On the Assembly ... Gonoshasthaya Kendra Savar, 4-8 December 2000 - News Brief # 3

This is the 3rd issue of the PHA NEWS BRIEF and as we are gearing up toward the Assembly in Savar, here is some information that may come in handy. The Coordinating Group of the PHA met in Gonoshasthaya Kendra Savar, Bangladesh from 28-31 July to chart the way forward in the PHA process.

The PHA Story/process is gathering more energy and enthusiasm as the Assembly is drawing near. Below are some updates from the different regions. We would like to encourage participants who have applied to come for the Assembly to join in some of these regional activities and to be a part of the process building up toward the Assembly as well as post-Assembly events.
The selection of participants is carried out now in the different regions. Note that this process is organised differently in the different regions. Some regions eg. The Middle Eastern region already have their list of selected participants while most other regions are getting there slowly but surely. So, please be patient and understand that some groups involved in the PHA process do not have easy access to communication systems and may take longer to receive and/or send information and we do not want groups to be excluded from the process. We also understand that there may be problems in the booking of air-tickets at the last minute. We would like to advise that you make a tentative reservation now.

Confirmation of selection/participation will be communicated to you latest by 15 October either through the Regional Coordinator (see list) or the Secretariat. A Registration Pack will be sent to you then and we hope that you will be able to fill up the necessary forms and send them back to the Regional Coordinator nearest you or the Secretariat by 10 November. This can either be done through snail mail, fax and/or electronically.

Please also note that not all who have applied to come will be selected as there is a limit to the number of participants for the Assembly. Thus, we would once again encourage everyone to get involved in activities, events, and discussions at the regional level so that your input/voice is included. The quota for participation is as below: North and Latin America, Caribbean (50); Canada and US (10); Pacific (15); Africa (60); Middle East (30); Europe and Eastern Europe (80); East Asia (20); Southeast Asia (57); Nepal (100); Pakistan (20); Bhutan (4); Maldives (4); Sri Lanka (30); India (100); Bangladesh (80).

The draft programme of the Assembly can be found on page 5. The programme is being revised as groups send proposals to organise workshops, discussions, presentations, etc. We would like to encourage groups to link up and collaborate with one another to plan and organise workshops. You can do this by contacting your respective regional coordinators. Or alternatively go to our website at www.phmovement.org, look at the PHA mailing list and link up with groups you know are working on issues similar as you are and organise something together.

AFRICA

Stories from Zimbabwe, Malawi, Nigeria, Mali and other countries have been collected. More stories are being solicited from network partners in Africa. If your organisation has stories and/or case studies to contribute, pls send them to the regional coordinator in Africa nearest you (see contact list).

As PHA preparatory work HAI Africa has been working on issues of the illegal drug market in Western Africa; training-discussion workshops on drug donations; documentation of formulating of programme on rational drug use as well as producing a video on the Ugandan initiative of rural women developing stories, drama on issues they have identified as important.

Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR) have sent out materials on the PHA including the Outline of the Charter to women’s groups in Africa. These groups will be involved in the PHA process. They are involved in issues of abortion; access to public health care for women; AIDS and abortion, AIDS and breastfeeding; reproductive technologies; fundamentalism and violence; sexuality; problems of racism towards women of ethnic minorities, migrant women, black women; female feticide, population policies, children born out of sex slave relations, etc.

There will be a meeting from 13-15 September in South Africa organised by Equinet. For more information write to
equinet-l@egroups.com

ARAB COUNTRIES

Go to the PHA website at www.phmovement.org for the Arabic translation of the PHA brochure!

46 groups and grassroots organisations both from the NGO network as well as government links have been contacted and informed about the PHA process. They have been briefed on the focus of PHA and have been requested to collect case studies and stories on issues affecting people in communities.

At the Copenhagen +5 meeting in Geneva, workshops were organised by the Arabic network and the PHA process was discussed at length. For more information, contact Ghassan Hanani, regional coordinator for Arab countries (see contact list).

Issues around which this network will be organising both for pre-Assembly activities as well as for the Assembly itself include conflict and health, effects of trade sanctions on the health of women and children in Iraq, dislocation of communities and health, etc.

ASIA

Join the Indian National Health Assembly with the slogan “Health for all – NOW!” in Calcutta from 30 November – 1 December 2000. This will be a national gathering of about 3,000 people from the people’s movement i.e. health, women, environment, labour, street children, Dalit community, etc. You can either go to Calcutta or be part of the exciting health trains. There will be health trains travelling from 4 different points in India viz. Tamilnadu, Bombay, Punjab and Tripura. If you wish to join either the National Health Assembly in Calcutta or any of the health trains, please contact Ravi Narayan of Community Health Centre at sochara@vsnl.com Note that booking of tickets for the train has to be done 60 days prior to the
event. So, contact Community Health Centre soon!

