<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr"><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><font size="2">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.</font><font size="2"><br></font></div><div style="font-size:large"><br></div>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria"><i><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times;color:black">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</span></i><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times"><span></span></span></p>
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<b><a href="http://www.healthydocuments.org"><span style="color:blue">www.healthydocuments.org</span></a></b><span></span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria" align="center"><b><i><u><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times">Getting Back to Basics- The story of
<a href="http://www.healthydocuments.org"><span style="color:blue">www.healthydocuments.org</span></a> </span></u></i></b><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times"><span></span></span></p>
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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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
<b>How an Idea of PHA1 Became a Reality</b><br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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 <b>Lakshmi Menon of Bombay,</b> 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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
<b>Taking it forward to "Health for All People" in 2012<br>
</b><br>
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, <b>Jennifer
Mourin in Penang ,</b> to facilitate and lead the immensely participatory
process of the update. And she has done this immensely well.<br>
<br>
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). <br>
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.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times">Make sure you check
the website <b><a href="http://www.healthydocuments.org"><span style="color:blue">www.healthydocuments.org</span></a><span> </span></b><span>it
s packed with useful background information in our field</span><span></span></span></p>
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