PHM-Exch> Invitation to the World OPEN Health Assembly

[Claudio Schuftan]

Open Minds —> Open Health @ WOHA2011

*Invitation to the World OPEN Health Assembly*

Health is a concern of everyone. From personal physical fitness to the
threats posed by growing global pandemics, all people share an interest in
improving the well-being of themselves and others. Access to health care is
a Human Right, which should be respected in every country around the world.
We are all part of ‘World Health’. The UN body
responsible for this is the World Health Organization (WHO) which is
governed by the World Health Assembly (WHA), its supreme decision-making
body. It generally meets in Geneva in May each year, and is attended by
delegations from all 193 Member States. Its main function is to determine
the policies of the WHO. The sixty-fourth WHA, from 16-24 May,
will address issues of concern to all, including NCDs, HIV/AIDS, Health
Systems and the MDGs. What is discussed and decided at the World Health
Assembly (WHA) will have an impact on the well-being of all. Yet very few
people outside of the Delegates (the governments of 193 countries), WHO
personnel and a handful of NGOs are engaged with this meeting as
‘stake-holders’ - in fact, the vast majority of the world’s population have
never heard of any of this.
As health is everyone’s concern, the World Health Assembly should be more
accessible to a wider audience. Towards this, the second World OPEN Health
Assembly (WOHA) is being held, mostly online, to connect people from around
the globe with the WHA in Geneva. WOHA 2011, organized by public health
activists, with support from IMAXI Cooperative and Partners, connects the
high level meeting in Geneva with anyone who wants to learn, discuss and
have a ‘voice’ on health policy and practice, and dynamically encourages
more people to get involved in improving the world’s health.
Via tweets, SMS, facebook, skype and other media, a healthy global
discussion, from the bottom-up, begins.
The theme of WOHA 2011 event is the Right to Health, with a focus on
achieving universal access to care and support.
For three days, the online and ‘live’ meeting discussions will gather and
share the views and messages of many - from patients and providers to
politicians and ‘personalities’, to open-draft recommendations for action.
Learning from last year’s WOHA 2010, the World OPEN Health Assembly 2011
will offer three days of live ‘Chat’ discussions via Twitter, SMS, FaceBook,
blogs, with background documentation from WHO and civil society
organizations. Over a dozen topical sessions, each moderated by public
health activists and experts in Asia, Europe, Africa and North America, will
aim to ‘open-draft’ specific recommendations that will be delivered on 24th
May to Dr. Margaret Chan, DG of WHO and the World Health Assembly. Short
messages (SMS) and tweets received at #WOHA2011 will also be included in the
Million Message March to the UN, to be delivered to the OHCHR on Human
Rights Day, December 10th, 2011. Following WOHA 2011, similar ‘open health’
events will be linked to the High Level Meetings at the UN on HIV in
June and Non-Communicable Diseases in September, and other UN ‘family’
meetings. This six month Million Message March (@MMM2UN) will reach out for
inputs from those most affected by the diseases and issues, and deliver
these heartfelt voices directly to the ‘deciders’ while making them
available to all advocates and activists. The March and WOHA are being
coordinated by the IMAXI Cooperative, a NGO driven by volunteers living with
the same life-threatening diseases that the WHO, UNAIDS and other UN
agencies are trying to confront. Galvanizing other key ‘stakeholders’, WOHA
and the Million Message March are now preparing to move forward, raising
high the Right to Health, from the bottom-up.
Join the Million Message March to the United Nations Meet-Up at the World
OPEN Health Assembly (WOHA)
Tweet @WOHA2011 @MMM2UN SMS: +41 787597991 FB: http://on.fb.me/gxLyzl Web:
www.imaxi.org
Direct contacts: Celina <menezes at imaxi.org> Case <gordon at imaxi.org> Joe <
thomas at imaxi.org>

I M A X I COOP E R A T I V E T R U S T
Manal, Ezhara Beach, Kuttikayam Munambu, Thottada, Kannur 670007 Kerala
India
+91 9673205466 info at imaxi.org www.imaxi.org skype: imaxi.org twitter:
@imaxicoop
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World OPEN  Health Assembly

*FrEquENtly AskEd quEstiONs*

What is the World Open Health Assembly (WOHA)?

