The Assembly - News Brief # 4 - People's Health Movement PHM

The assembly itself is not the main objective of the PHA2000, but it is its launching point. As such, it is planned as a people’s get-together where we will all meet each other as equals to learn what different groups around the world have been doing to take health matters more into their own hands. We will share valuable experiences in order to address the issues that face people in all continents, and we will celebrate our long overdue union around these issues to present a common face and fight a coordinated struggle for Health for All worldwide. We will further discuss the forward looking documents prepared for PHA2000 to reach an action-oriented consensus and will commit ourselves to implementing the measures agreed upon and we will also set up the solidarity network that will keep people’s groups in touch after the Assembly. In the light of all that is achieved world health leaders will be confronted with the real problems people are facing in their access to quality health services as we ask for greater accountability of both individuals and agencies.

The venue for PHA2000 is a training center in the outskirts of Dhaka that has been prepared to house us all modestly. A brand new conference center has been built on the premises to house our sessions, trials, round tables and workshops. Outdoor sites will also host small group discussions, and stalls will offer food and refreshments. A long poster wall will be placed in the central area for people to express themselves in writing or through drawings addressing issues relating to PHA2000, reacting to some of the sessions, or calling others to meetings of special interest groups. This poster will allow everyone to express him or herself freely and everybody can stop there daily to see what’s new. There will be time to share our different cultural heritages in music, dance, poetry and drama and a creative program is allocating time for the mixture of discussions, sharing, testimonials and action planning. PHA2000’s program is highly participatory, with time and space for participants to show audiovisual materials they may wish to share with others.

The long discussion of the People’s Charter for Health will culminate with its formal approval on the last day of the Assembly when discussion will also center on how to use it effectively in upcoming advocacy work. Summaries of the major outcomes of the numerous workshops will also be presented at that time. Videotapes of the activities throughout the week will be shown at closing time as well as a synopsis of what happened. We are hoping to have everybody leave the Assembly charged with new knowledge and energies to carry out concrete tasks that will be agreed upon, and the strength of it all will be the awareness that others like oneself are embracing the same struggle with solidarity and global co-ordination. Fulfilling PHA2000’s future ambitious agenda rests on this goal being achieved in Savar this December.

(SEE BACK PAGE FOR PARTICIPANT INFORMATION)

HOST NATION NEWS

Bangladesh
We can still remember the Alma Ata declaration of ‘Health for All’ by 2000, and the promises to achieve this through primary health care. It has been 23 years since 1977, during which time policy makers from all over the world have published documents and proposals and encouraged peoples, especially those of developing nations, to believe in the dream of Alma Ata. But the dream never came true, and by now it has become another chapter in the history of the relationship between policy and progress, a cycle of promise with no commitment, politics but no development.

But the dream has become a reality in a rural community in Savar, Bangladesh, in the lives of 15,000 people where Gonoshashthaya Kendra (People’s Health Centre) has been working since 1971, the organization came out as a leader in the development arena, as a true people’s organization for health and development. A people-centred health and development initiative, with the people participating and sharing in community health care development, management and financing, and ownership of the development process. This initiative is being extended to all grassroots organizations dedicated to health and equitable development, who are assembling in Savar to produce their own people’s charter for health: The People’s Health Assembly 2000.

National action was slow in starting but once it got started, activities were extensive involving most of the NGO networks and NGOs in the country. Forgetting their past differences and rivalries, all of them got together to form different working groups with a central coordinating committee called the Bangladesh Chapter. NGO presence in the country is extensive and through their networks all levels of people, from those at the grass roots level to those at the top, responded and volunteered to be in those committees, which include; Campaigning, Media; Cultural and Social; Case Studies and Analysis; and Management. The Central and International Committees also have similar working groups to those of the Bangladesh Chapter.

Press conferences and briefings were held with articles appearing in both the printed and electronic media and several posters were printed and distributed through NGOs and other development organizations. Many campaign documents with the goals and objectives, activities, and programs of PHA were printed and distributed. Special meetings were arranged with appropriate government organizations and ministries and other relevant organizations. Every division and the majority of the sixty-four districts in the country had special meetings as part of the campaign to ensure people’s participation in the PHA2000.

