PHA-Exchange> A view from the Secretariat - Edition 3

[PHM-Secretariat]

A view from the Secretariat

 

Edition: 03                                                                                          Sept 29th 2004

 

Dear Friends,

 

 

Continuing with the previous update, this is to keep you informed about some more of the PHM Activities all over the world taken as extracts from recent mails.

 

PHM Australia
 
Fran Baum (Fran.Baum at flinders.edu.au) from PHM Australia reports: "We received a massive injection of enthusiasm from the visit from Prem, Hari, Maria, Delen, Arturo and David. Their visit means that we have groups active in Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne and David Legge and his group has established a list server for PHM Australia. Both the Adelaide and Sydney groups are having meetings in the second week of Sept 2004 and will be discussing funding to send Indigenous people to PHA-II. I am also pleased to report that there is good enthusiasm from young people and hopefully they will soon be taking over some of the organisation from us older ones! We have a national election announced in Australia and much of our efforts over the next 6 weeks will go into campaigning against our government that took Australia to war without any mandate from the people. They also are attacking our national health insurance scheme so we are also active around that issue".
 
PHM India
 
Thelma Narayan, Joint convener of PHM India, South (chc at sochara.org) reports: 
 
"The Southern Regional Public hearing on Right to Health Care was held successfully on August 29, 2004 at Chennai. There were over nearly 30 cases of denials presented to the panel set up by the National Human Rights commission (NHRC) at the public hearing.  The testimonies were really sad and moving.  The unnecessary pain, suffering, humiliation and injustice moved all to anger, but strengthened the resolve of JSA that a change has to and can be brought about.  Justice Bhaskar Rao of NHRC responded spontaneously in Telugu to the Andhra Pradesh testimonies (A state where Telugu is the language spoken) and strongly reinforced the need for the Right to Health and Health Care. The state officials of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and Kerala also responded to the denials presented". 

 

The Right to Health Care Campaign moved onto the Northern Region. The regional public hearing for the Northern Region was held on September 26th 2004 in Lucknow and the Eastern region public hearing at Ranchi it would be on October 11th 2004.



>From PHM East and Central Africa Region: 

 

Mwajuma Masaigana (masaigana at africaonline.co.tz) a focal point of East and Central Africa reports: "As Civil Society organizations, we had meetings on the Helsinki Group of Citizens Global Platform and the Tanzania Citizen Platform, where we had a chance to hold meetings with Martin Khor Kok Peng of the Third World Network and Vijay Pratap of the Socialist Front - India WSF 2004 Organizing Committee, Tanzania. After WSF in Mumbai all organizations, which attended (about 14 including PHM), joined hands and formed the Tanzania Social Forum (PHM is in the Steering Committee and founder member of TSF), and we have already translated the WSF Charter into Swahili. There is a plan to have a launching event for the same". 

 

PHM Middle East and North Africa: 

 

A hunger strike was started by 7500 Palestinian and Arab political prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons on 15th August 2004 in protest against the gross violations of their rights and inhumane prison conditions which continue as Israel refuses to meet the demands for improvement of conditions in Israeli prisons and detention centers. The call for hunger strike was given by the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations' Network (PNGO). 

 

Mr. Jihad Mashal of UPMRC (jihad at shabaka.net), Palestine presented PHM at the Moroccan Social Forum and has received good response from the people. 

 
Global Health Watch (GHW)
 
Recently GHW had sent a letter to WHO detailing the complete process of GHW and the following has been the extract from the response of the WHO "Thank you for your letter of 5 July 2004..."We appreciate that the initiative has the potential to add constructively to the efforts of many actors including WHO, working to improve global health. It may also serve to help those outside the public health arena to understand the work of public health entities and how other factors influence results. As the work progresses and gains momentum you may find information produced by WHO of use. We would of course be pleased to clarify any questions that you may have about this or any other information. We wish you every success in continuing the promotion of the global health agenda."
 
Meetings in the Pipeline:
 
Preparations are on for a strong PHM presence at the Conferences of the Canadian Society of International Health in October 2004. Contact Maria Zuniga at maria at iphcglobal.org for further details. 
 
Also for a significant input into the Mexico summit for Health Research in Mexico City organized by WHO/GFHR from 16-21 November 2004 contact Ravi Narayan at secretariat at phmovement.org  for further details
 
 
Best wishes

 

The PHM Secretariat Team

 

PS: One of the purposes of these short updates from the secretariat in the exchange is to invite the "PHM - Digital conduits" to disseminate the information further to the e-marginalised groups with whom they are working [Digital conduits are the PHM friends who are moderately e-enabled and could act as a conduits to disseminate information and bring the voices of the e-marginalised into this newsletter. So do circulate this newsletter to others, who cannot access and send us their responses and news about their activities]


Ravi Narayan
Coordinator,
PHM Secretariat (Global)
#359 (Old No. 367), Srinivasa Nilaya, 
Jakkasandra 1st Main, 1st Block
Koramangala, Banggalore - 560 034
India
Tel: +91 80 51280009
Fax: +91 80 25525372
Email: secretariat at phmovement.org
Website: www.phmovement.org
Join the "Health for all, NOW" campaign in the 25th anniversary year of the Alma Ata declaration visit www.TheMillionSignatureCampaign.org

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