State and district level activities, workshops, Kalajathas (cultural events) are being organised in different places in India. These will bring together people’s vision of health for all to the regional policy dialogues where health ministers, bureaucrats, academicians will meet with health activists to translate these visions into practical and workable policies.

The National Coordinating Committee of India has also produced 5 booklets for preparatory meetings, discussions, workshops for the PHA:

They are now available and copies are sold at USD2.50 each. Orders to be made through Community Health Centre or Prem Chandran John, regional coordinator for Asia (see contact list).

Activities in Nepal are no less vibrant. The National Preparatory Committee has been actively discussing the People’s Charter for Health (PHC) as well as PHA activities. Workshops at community, regional and national levels have been and are being organised. Case studies/stories will be developed during these workshops and each workshop will end with a cultural and public event.

The Nepalis are expected to come to Savar with a big contingent of 100 participants. Buses will be making their trip from the western end of Nepal, meeting with people’s representatives and government representatives, creating visibility and raising awareness. At the Nepal-Bangladesh border, workshops have been planned and the Nepali contingent will cross the border as a people’s health rally! Join in the rally. Contact Mathura Shrestha, RECPHEC at PO Box 117, Bag Bazar, Kathmandu, NEPAL or fax: 977-1-226 820; email: recphec@npl.healthnet.org Elsewhere, Sarvodaya in Sri Lanka reports that there is great enthusiasm from a spectrum of community health practitioners in the PHA process. A preparatory seminar at the Sarvodaya Headquarters is being organised in Moratuwa on 18th September 2000 for both governmental and non-governmental institutions on the issues related to the PHA. For more information on this seminar, pls contact Vinya Ariyaratne at Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, No.98, Rawatawatta Road, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka; fax:94-1-646512; email: ssmplan@sri.lanka.net

Two preparatory meetings have been organised in Cambodia. In Indonesia, PERDAKI, Muhammadiyah, FKPKMI will be jointly facilitating a workshop on “ The effects of Globalisation”. In China, AMITY Foundation are in the process of producing stories and will be sending barefoot doctors as participants for the Assembly. The national process in the Philippines has been initiated. At the recent joint meeting organised by Council for Health and Development, sponsored by International People’s Health Council (IPHC), the PHA process was discussed. For updates of this meeting, pls contact Edelina de la Paz, the regional coordinator for Southeast Asia (see contact list).

Contacts are still needed in Vietnam, Lao. Groups who have network partners in these countries, please contact the regional coordinator, Edelina (see contact list).

EUROPE

We now have a video which shows socially excluded groups (homeless men, illiterate and mentally ill women) from Scotland. We also have a testimony about the effects of unemployment on men in Glasgow in Scotland, where men’s death rates are the highest in Britain. Their men’s health group describes creative ways of organising. Doctors, wary of prescribing drugs for social problems, have linked with ‘time banks’ where people ‘bank’ an hour of time instead of cash and this experience will be one of the many discussed at the PHA. 25 ‘medical’ houses in Belgium deal mainly with refugees and immigrants will talk about their experience. Links are being strengthened with the International Federation of Medical Students (IFMSA). They organised a meeting on healthy ageing in Portugal in August and will be active in PHA.

We have links in Ukraine, Armenia, Albania. More contacts in Eastern Europe are needed. Pls contact Pam Zinkin, the regional coordinator for Europe (see contact list).

We are already beginning to plan post-Assembly activities.

THE AMERICAS

In Canada, the Women’s Health Network in Labrador and Newfoundland are preparing a forum in September which will deal with issues such as: traditional medicines and alternative practices, community health practices among indigenous (First Nations). The outcome of the forum should result in contributions to the PHA process.

Partners in Health, USA is involved in the PHA process. Other groups include the include Committee on Women, Population and Environment, the Black Women’s Health Network, and the Medical Mission Sisters.

In South America, local level activities have been organised in Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru. Inputs from various groups will feed into the regional forum for popular health planned for 25-29 September in Cuenca, Ecuador. For more information, pls contact Arturo Quizhpe, regional coordinator for South America (see contact list).

The Regional Committee for the Promotion of Community Health, established in 1975 has survived through armed conflict in countries of Central America. Today 25 years later, she celebrates the 25th anniversary of people’s struggles built on the collective work in the regions of Mexico, Central America and the Spanish speaking Caribbean. The Regional People’s Health Assembly, the meeting point of the various regional preparatory activities, will be held in Guatemala from 9- 15 October. This Assembly will see the selection of stories, case studies, photographs, videos, posters, drama, etc. for the Assembly in Savar.

The Civil Society Forum in collaboration with the Nicaraguan University of the Atlantic Coast will be hosting a forum on Health Care Reform and how it is affecting community health workers. Presentations from this forum will feed into the regional assembly above.

