insecurity, misogyny, and lack of access to necessities like female hygiene products lead to vulnerable girls having high rates of teenage pregnancy which limit future opportunity to pursue income generating education and employment. This contributes to a vicious cycle of financially motivated decisions resulting in more children to care for, unsafe gender power differentials, gender-based violence (GBV), and financially insecure homes lacking the support required to keep children in school, contributing to a multi-generational poverty trap. Helping girls and women become financially independent is arguably the single best intervention for improving all health outcomes for women and children in impoverished communities.

Dr. Jack Underschultz is a PGY4 Emergency Medicine resident at the University of Alberta with a passion for global development. In a previous life, he worked in Finance and over the last 10+ years he has used that experience to collaborate on projects in East Africa in the education, clean water, and medical fields. Medically, Jack has spent time in Kenya and South Africa, as well as investigated community factors driving the persistent transmission of Ebola in the DRC, which was published in The Lancet. He was an executive with Innovative Canadians for Change where he led the development of a ceramic water filter factory in Kenya to help provide affordable water to vulnerable populations.