BAODAD

BAODAD stands for Beauty + Ashes : Of Dust and Dawn.

Why BAODAD?

BAODAD was born out of a simple realization: some stories are too important to stay in the shadows.

Nine months ago, I wrote a creative assignment in my Fundamentals of Global health class, PPHS 511, where I created an interview-based documentary on gender-based violence in Cameroon. It received 100% (to my great joy!), but it was not chosen to be published on McGill’s Perspectives on Global Health Website, as I hoped. And yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it still needed to live somewhere beyond my computer folder. At first, I felt disappointed. But then I realized something deeper: if the door didn’t open there, maybe I was meant to build a door of my own. That assignment planted a seed, the idea of creating a space where both personal reflections and academic insights could breathe together. A space to sit with hard truths, to wrestle with meaning, and to find beauty rising out of ashes.

That’s what BAODAD is.
Beauty + Ashes: Of Dust and Dawn.

What to Expect

Each month, I will share two pieces of writing, one from each of the following categories:

1. Essays and Reflections: These will explore issues I care deeply about, blending scholarship, personal narratives, and emotional insight.

2. Companion pieces to my PUYMA Podcast: These writings will highlight untold global and public health stories covered in the podcast with a sense of urgency and passion.

Additionally, I will include standalone writings that encompass lessons, brief insights, and reflections from my professional, academic, and personal experiences.

First Posts: Where the Rhythm Begins

BAODAD begins with me addressing two global and public health issues from my homeland, Cameroon, which I deeply have at heart:

The first will be the report on the interview-based documentary on gender-based violence (GBV) in Cameroon, the very creative assignment that became the spark for this entire platform. More than being an academic exercise, it is a mirror of a painful reality, a call to attention, and a reminder that silence is never neutral. I had the chance to interview a frontline NGO leader in Cameroon, Emilien Dinayen (Founder of Safe Haven), whose work addresses GBV and survivor healing. What she and the two survivors shared pierced me. The statistics of GBV in Cameroon are chilling, yes, but it is the human cost, the emotional silencing, and the structural failure that stayed with me till this day. This is one of the most meaningful works I’ve accomplished in my academic journey, so far. And it’s only the beginning of what I hope will become a long-term vision.

The second is the companion piece to PUYMA’s first episode: “The Anglophone Crisis: A Francophone Speaks Out.” In that episode, and in the post you’ll read here, I’ll speak not just as a student or a global health scholar, but as a daughter of Cameroon, bearing witness to a painful truth many still hesitate to name. I’ll speak of a conflict that has scarred a nation, one that I enter as a Francophone, daring to voice the silenced. This piece holds tension: between being seen as “the other” and daring to stand in solidarity anyway. I reflect on how it feels to grow up under a flag that never fully reflected your story, and what it means to speak up from within the folds of that silence. Talking about this is both an act of advocacy and a step into risk, the kind of risk that reminds me that words are never just words; they can ignite, disrupt, and heal.

Together, these two pieces embody the dual heartbeat of BAODAD: to name the ashes honestly, and to search relentlessly for the beauty rising within them.

Future posts will explore themes ranging from the wounds of nations and peoples to the whispers of daily life, from public health crises to personal awakenings. And each one will be anchored in what BAODAD stands for:

• A place where dust meets dawn. Where scars become stars. Where ideas can be both rigorous and tender. Where life rises from barren places.

Questions for you

• What would make BAODAD feel like a meaningful space for you to return to each month?
• What kinds of stories, themes, or reflections would you love to see explored here?
• Which issues, whether global health, personal growth, or social justice, feel most urgent to you right now, and why?
• Have you ever experienced a moment where ashes (loss, struggle, injustice) gave way to unexpected beauty or dawn?

Final words

BAODAD is for anyone who believes in the power of storytelling: students, advocates, thinkers, dreamers, and anyone who understands that silence is never neutral. BAODAD gathers stories from around the world and takes these fragmented experiences, weaving them into a narrative that aims to extract beauty from pain.

This space won’t always just be my words. Over time, I’d love to open BAODAD to your voices, too. If you have a story, reflection, or insight that embodies the spirit of Beauty + Ashes: Of Dust and Dawn, consider sharing it here. Your words might be exactly what someone else needs to read.

Your reflections will help shape the rhythm of this space, so don’t hesitate to lend your voice. Thank you for being here at the beginning. I’d love for you to read, reflect, share, or simply sit with me in these questions. My hope is that you’ll find in these writings what I found in creating them: clarity, courage, and the quiet conviction that even in ashes, beauty lives.

Welcome.