Written November 30, 2009 by Ilya Brotzky.
Your parents get a divorce when you’re five.
You have to go live with your Aunt. You go to school. You become the house servant.
You decide to run off with your sister to work as maids for room and board.
A neighbor tells you he can find better work for you out of town and sells you for $10 and keeps the money.
The buyer ra...
Read More
I don't even know where to begin.
First and foremost, I want to thank all of the people who came out to the First Annual Fistula Free Charity Date Auction Ball! We raised over $1,500 for the Fistula Free Climb and had a lot of fun along the way. Everything went really smooth thanks to the hard work of our team and the help of the brother of my house, Phi Kappa Psi, the ...
Read More
Written November 9, 2009 by Ilya Brotzky.
This past weekend the members of the Fistula Free Climb team met at Phi Kappa Phi Fraternity, our unofficial head quarters on campus, for our weekly Saturday afternoon meetings. However, this Saturday was a little different because we were about to hold the -dramatic pause- first ever Fistula Free Climb Executive Board elections!
...
Read More
Written November 6, 2009 by Ilya Brotzky.
Behind every man stands a great woman.
We’ve all heard it before and truer words have never been spoken. In the field of obstetric fistula awareness and woman’s rights, there is arguably no greater man that New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner Nic Kristof. His NY Times Blog focuses a primarily on woman’s righ...
Read More
Written October 30, 2009, by Ilya Brotzky.
Two hundred and fifty dollars. That’s all it takes to transform the life of one woman suffering from obstetric fistula. Last night, I saw how easy it would be to do so and how little we in the first world actually think about it.
It was about 9.30 on a Thursday night and my fraternity was getting ready for our first Halloween ...
Read More
Written October 25, 2009 by Ilya Brotzky.
Left to Right: Rositsa Simeonova, Nina Daoud, Jennifer Ryan, Kara Pellowe, Ilya Brotzky, Jennifer Brenner, Olumayowa Dayo, Raj Dave, Elizabeth Pines, Amy Chin, Max Liu
Not Pictured: Katie O’Leary, Kevin Welch, Katrina Mehringer
Help us get one step closer to $100,000 for OperationOF.org
Read More
Written October 22, 2009 by Ilya Brotzky.
beep, beep, Beep, BEEP, BEEP.
I wake up with a head ache and roll over to turn off my phone alarm. It’s 10.30 and I should not have spent that extra hour online last night watching youtube videos and generally wasting time.
10.30…10.30! We have a bake sale in 30 minutes and I had to bring the brownies to Mann Library.
The...
Read More
Written September 22, 2009 by Ilya Brotzky.
I’ve been back at Cornell for senior year for about a month now and a lot has happened in terms of the development of what is now known as the “Fistula Free Climb”.
From my older posts, you know that it all started with me sitting at my desk at work, trying to figure out how to spend my Cornell Tradition scholarship....
Read More
Written September 22, 2009 by Ilya Brotzky.
It’s been one week since my decision to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in January. Since then I’ve contacted Seth Cochran and spoke to him over skype about his trip experience, his life, how I wanted to proceed with my trip and what the next steps would be.
We decided to open the trip up to anyone who wanted to join and that this tr...
Read More
Written July, 15, 2009 by Ilya Brotzky. Date when it all began.
“It’s Not The Mountain We Conquer, It’s Ourselves.”
Sir Edmund Hillary said that. He was the first person to climb Mount Everest.
It’s been one of my favorite quotes since I read it in elementary school and has inspired me to push myself further and further in swimming and academia since.
...
Read More