November 2006 e-newsletter
Inter Pares' E-Newsletter
Health and Justice for All
In this e-newsletter:
- Letter of Introduction
- Excerpts from:
- Health and Justice for All
- Burma: Health on the Borderlines
- Out From the Shadows
- Universal Action
- Health Action in Canada: Canadian Health Coalition & Women and Health Protection
- Women and Pharmaceuticals, Twenty Years Later
- IP staff in Montreal on November 27, 2006, "Soirée Relations : Une Afrique méconnue" (in French only)
- New e-cards and alternative gift
Links
Abonnez-vous à la version française
Inter Pares Web site
PDF version of this Bulletin
This Bulletin on the Web
Send an e-card
November 2006
Dear friends,
In 1978, governments around the world supported a global commitment to "Health for All" by the year 2000. This promise remains unfulfilled - and indeed, is in jeopardy - as health services in many countries, in the north and in the global south, have been privatized and downsized. Wherever people live, being healthy means living in safe and secure environments, and having access to universally accessible health care that is publicly-funded and administered on behalf of all.
The enclosed Bulletin, our last of 2006, celebrates the actions of people in the Philippines, in Canada, in Burma and in Guatemala, to transform "Health for All" from the promise of a distant dream into the concrete and empowered reality of a fundamental right.
This work is supported by thousands of Canadians across the country. Their financial contribution has allowed us to provide support to the organizations presented in the Bulletin, whose work has a direct impact on the health and well-being of hundreds of thousands of people. With their support, we are also able to continue connecting our international work to Canadians - educating the public on international issues, advocating for improved Canadian foreign policy, bringing together international and Canadian activists, and supporting work for social change, including accessible universal health care, in Canada.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like more information about any aspect of our work.
Please accept our sincere gratitude for your support and interest in our work.
With best wishes,
Molly Kane
Executive Director
P.S. At this time of year, we count on your generosity. Please make a gift today in support of building a healthier world. You are an integral part of our success and we thank you.
Health and Justice for All
"We are one in the belief that health is a basic right that cannot be made to follow the logic of profit. Like you, we believe in the standard of accessible, appropriate and competent health care for all."
Dr. Sylvia Estrada-Claudio, co-founder and chair of the Board of Likhaan, a national women's health organization in the Philippines and long-time Inter Pares counterpart, was speaking at our Annual General Meeting this past April on the relationship between health and social justice. Sylvia reminded us that in 1978, governments around the world supported a global commitment to "Health for All" by the year 2000. Public health care in many countries, in the North and the South, has been privatized and downsized, and thus even less accessible to those who need it most - the poor and vulnerable.
Click here to read the rest of this article
Burma: Health on the Borderlines
Mahn Mahn's earliest childhood memories are of being in jail. In 1969, at the age of three, Mahn Mahn, his grandfather, his mother and his sister were all arrested and jailed by the Burmese military because his father was a soldier in the Karen army. Upon his father's death three years later, the family was released. The Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) has been fighting for an independent Karen State in Burma since 1949. Raised in the midst of a civil war that has had a terrible toll on civilians, it is not surprising that Mahn Mahn has dedicated his life to promoting the health of the Karen people.
Click here to read the rest of this article
A study by the Back Pack Health Worker Team, "Chronic Emergency: Health and Human Rights in Eastern Burma," can be viewed at www.bphwt.org. The BPHWT also completed a video documenting the health and human rights situation in Burma, entitled "Health Security Among Internally Displaced People in Burma," which can be viewed at www.interpares.ca.
Out From the Shadows
During a recent visit to Guatemala, a longtime friend and colleague told us that for her, justice meant "living without the shadow of anguish." Guatemala is a country with many unhealed wounds, after a brutal 36-year long armed conflict left over 200,000 people dead and millions deeply traumatized. And hidden in one of the darkest shadows is the systematic sexual abuse that women - in particular poor, indigenous women - suffered at the hands of the military and other armed actors. Women's bodies were destroyed as a means to humiliate and "pacify" communities, tearing apart the social fabric.
Click here to read the rest of this article
Universal Action
"We have a saying that when the over-developed North sneezes, we in the South get pneumonia," said Sylvia Estrada-Claudio, a physician, psychologist, and prominent women's health activist from the Philippines, when she spoke at Inter Pares' Annual General Meeting in April.
