Dear John,

A few months ago, Philadelphia International Airport was taking in refugees from Afghanistan and I was down there with a public health crew helping to test folks for COVID-19. There was a woman who came to my table with her son and infant and after I cleared the whole family as Covid - free, the translator and I ended up staying with her for the rest of my shift.

Her husband and the father of her children had been brought over on an earlier flight and had been taken to a different military base than the one she was going to. She described the scene she had left behind in Afghanistan, how hard she had fought to get on a flight to the United States, and how she had seen loved ones killed right in front of her. She didn't cry as she recounted these horrors, she was too tired. I took her baby out of her arms and played soccer with her son while she fell asleep on the airport floor wrapped in the only thing in her possession - a blanket in a bedding bag.

The future she has in this country will be very much like the everyday Philadelphian woman - difficult. She will have to work multiple jobs, she won't have healthcare or a healthcare plan that covers much, she will face housing and food insecurity, if she wants a better paying job, she'll have to pursue higher education and take out student loans, she'll have to worry if her sons will make it home safely and alive. She will be discriminated against for her brown skin, for her accent, for her socioeconomic status. The American system will not favor her, much like the everyday Philadelphian woman, and her right to rest will be repeatedly denied in our country's current societal landscape.

On today's International Women's Day, I want to call for deliberate action and transformational policy that will lift these women and create a system that does favor women like the everyday Philadelphian woman and the refugees we promise better lives to. Every person in a position of privilege should be helping to lift the burden of the system that fails these women. Our work isn't done until we've decommodified rest and that is only possible by guaranteeing housing, healthcare, education, safety, and a living wage to the everyday woman.

Let's get it done.

Alexandra Hunt

MPH, MS, ACRP-CP

Candidate for Congress, PA-03