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In this interview Mel talks with Dr. Gloria Halverson, a professor and doctor at the Medical College of Wisconsin in OB-GYN. They discuss her travels and the issue of human trafficking. Most recently, Halverson and her husband have been helping start a medical school in Africa and bringing medical training and spiritual support to doctors in Asia and Africa. In Nicaragua recently, Halverson has begun working among victims of human trafficking at House of Hope. Human trafficking is difined as “when someone is taken and forced to work, and has no choice about being able to leave…they’re slaves,” she explains.
As a medical doctor, she has been helping to bring medical help to recovering trafficking victims, but more importantly, show them they are loved and that there is hope found in a God that loves them deeply.
About Gloria Halverson
Dr. Gloria Halverson is an adjunct professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She was previously a full time professor there until 2009 when she refocused her work to overseas missions, which she and her husband Paul, also a physician, had been doing throughout their 30+ year careers. She is on the Board of Trustees of Christian Medical and Dental Association and chair-elect of the Continuing Medical Education commission which plans and delivers medical education to missionary doctors alternating years in Africa and Asia. She is on the advisory board for the Pan African Academy of Christian Surgeons and the head of their national task force developing a gynecology curriculum for surgical residents in Africa. She leads teams through Global Health Outreach to serve trafficked women in Nicaragua and is part of a team developing a curriculum for health care providers to teach them to identify trafficked victims.She is also working to develop best practice guidelines for health care work with trafficked victims globally. Besides overseas teaching, she frequently speaks in this country on gynecologic health issues,spiritual topics, reproductive ethics and human trafficking problems. She serves as a liaison to the Council of Elders at Elmbrook Church.
I am in a Master’s Program at Trinity to graduate next May in Counseling Ministry. I am more and more interested in human trafficking. I live in Burlington, Wi and am interested in learning of mission trips where there would be involvement using my gift of mercy. Thank you.