
Francesca Cameron
Francesca Cameron is a program assistant with the Wilson Center’s Maternal Health Initiative, managing many of the program’s events and writing for New Security Beat.
Before joining the Wilson Center, she worked for the Washington Semester Program at American University. Her various internships with women’s organizations in Washington, DC, and abroad catalyzed her passions for women’s empowerment and reproductive health.
Francesca holds a BA in International Studies from American University, where she concentrated in international development. She studied abroad in Costa Rica and Kenya, focusing on the intersection between gender and development.
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In Fight to Stop the Spread of Female Genital Mutilation, Midwives Are Crucial
›Aissata M.B. Camara grew up in an educated, upper income household in Guinea, West Africa. One morning, she woke up to singing outside her window and knew they were coming. Many in her community thought that she was unclean and would grow up to be promiscuous if she wasn’t cut. She would be unmarriageable. While her family and community members held her down, she realized, “my body no longer belonged to me.” [Video Below]
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Build It and They Will Come: New Approaches to Eliminating Fistula and Other Maternal Morbidities
›Obstetric fistula and pelvic organ prolapse are two common maternal morbidities that impact thousands of women in developing countries each year but are often overshadowed by maternal mortalities. Obstetric fistula, a hole in the birth canal caused by obstructed labor, affects between 50,000 and 100,000 women each year, mostly in developing countries. Pelvic organ prolapse, which occurs when a woman’s pelvic organs slip out of place, is 10 times more common, according to Dr. Lauri Romanzi, who spoke at the Wilson Center on July 14. [Video Below]
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Keeping Up With Cuba: Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission in the Caribbean
›Fear of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and other infectious diseases has been used as an excuse to deny women health care around the world. Some women living with HIV have even been sterilized without their knowledge. But with proper treatment, the chances of transmission to an unborn child are very low in many cases. The World Health Organization (WHO), in fact, just declared Cuba the first country to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis.
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The Lancet Commission’s Latest Findings on Climate Change, Health, and Policy Responses
›July 1, 2015 // By Francesca Cameron“Tackling climate change could be the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century,” asserts the newest report by the Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change.