PHA-Exch> PHM-South Africa * News Update * October 2008

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Bridget Nomonde coordinator at phmsouthafrica.org

www.phmsouthafrica.org
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*People's Health Movement SA   * News Update *
22 October 2008*
The PHM SA - Right to Health Campaign, launched in Khayelitsha on 7
September 2007, is gaining momentum daily.  At our General Meeting on 1 July
2008, Health Economist Gavin Mooney spoke on negative effects of
neo-liberalism on health and urged us to listen to the people.  This is
where we have been.  We have heard countless stories of poverty, hunger,
HIV/AIDS and TB at PHM SA Training and Capacity Building Workshops and the
2008 Poverty Hearings.  People we work with are key community members and
health workers, including voluntary workers, some whose children have AIDS
and many who do not know where their next meal will come from.   At
Workshops, Follow-On Workshops and Community Workshops with people from
Phillipi, Khayelitsha and other communities, we focus on people's health
rights in the broadest sense, for all who live here as enshrined in South
Africa's model Constitution and The People's Charter for Health. People know
well that basic requirements for health are adequate shelter, nutritious
food, especially for development and growth of strong, healthy children. Not
all have access to clean drinking water, adequate sanitation, a safe and
clean environment nor a means to generate a livelihood, apart from adequate
health care by nurses, doctors in clinics, hospitals, affordable medicines
nor health education.  We know too well that these are not available to the
majority of people who need them in South Africa.

  People are hungry for knowledge and skills to claim their rights to
dignity and health.  PHM SA has an enormous, exciting task, bringing hope
and building capacity. In 2009, PHM SA Week Long Training of Trainers
Workshop will empower more people to carry our messages.

  PHM SA's Fieldworker Nkwame Cedile, and Research Assistant Linda
Mashingaidze, are in Harare ahead of the launch of PHM Zimbabwe and PHM's
publication, Global Health Watch 2.

*  Global Health Watch 2 will be launched on 12 November 2008 at Center for
the Book, Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town, 6 pm.*

  PHM SA Strategic planning is high on the agenda and our capacity to
communicate with Supporters will improve dramatically this week as new
computers come on line. Donors Medico and Oxfam have enabled PHM SA to keep
growing and also to respond to enormous challenges and health needs of
thousand of internally displaced people after the outbreak of xenophobic
attacks, earlier this year. We are very grateful for this.  We draw on
skills of busy committee and family members who give generously of their
time and need to draw on skills among supporters if this campaign is to
succeed.  We are updating mailing lists and will soon ask for more details
than we did initially, including who you are, where you are and what skills
you could offer.

Thank you for your part in PHM SA Right to Health Campaign.
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