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I hope to be involved in projects that aim to gather scientific evidence to inform environmental decision making and advocate for greater equity and justice in environmental governance. Through this work, I hope to learn the skills needed to engage in community based research and leverage community knowledge as expert knowledge. In my department, things are often siloed and issues are only seen through one perspective. I really want to gain more experience in collaborating with a wide array of stakeholders to come up with approaches to mitigate the environmental injustices experienced in under-resourced communities.

1) MSF policy on neutrality: One of the main aspects of humanitarian aid is to remain removed in the conflict at hand, thus assuring unbiased help towards all individuals involved. This comes from neutrality, a tenant stating that MSF and other humanitarian agencies working under MSF will not "pick" or join one side of the conflict nor will they grant a side an advantage. 

2)MSF operations head arrest: At the time of the Sudanese conflict, the Dutch branch of MSF released a report decrying the severe sexual violence perpetrated during fighting. This, in turn, led to the imprisonment and charging of MSF head of mission, Paul Foreman. The MSF report was read in the 2005 Annual International General Assembly, entailing the ongoing violence against women in the Darfur conflict in an attempt to raise awareness about the continued issue. 

3) Darfur Conflict: An major armed conflict started in 2003 with the rebellion of several liberation movements (SLM & JEM) against the Sudanese government. The violence reached a cease fire in 2010 where talks began, propagated by Doha mediators, but an agreement was never met. Thus, violence has continued through 2016, including a chemical weapon attack in September.

The article discusses why, despite overwhelming amounts of foreign aid money and five years, Haiti still mimcs a disaster zone. Thousands of Haitians still live in tents and temporary housing, cholera is still raging, and rebuilding projects have stalled. The article questions why Haiti is just barely staggering back to "normal" after being given such tremendous resources. It goes on to discuss how several factors curb Haitian progress, including political turmoil and economic discord. Generally, the consensus remains (internationally) that the Haitian government cannot be entrusted money to fix these issues and must be led through the process by outside agencies. Additionally, malpractices by UN peackeeping troops have only addded to the list of problems (aka reintroducing cholera) and soured relations between Haiti and the UN.

Emergency response itself is not discussed in this article; this report mostly focuses on nuances of emergency/aid worker experiences. Particularly, it centers on the sheer, inexplicable lack of information surrounding attacks, harm, obstructions, and threats experienced by health care workers.

The policy applies to New York state citizens, health care workers, EMS personnel, and leadership within health care centers. Additionally, the policy has parts that effect transportation agencies and their employees. In many ways, due to Ebola's nature and the nature of New York as a major metropolitan area, these policies will also have a global effect.

Yes they have a way in plan to help address this issue to be resolved over the next couple years. Working with the commission, the students to help create better and improved ways to deal with sewage waste. Already there is a "solids and floatables" control that has been in place, which has significantly helped reduce the space that trash and other objects to not take up space that could be used by the water flow. This has also reduced the amount of trash that was getting dumped into waterways. 

The article debriefs a ruling by Federal District Court Judge Deborah A. Batts on a class action lawsuit against the EPA. It details the claims made by the plantiffs' surrounding EPA officials' misconduct after 9/11. Specifically cited are Christie Whitman, who chaired the EPA  during the attacks, and several other EPA officials.