There were small group meetings in the regions with NGOs and local people, and it was decided that experiences of health and development by the people themselves be presented in seminars and workshops before and during the assembly.

Hundreds of case studies, printed or in video form will be collected and documented by 30 October. Many grass roots organisations are showing an interest in organizing workshops during the assembly to present their case studies. The Bangladesh Chapter is now preparing to request the Central and the International coordinating committee to accommodate those workshops during the assembly. All the working committees have their offices in the central secretariat in GK, and meet regularly. Contact Dr. Morshed Chowdhury at: pha_gk@citechco.net Fax: +(880) 2861 3567.

ASIA

India
Indian initiatives started over eighteen months ago on an extensive scale. Several networks of NGOs and people’s movements such as All India People’s Science Network, Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad, State Voluntary Health Associations, the Catholic Health Network of India and others took up the challenge of as wide a dissemination of the spirit of PHA 2000 as possible. As in Bangladesh, for the first time perhaps, NGO networks and people’s movements submerged their differences to work towards PHA. The six major back ground papers and the draft People’s Health Charter have been discussed in depth in all the states and in at least one hundred or more of India’s districts. The plan is for grassroots voices to be brought back into an Indian Health Parliament scheduled for 28-30 November in Calcutta from where selected participants would come by bus to Dhaka.

A unique idea that is materializing is ‘health trains’ (well, several compartments in one train) from the three corners of India – from Trivandrum and Kanyakumari through Madras in the South, from Ahmedabad in the West and from New Delhi in the North will converge in Calcutta for the Indian Health Parliament. From eastern Indian states east of Bangladesh, buses will come direct to Dhaka led by the Minister for Health in the State of Tripura. There is a three-fold purpose, to publicise PHA, exchange information and share experiences and, most of all, to build solidarity towards joint action in future. Contact Dr. Mira Shiva, National Coordinator at: mirashiva@yahoo.com; Fax: + (91) 11 685 6795 or: Dr. Ravi Narayan at: sochara@vsnl.com Fax: + (91) 80 553 3358

Nepal
National organization, spearheaded by RECPHEC in Kathmandu, has been going well, and more than 500 NGOs from across the breadth of the country have been consulted and have taken part in preliminary events. More than fifteen workshops have been organized for the event, incorporating topics such as local self-governance, the ethics involved in health issues, the impacts of mega dams on the health of peoples, and the role of participatory democracy in policy decisions. One hundred participants will be travelling to Dhaka in two buses. Contact Dr. Mathura Shrestha at: recphec@infoclub.com.np Fax: + (977) 1 226 820.

ARAB COUNTRIES

Despite the outbreak of con frontations, the regional meeting in Larnaca, Cyprus went ahead as scheduled following some difficulties arranging the meeting in Jordan. Invitations were sent to activists in fifteen Arab nations for the 2-4 October meeting. Representatives from nine countries were present. The two days were filled with interesting, productive suggestions and constructive debates amidst an ever challenging and inspiring work atmosphere. The meeting clarified the PHA process and identified the input from the Middle East/North Africa region. The draft PCH and Health in the Era of Globalisation were translated into Arabic, while the other papers were distributed in English. The group’s first task was to identify their priorities from a regional perspective, and then incorporate these priorities into the draft agenda. The names of 50 activists who could be participants, resource persons, or reporters were put forward in the meeting. For more information contact: Jihad Mashal, Ghassan Hanani Regional Coordinator, UPMRC Jerusalem, Palestine, at: jihad@shabaka.net Fax: + (972) 2-2958836 or 5830679

