PHA-Exchange> First meeting of PHM Aotearoa/ New Zealand

[Kumanan Rasanathan]

Vanakkam/ Kia ora koutou
 
A meeting was held on Tuesday, 3rd October here in Auckland to discuss
setting up a PHM Aotearoa/ New Zealand circle. 19 people attended from
various backgrounds, including Māori health providers, NGOs, academia,
and public health service providers. The key questions discussed were:
was there value in having a PHM presence here; what might PHM achieve;
and how would PHM collaborate with existing organisations with a
progressive agenda?
 
Alison Blaiklock chaired the meeting and discussed the benefits of
international collaboration and I presented a brief overview of what PHM
was and how it worked. Key messages from the discussion were the
usefulness of a network that was openly political to advocate for health
for activists isolated in their work settings; the need to further
consider how PHM might work for Māori; the usefulness of international
networks in developing health activists; the need to engage beyond the
health sector; and the usefulness of a flexible network such as PHM
putting out activist messages that other organisations could endorse.
 
Overall, there was a lot of enthusiasm for the idea of having a PHM
circle in Aotearoa/ New Zealand. To make progress this, the following
steps were decided:
 
1.	Email addresses will be shared and an email network will be set
up
2.	A further meeting will be held in early December to consider
what we should focus on and how we should do this
 
I would like to acknowledge Alison and Sal for their help with this
first meeting. I would also like to thank David and Sally in Australia
for their encouragement and support. We hope that this will be the start
of PHM Aotearoa/ New Zealand, but realise that one meeting does not make
a movement! 
 
If there is anyone else here who would like to link up with us, please
contact me, and, moreover, please come to the next meeting in December.
 
En solidaridad!
 
Kumanan
 
 
 
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