The PHA process has been widely shared with 180 community health workers from 23 language groups in Guatemala. A group of women in Brazil will be preparing stories and workshop on community health work in their region of Brazil. For more information, pls contact Maria Hamlin Zuniga, regional coordinator of Central America and the Caribbean (see contact list).

THE PACIFIC

Groups in the Pacific islands that have been contacted through the consumer protection network include groups from Fiji, The Solomons, Palau, Papua New Guinea and Kiribati. These groups have sent stories ranging from issues dealing with food, nutrition and health to nuclear waste dumping and jelly babies.

A high priority issue identified for Australia is aboriginal health. AMSANT is organising its annual health summit in which the discrepancies between aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities will be highlighted. There will also be inquiries into custodial deaths of aboriginal peoples. The Charter will be discussed at this summit. Stories will be shared at the PHA on how AMSANT has been developing models of Primary Health Care.

Contacts are still needed in New Zealand. Groups interested, pls contact Mary Murray, regional coordinator of The Pacific (see contact list).

	3 Dec	4 Dec	5 Dec	6 Dec	7 Dec
8:45	A r r i v a l & R e g i s t r a t i o n		Highlights of yesterday
		THEME: HEALTH AND LIFE	THEME: INEQUALITY, POVERTY AND HEALTH	THEME: HEALTH CARE AND HEALTH SERVICES	THEME: ENVIRONMENTAND SURVIVAL
9:00		- Interactive theatre - Welcome Ceremony -Announcements	- Theatre, Song, Poetry	Panel with questions/reactions/ testimonies from floor: - David Sanders, South Africa - Health Minister of Mozambique - Community health worker from Central America - Health worker from Philippines - Representative from Bangladesh Health Ministry - Northern perspective	Panel and reaction from floor: - Pesticides and Health –Philippines - Woman from Iraq - Cancer and the environment - Oil and the Ogoni struggle, Nigeria and struggle against oil leaks in Ecuador - Nuclear testing (Pakistan, Bhopal, Pacific Islands)
10:00		- Interactive theatre - Welcome Ceremony -Announcements	- Regional Testimonies
11:00		Tea/coffee break
11:30		Tribunal 5 testimonies presented: - Woman from Tanzania/ Zimbabwe – health, cost recoverty and poverty - Aboriginal woman from Australia - Man from Scotland - Woman from Latin America - Woman/man from Bangladesh	- Regional testimonies cont.	- Panel cont.	- Panel cont
1:00		Lunch
2:30		- Explaining the People’s Charter for Health	Workshops and Roundtable*: - War and Violence - Health and Human Rights - Women and HIV/AIDS - Health in cities - UN policy and structures	Workshops and Roundtable*: - PHC - Privatisation of health care - Discrimination and health care services - Is globalisation good for health? Workshop in 5 languages: - Health sector reform	Workshops and Roundtable*: - Environmental justice and destruction of local life - WB, IMF, Wto and the environment - Health and sustainable communities - Reproductive technologies and health Workshop in 5 languages: - WTO, TRIPS:Impact on environment and health
4:30		Tea/coffee break
5:00		- Interactive Activities/Stalls - Ongoing discussions on Charter		- Interactive Activities/Stalls - Final day for inputs toCharter	- Interactive Activities/Stalls - Drafting Group works on Charter

* The list of workshops/roundtables is not final. Organisations have been encouraged to plan for workshops and this is the time and theme slot for it. Proposals for organising workshops are
still being sent in and these will be included.

PHA WORKING papers

These PHA Working Papers are now available on the PHA WEB! Or you can request for them from the PHA Secretariat:

These papers are draft versions. We would like you to discuss the papers, suggest additions or changes, and identify points where you may disagree. We would also like you to use the papers as a starting point for the identification of your own stories and case studies that you think illustrate some of the issues brought up (or others that you come to think about!).

At the end of the paper you will find a list of action points. Please add to this list, which we will use as an input for the People’s Charter for Health which is currently being formulated.

Please submit your comments, stories and suggestions for action to the Drafting Team Coordinator (Nadine Gasman, Fuente de Emperador 28, Tecamachalco C.P. 53950, Estado de México. MEXICO, Fax: 52-52-512518, e-mail: gasmanna@netmex.com If you have acccess to the internet, you should be able to find other PHA papers and the Annotated Outline of the People’s Charter for Health at www.phmovement.org

Who are we?
If you do not know us yet,
GO to our website at www.phmovement.org to find out about the People’s Health Assembly process or write to the PHA Secretariat. We are a growing coalition of grassroots organizations dedicated to health and equitable development. The PHA process is a collective effort in opening up opportunities, drawing in communities and civil society organisations in their work towards just and equitable health and health-related policies for all. We are convinced that networking is indispensable for the concerted global actions that are needed. Become a part of the network! If you are interested in becoming part of this exciting process, we invite you to contact the PHA Secretariat or write to us at Gonoshasthaya Kendra, PO Mirzanagar, 1344 Savar, BANGLADESH.