PHA-Exchange> Italians call for HEALTH FOR ALL NOW ! PHM

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Italians call for HEALTH FOR ALL NOW !                     (PRESS  RELEASE)
Health activists amplify their march on the Internet-
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People's Health Movement
International People's Health Council &
Azzociazione Italiana Amizi di Raoul Folleareau (AIFO)
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 URGENT                                                   PRESS RELEASE


Italians call for "HEALTH FOR ALL NOW !"
Health activists amplify their march on the Internet and launches
www.LaCampagnaPerUnMilioneDiFirme.org
Bologna, Italy: 12th June, 2003: A quarter century after the international
community promised Heath For All, a campaign on the Internet demands health
for All NOW !

www.LaCampagnaPerUnMilioneDiFirme.org, the Italian version of "The Million
Signature Campaign- A March on the Internet demanding Health for all NOW!"
was launched from Bologna in Italy today.

Ms. Livia Turco, the former Italian Minister for social welfare (currently a
Member of the Parliament) is one of the first signatories. Others who
endorsed their solidarity include ordinary Italians, students, journalists,
health workers, trade unionists and medical professionals.

This Internet-based campaign reminds the world that every 24 hours, over
30,000 children die from preventable diseases. These are precious lives that
the World Health Organisation (WHO), the UNICEF and the international
community promised to save 25 years ago.

In 1978, the Alma Ata declaration, a joint initiative of the WHO and UNICEF,
promised Health for All by 2000. 25 years after the Alma Ata declaration,
health for all is not a reality.

"Today, while the world is writing a collective obituary of the future
generation, we know why they are dying; we know who are responsible for
these deaths. We thus know how these deaths can be stopped... Join 'The
Million Signature Campaign'- - a march demanding health for all NOW!" says
the home page of this web-based campaign.

This campaign, initiated by the People's Health Movement (PHM) and the
International People's Health Council (IPHC), is being endorsed by ordinary
people from various walks of life and organisations, institutions, people's
associations and others working for a just world. The English and Spanish
versions were launched in January and the campaign is picking up momentum
worldwide.

Azzociazione Italiana Amizi di Raoul Folleareau (AIFO) an Italian voluntary
organization and an active member of the People's Health Movement is
facilitating the Italian version of this campaign site.

"We hope that the Italian version of this global campaign will enthuse
health workers and policy makers not only in Italy but also in Europe to
take urgent measures to revive the vision of Alma Ata" said Dr. Sunil
Deepak, Medical Director of AIFO.

"Every morning the world wakes up to the stark reality that yesterday the
world lost another 30,000 children. These deaths that pass over as official
statistics are scars on the collective conscience of the humanity. It is
time to remind the UN institutions and international community of their
responsibility to make Health for All a reality NOW " said Dr. Unnikrishnan
PV, of IPHC and PHM, the co-ordinator for this campaign.

"We plan to take this campaign to various constituencies and to different
avenues in Italy" said Dr. Giovanni Gazzoli, an Italian doctor specialized
in tropical diseases, while signing the campaign.

"The crises in health today call for attention from various quarters. The
struggle for Health for All needs to be fought at several fronts. Internet
is just one avenue," said Dr. Thelma Narayan, a health activist from India
who was in Bologna during the launch.

Despite promising signals in the initial days since Alma Ata, the dream of
Health For All hit road blocks because of anti-health, anti-poor policies,
reemerging and new diseases, new challenges and above all by efforts to put
private profit over public health. "The situation calls for reviving the
principles and strategies of Alma Ata" says this campaign web site.

PHM was launched in Dec 2000 through the People's Health Assembly, a
historic summit in Bangladesh that had participation of nearly 1400
representatives from nearly 100 countries.

The signatories of this campaign also will endorse the People's Charter for
Health, the largest consensus document on health.

Dr. Sunil Deepak, Medical Director AIFO, Bologna, Italy
Maria Hamlin Zuniga, Co-ordinator: IPHC, Managua, Nicaragua
Dr. Ravi Narayan, Co-ordinator: PHM Secretariat, Bangalore, India