An innovative 3-day event to bring together people from many countries
through the creative use of social media, such as Twitter, SMS and Facebook,
to hold a global ‘community meeting’ in tandem with WHO’s high-level World
Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva. This ‘Open’ meeting, 16-18 May, aims to
bring the views and voices of those on the ‘bottom’ to bear on the decisions
of those at the ‘top’, far away from the realities of health conditions in
the community. using social media for social mobilization and information.
WOHA is a collaborative initiative of the IMAXI Cooperative and Partners.

What will happen at WOHA?

—> Non-stop ‘chat’ discussion on twitter of key issues found in, or missing
from, the agenda of the WHO’s World Health Assembly (WHA), between patients
and care-givers on the frontlines, advocates from NGOs and experts around
the world.
—> Live moderator teams in India, South Africa, UK and other countries from
partner NGOs to provide warm human support to the online discussions, and
feed in messages from mobiles (SMS), facebook and skype messages. —>
Direct tweet-feeds from the World Health Assembly in Geneva, allowing the
‘community’ to follow and comment on what our
‘Leaders’ are saying about us, without us being there.  —>  ‘Open-drafting’
of recommendations for the WHO to be hand delivered to Dr. Chan on the 24th
of May before the conclusion of the WHA, and all the messages will join the
‘March’ to the UN to be delivered on Human Rights Day in December. —>
Socialize and mobilize with other people from the global health community,
and exchange your ideas on shared issues and concerns.

How do i participate?

Simply. WOHA makes being ‘active’ for the health of your community easy for
anyone. There are two ways to activate:
If you have internet access, we strongly recommend opening a Twitter account
(easy and free at www.twitter.com) and then follow @WOHA2011. No
registration is required, just be sure to use the hashtag #WOHA somewhere in
every tweet that you send. Anyone can search for the #WOHA, read all the
messages as they arrive, and comment or retweet to their followers. In some
60 countries, you can register your mobile to receive and send ‘tweets’,
even without internet access.
See http://bit.ly/lVozLE for the list.
For those (millions) without access to the web but with mobile phones,
simply send an SMS to +41 787597991 with your name  / country and we’ll send
you the details, with different options just for you. We are in the process
of setting up national SMS numbers in many countries, and some with
toll-free numbers, and this may be available where you are.

What are “speak-up sessions?”

Just that! Speak-Up at twelve special ‘chat’ discussions on the 16th and
17th May during the World OPEN Health Assembly (WOHA). Teams of well known
‘friendly-expert’ moderators, gathered in partner organizations in different
countries, will help guide 1 hour global chats on twitter, with
inputs/outputs also by SMS, FB and Skype. The topics for each session
are the moderators choice,  derived from the WHO/WHA official agenda (or
what’s missing) and related issues of interest to their community members /
followers and ‘newly-involved’ people around the world. These Speak-Up
Sessions encourage people to join in the ‘open’ drafting of recommendations
on 18 May of a policy document which will be handed to Dr. Chan, DG WHO in
Geneva on the 24th of May.  Speak-Up Session inputs and messages will also
be included in the final declarations at the end of the Million Message
March at the High Commission on Human Rights in December.

Can you explain all this in 140 characters or less?

What can be said about WOHA will be ongoing and evolving, but we can begin
with two basics:
@WOHA2011 World OPEN Health Assembly 16-18 May Online/Frontline SMS/Tweet
Meet tandem w/ WHO World #Health
Assembly. Speak-Up! Follow #WOHA
@WOHA2011 World OPEN Health Assembly 16-18 May. SMS & Tweet Meet. Tell WHO &
Govrnmnts ur needs/views on
#health, loud’n’clear! Follow #WOHA

Can you provide an example of the kind of sMs messages people should send?

The first one we received, and then tweeted globally, can be an example of
Speaking-Up on whatever you think:
“Dear Dr. Chan, Care-Givers need universal access to care and support TOO!
#WOHA” @WOHA2011 RT_ at WHOnews
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28.04.11

I M A X I   C O O P E R A T I V E   T R U S T
Manal ,  Ezhara Beach,  Kuttikayam Munambu,  Thottada,  Kannur 670007 Kerala
 Ind ia
+91 9673205466   info at imaxi.org   www.imaxi.org   skype: imaxi.org
twitter: @imaxicoop

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