Sylvia described what 'pneumonia' looks like in her country, and brought a warning to Canadians about the consequences of a privatized two-tier health system, based on the experience of the Philippines. In her country, Sylvia told us, "The private system is for the rich. This effectively leaves the public system for the poor. Because it is mostly poor people who use the public system, it is badly funded and poorly managed."
Click here to read the rest of this article
For the complete version of Dr. Sylvia Estrada-Claudio's presentation to Inter Pares' 2006 AGM, "Health, Justice and Democracy," please visit the Inter Pares Web site: http://www.interpares.ca.
Health Action in Canada
Canadian Health Coalition
Inter Pares supports the Canadian Health Coalition (CHC), a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to protecting and expanding Canada's public health system. The Coalition includes representatives of senior's, women's, faith-based, nursing, health care and anti-poverty organizations from across Canada, and has, since 1979, been a powerful voice in keeping issues of universal health care in the public eye, and in promoting health services as a human right. For the 1.5 million people who visited CHC's Web site in the past year, and the provincial and territorial health coalitions and affiliates they work with, CHC is a critical source of information and health policy analysis, and a locus for coordinated action to protect Medicare. CHC is active in developing a national pharmaceutical strategy, in addressing issues of public health infrastructure and privatization, home care, and in examining the social causes of ill-health. CHC is also engaged in demanding government accountability for monitoring and reporting on the enforcement of the Canada Health Act.
For more information, visit www.healthcoalition.ca.
Women and Health Protection
Karen Seabrooke of Inter Pares is a member of the steering committee of Women and Health Protection (WHP), a coalition of community groups, researchers, journalists and activists concerned about the safety of pharmaceutical drugs. WHP monitors proposed changes in federal health protection legislation and examines the impact of such changes on women's health. Their documents make clear recommendations to the government, demanding that Canadian legislation truly provide "health protection".
For information on WHP's work visit www.whp-apsf.ca.
Women and Pharmaceuticals, Twenty Years Later
Inter Pares staff member Karen Seabrooke is a member of the Steering Committee of Women and Health Protection (WHP), a coalition of community groups, researchers, journalists and activists concerned about the safety of pharmaceutical drugs. In November 2005, Karen made a presentation, "The Future," on behalf of WHP at a symposium in Toronto entitled Women and Pharmaceuticals, Twenty Years Later, organized to honor and celebrate the achievements of Ruth Cooperstock two decades after her death. Ruth was a feminist, medical sociologist, and pioneer in research on women and psychotropic. The symposium report is available from Women and Health Protection and on Inter Pares' Web site.
IP staff in Montreal on November 27, 2006, "Soirée Relations : Une Afrique méconnue" (in French only)
En plus de son impressionnante diversité géographique et culturelle, l'immense continent africain possède de grandes richesses naturelles. Nous méconnaissons toutefois jusqu'à quel point une exploitation outrancière de ces richesses et le pillage exercé par les pays du Nord alimentent de nombreux conflits régionaux et causent de lourds impacts environnementaux. Comment mieux comprendre les enjeux complexes qui traversent l'Afrique et, ce faisant, dépasser la représentation stéréotypée que nous en donnent trop souvent les médias? C'est à cette tâche que se livreront nos conférenciers.
Le lundi 27 novembre 2006 de 19 h à 21 h 30
à la Maison Bellarmin, 25 rue Jarry Ouest (métro Jarry ou de Castelnau)
Avec :
- Caroline Boudreau et Éric Chaurette, membres de l'équipe Afrique de Inter Pares
- Moussa Keita, chercheur au Groupe de recherche sur les activités minières en Afrique (GRAMA)
- Dominique Payette, professeure au Département d'information et de communication de l'Université Laval et auteure de La dérive sanglante du Rwanda (Écosociété, 2004).
Pour plus de renseignements communiquez avec Jean-Claude Ravet au 514-387-2541 ou jcravet.relations@cjf.qc.ca.
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Abonnez-vous à la version française
Inter Pares Web site
PDF version of this Bulletin
This Bulletin on the Web
Send an e-card
Inter Pares
221 Laurier Avenue East, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 6P1
Phone (613) 563-4801 or (866) 563-4801 Fax (613) 594-4704
Inter Pares works overseas and in Canada in support of self-help development groups, and in the promotion of understanding about the causes, effects and solutions to under-development and poverty. Charitable registration number (BN) 11897 1100 RR000 1.
Please re-distribute this e-newsletter to anyone you think would enjoy it, in its complete and original form only. Copyright 2006 Inter Pares. All rights reserved.
Financial support for the E-Newsletter is provided by the Canadian International Development Agency.
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