PHM-Exch> [PHM] a bit of history (3)

[Claudio Schuftan]

> In preparation of PHA4, phm-exchange will over the coming weeks feature
>> some of the important documents of the past for our new members to get a
>> better feeling where we have been as a movement. For those of you
>> old-timers, it will be a trip in memory lane.
>>
>>
>>
>> *One of the early pioneers of Health Action International (HAI), Anwar
>> Fazal, now Director of the Right Livelihood College and
>> Chairperson Emeritus of the World Alliance of Breastfeeding Action  (WABA)
>>  shares a little story of a very unique PHA1/WABA partnership on
>> remembering the importance of history and growth of movements. WABA would
>> like to continue with this participatory web source of history and looks
>> forward to updating it on a regular basis. Check the website at*
>>
>>                                      *www.healthydocuments.org
>> <http://www.healthydocuments.org>*
>>
>>
>>
>> *Getting Back to Basics- The story of  www.healthydocuments.org
>> <http://www.healthydocuments.org> *
>>
>>
>> Nowhere is cycle of making a difference in any community more significant
>> than when it relates to health issues.  The wealth of nations is ultimately
>> about the health of nations.  The wealth of people is ultimately measured
>> by the health of people.  And health must be defined in all its dimensions
>> - physical, mental and social.
>>
>> If an "Inter-planetary Commission" visited the planet Earth to review
>> what we have achieved in health, they would be gravely disappointed, even
>> shocked.  Four decades have passed when the world in 1978 issued the Alma
>> Alta Declaration with the goal "Health for All by the Year 2000".  The
>> world has sadly, and pathetically, failed to turn this vision into
>> reality.  Instead, the world shamelessly continues to be wrecked by
>> violence, manipulation and waste while globalisation, liberalisation and
>> privatisation (what we can call the "GLP" virus) and its inequities are
>> spread by powerful global and transnational organisations, including the
>> International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and
>> the World Bank.
>>
>> The global "Health Divide" is shocking, even criminal.  Disease and ill
>> health abound while access remains abysmally poor.  The power of those
>> hungry for profits seems to grow.  Whether it is access to medicines for
>> AIDS or continued systematic subversion of breastfeeding, it must be
>> countered ever more forcefully, intelligently and comprehensively by civil
>> society.
>>
>> *How an Idea of PHA1 Became  a Reality*
>>
>> A few of us who were part of the original team, in 1998 dared to realise
>> the dream of the idea of a "People's Health Assembly".  It was an idea I
>> had mooted at the Health Action International (HAI) global meeting held
>> from 27-31st January at the iconic E&O Hotel in Penang, Malaysia - an
>> "activist" filled island and headquarter to the Pesticide Action Network
>> (PAN) Asia and Pacific, Third World Network(TWN), the World Alliance for
>> Breastfeeding Action (WABA), and the previous home to the International
>> Organisation of Consumers Unions(IOCU).  We thought about what we should do
>> to move the idea of the Peoples Health Assembly (PHA) forward.  We agreed
>> that in all social movements, memory, monitoring and continiously being
>> creative and even defiant was important.  These were the building blocks of
>> making real progress for real people to make a difference.  To make that
>> happen we needed easy access to key informational resources.
>>
>> Those of us who are engaged in the breastfeeding movement have realised
>> how important it is to remember formal Declarations and other international
>> instruments and norms, our commitments, important strategic documents and
>> to build on these as organising tools to set in motion a virtuous cycle of
>> action and vigilance.  We have had the deep experience of the International
>> Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and the Innocenti Declaration
>> on the Protection, Promotion and Support of Breastfeeding.  And we know the
>> importance of documentation and the value of making information popularly
>> accessible in a form that leads to action.
>>
>> As such when WABA was planning our involvement in the inaugural People's
>> Health Assembly scheduled for Savar, Bangladesh, in December 2000 (hosted
>> by the world inspiring Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury and his team), I said lets do
>> something from our experience that will be an important building block, a
>> useful tool, even something that will last and empower.  Like we
>> experienced in the breastfeeding movement, we thought of going back to
>> basics for inspiration.  It meant looking at the key and fundamental
>> writings and pronouncements on health issues.  And so came the idea of a
>> source book, with the simple but powerful title "Healthy Documents".  There
>> was very little time before the inaugural People's Health Assembly to get
>> this initiative off the ground and we had to move fast and well.  I knew we
>> had one person in the health network who could get it done, who would bring
>> competence, passion and compassion, and who combines documentation skills,
>> speed and selection insights quite unparalleled among social movements.  So
>> I emailed *Lakshmi Menon of Bombay,* India, who had done many such
>> ventures.  And to our good fortune, she agreed even though we could only
>> provide her "rice and water" as compensation.  It was to be a labour of
>> love.
>>
>> And a remarkable collection was the result.  We tested it at the first
>> People's Health Assembly and our prototype was enthusiastically received.
>> It was even referred to by the team making the final People's Charter for
>> Health.
>>
>>
>> *Taking it forward to "Health for All People" in 2012 *
>> We decided that over a decade later, as WABA's contribution to the Third
>> Global People's Health Assembly scheduled for Capetown, South Africa in
>> July 2012, we should do a major update.  We were fortunate, once again, to
>> have the services of another passionate, competent and creative person, *Jennifer
>> Mourin in Penang ,* to facilitate and lead the immensely participatory
>> process of the update.  And she has done this immensely well.
>>
>> We decided to put all this documentation on a people friendly website and
>> to keep it going as our contribution to the movement for "Health for All
>> People".  We hoped that it would help to create the political will that is
>> so central to that achievement.  And we hoped that it would contribute to
>> the Gross National Happiness (GNH) of countries as against the Gross
>> National Product (GNP).
>> Today, the world over the "Happiness Index" is gaining traction as the
>> measure of true well being, and central to achieving that well being in
>> something so simple so powerful - our health.
>>
>> Make sure you check the website       *www.healthydocuments.org
>> <http://www.healthydocuments.org>   *it s packed with useful background
>> information in our field
>>
>>
>>
>
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