Madhav: Thanks for having me, Spiffy! Ethel Chamba, 35, is a single mother of three living in Mwango, a village in rural Malawi. She depends on piecework jobs and subsistence farming to earn a livelihood. Last year, while she was struggling to make ends meet after her recent divorce, cyclone Gombe hit her village, completely destroying her home and changing her life overnight. Being a mother of a child with a chronic illness and living below the poverty line meant that it was impossible for her to find funds to reconstruct her home. Since then, Ethel and her children have been forced to live in their grandmother’s house.
Jen: Thanks for having me, Spiffy! Everyone deserves to be healthy and happy, no matter who they love or how they identify. But sometimes, people who are in the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer) community struggle and face issues in accessing health care that others do not. They may be afraid to go to the doctor because they are worried they will be judged, treated differently, and.just not receive good care. Because of this, they may avoid seeking help when they need it, which can lead to more issues over time. Sadly, LGBTQ+ people are more likely to experience mental health issues like depression and anxiety as well as lifelong illnesses like HIV/AIDS. At LVNDR, our mission is for every LGBTQ+ individual to be able to access the care they need to live full and happy lives.
Pritvik: Thanks for having me, Spiffy! Throughout my community, I've witnessed colossal ecological upheavals caused by premeditated environmental negligence. Our climate crisis stakeholders are not just scientific communities, but also global policy leaders and the public. Aiming to decode detrimental effects of anthropogenic climate change on current species and to create comprehensible predictive frameworks to stem today's calamities, I launched ‘Network and Assembly Theory Models of Mass Extinctions.’ The challenge was to decrypt atmospheric data and fossil records via mathematical models, detect molecular signatures of future mass extinctions, pinpoint stressors that aggravate disasters, spot species affected by this degradation, and constrain impact of catastrophes on biodiversity.
