Interview with the Founder of The Invisible Woman Foundation

I recently spoke with the founder of The Invisible Woman Foundation, Anjali Pamurthy. Here’s a summary of the incredibly important work she’s doing for Black women, who are significantly more likely to die in childbirth than their counterparts of other races. Thank you, Anjali, for making a difference. 

“…We believe that if women go into their doctor’s appointments aware of the risk, they will be able to advocate for themselves. Through education and empowerment, we will make sure that these invisible women are seen.”

Anjali Pamurthy is a sophomore at the School for the Talented and Gifted at the Townview Magnet Center. She started her non profit: The Invisible Woman Foundation before her sophomore year of high school as a way to combat the racial injustices she saw in the healthcare system. She is currently working to spread awareness and education on this issue.

When I asked her for her “why,” here’s what she had to say:

In 2020, we all witnessed a revolution as throngs of people took to the streets to protest the death of George Floyd. That summer, a larger conversation took place about the systematic treatment of black people in the United States. As the child of a doctor, the conversations that  I witnessed were about how the medical system, specifically, continued to fail black people both in the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. The next summer, a family friend told us about a Texas House Bill that he was advocating for. This bill would create a taskforce to investigate maternal mortality in Black women. As I researched the topic, I was horrified. In the United States, death by pregnancy-related causes is three to four times more likely in black women then it is in white women. While the exact reasons for this are debated by doctors around the world, it all comes down to one thing: black women are not taken seriously by medical professionals. A demographic that has been ignored and oppressed for centuries is still being let down by the medical community. Black women are not seen or cared for by their doctors, the very people responsible for taking care of them. The Invisible Woman Foundation, a nonprofit organization that I started in my sophomore year of high school, believes that prevention will come through awareness. We believe that if women go into their doctor’s appointments aware of the risk, they will be able to advocate for themselves. Through education and empowerment, we will make sure that these invisible women are seen.