THE AMERICAS

Ecuador
The Cuenca Forum in Ecuador invited health workers and speakers representing a range of indigenous groups from the central highlands, the coastal tropics, and the headwaters of the Amazon. Speakers included shamen (medicine men) from the Shuar tribes in the eastern jungles, activists working for the rights of women trying to migrate to the United States, community health workers from underprivileged communities, and activists struggling to defend the tropical forests and their inhabitants from the devastating onslaught of multinational oil companies. One of the outcomes of the Cuenca Forum was the beginning of a plan to form an Association of Community-based Health Programs in Ecuador. Some of the programs had come to Cuenca from distant corners of the country, and most had been unaware of the existence of other programs. Meeting together and sharing common concerns motivated the group to form an association, with the idea that “In unity lies strength.” The formation of such an association will enhance the ability of the diverse health workers and programs to follow through of the “actions for change” formulated at the People’s Health Assembly in December. Contact Maria Hamlin Zuniga at: iphc@cisas.org.ni Fax: + (505) 2 662 225 or Arturo Quizhpe at: aquizhpe@yahoo.com Fax: + (593) 7 841 865.

EUROPE

The first international conference, “Consumer Reports on Medicines” was organised by KILEN from 29 September - 1 October 2000 in Sweden where PHA was discussed at length and participants for the assembly were selected. At a meeting about the Cuban and British health systems there was a PHA presence, and much was learned from the Cuban experiences. Cuba achieved health for all in 1983. The last European meeting was in Germany on the 26 October. Contact Pam Zinkin at: pamzinkin@gn.apc.org Fax: +(44) 207 700 2699.

PARTICIPANT INFORMATION

URGENT if anyone has been selected but NOT received a formal registration form,
please contact your Regional Coordinator as soon as possible

Visa:
Ensure that you have a valid visa for the duration of your stay and at least 6 months before your passport expires. If you need a letter of invitation for your visa application form, contact the PHA secretariat as soon as possible. We will need your full name, your passport number and your full postal address.

Participants who can obtain visa upon arrival should bring with you 2 passport sized photos.

Travel:
Participants will be met at Zia International Airport, Dhaka. Go through the Green Channel in customs and look for the PHA desk, or for volunteers holding PHA boards. Free transport will be provided to the PHA2000 site in Savar.

Registration:
The registration fee is: $5 for participants from Africa, Central and South America, the Middle East, Russia, Asia, and the Pacific Islands; $50 for participants from Europe, Canada, U.S.A., Japan, Australia, New Zealand; and $100 for international organizations and resource agencies, payable in US$ or in Taka (Tk), at the PHA2000 site, other currencies will not be accepted. The exchange rate is roughly 1$US = 53Tk.

Reimbursement
Participants who are sponsored are encouraged to pay for your tickets first. You will be reimbursed during the assembly. For reimbursements, you should bring with you both your ticket and a valid invoice from your travel agents.

Health requirement:
Yellow Fever vaccinations and certificates are required for those arriving from or via Central Africa and Northern South America.

Accommodation:
The PHA2000 site is located in a rural area. Basic but essential services will be provided and rooms will be allocated on a twin or triple shared basis. Mosquito nets, bed sheets, and blankets will be provided. You will have access to electricity, cold running water, and a bathroom.

Climate:
It will be winter in Bangladesh. This means average day temperatures around 25°C and night temperatures of around 16°C. Rainfall and humidity should be negligible. Light sweaters and/or jackets are advisable. A flashlight would be useful at night.

Health Facilities:
Full-fledged health facilities are available at the Hospital within the campus of Gonoshasthaya Kendra. While Malaria, Typhoid, and Infective Hepatitis are endemic, they are not widespread. Prophylaxis is recommended.

Coordinating Group of the PHA:
Asian Community Health Action Network (ACHAN); Consumers International (CI); Dag Hammarskjold Foundation (DHF); Gonoshasthaya Kendra (GK); Health Action International - Asia Pacific (HAIAP); International People’s Health Council (IPHC); Third World Network (TWN); Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR)

PHA Secretariat, Gonoshasthaya Kendra, PO Mirzanagar, Savar,
1344-Dhaka, Bangladesh; tel: + (880) 2 770 8316; fax: + (880) 2 770 8317