February 3, 2009
This past weekend, I had the opportunity to learn about issues in international healthcare, network with med students and other healthcare professionals at the Physicians for Human Rights Conference at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) CEO, Frank Donaghue, described the conference as a way of learning from other students and professionals dedicated to the availability of healthcare for all who need it and how to move from “rhetoric to reality” through the collective effort of the conference participants.
Key note speakers at the event included, Stephen Lewis, Co-Director of AIDS-Free World and former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa and Julio Frenk, current dean of Harvard School of Public Health and former Minister of Health for Mexico. Stephen Lewis set the tone for the conference with his speech addressing the over arching issues that are contributing to the healthcare violations in developing countries. Lewis talked about U2 singer Bono, who asked why is it possible for the US and other nations to find $700 billion in 3 months to help bail out Wall St. but not $250 million over 3 years for the agreed upon Millenium Development Goals from the 2000 UN Summit.
Julio Frenk spoke about the ethical framework in which he used to guide the development and implementation of a national health insurance reform during his tenure as Minister of Health in Mexico. Frenk strongly stated that health is a second generation human right, meaning it transcends citizenship. This implies that it is unethical to limits healthcare services for immigrants in the United States.
Along with the keynote speakers, there were sessions that developed skills in advocacy and also sessions that covered topics in the cross section of human rights and health, custody, and conflict. Out of the 40 sessions available, conference participants only had the opportunity to attend 4 different sessions. Tough decision! I tried to vary the topics of the sessions I was attending. The following are brief summaries of the different sessions I attended,
Health Workforce Shortage: Problems, Solutions and Opportunities for Change:
Eric Friedman, PHR Senior Global Health Policy Advisor presented on the devastating workforce crisis that creates a barrier for developing countries who are striving to achieve health goals, including universal access to HIV services and the health-related Millennium Development Goals. Eric discussed the depth of this issue and presented examples of successful models in Malawi and Haiti which have addressed these issues by creating programs which provide investments to the local health systems and the health workers as well as changes in local policies.
A Day in the Life of a Darfur Woman: A Refugee Camp in Chad:
Dr. Lin Piwowarczyk, MD, MPH, Co-Founder and Co-director of the Boston center for Refugee Health and Human Rights and Karen Hirschfeld, PHR Sudan Campaign Director discussed their recent investigation in Chad, part of a four-person team interviewing 90 female survivors of the genocide in Darfur. They explained their research about the long-term psychological and physical effects of the rape suffered during attacks on the village in Darfur, as well as the physical insecurity that the women live with today. The session provided incredible insight to the functioning and – disfunctioning – of the world’s largest humanitarian effort to end the crisis in Darfur. It was during this session that I spoke with a volunteer from the Jewish World Watch about their efforts to teaching women in refugee camps how to make and use solar cookers as a means of improving their quality of life.
Food Security and Health:
Donna Barry, NP, MSN, MPH, Director of Advocacy & Policy at Partners in Health, discussed the connections between poverty, malnutrition and poor health. These are the major obstacles to improving health outcomes in TB and HIV patients and meeting the Millennium Development Goals in developing countries. Donna explained how current food aid policies actually hinder progress in improving agricultural output in the countries meant to benefit from the aid. As a counter to the current programs, she explained how possible improvements to these policies to foster agriculture development, reduce poverty in the poorest regions and ultimately improve health and livelihoods.
National Healthcare: How to transform a Commodity to a Right?:
Anya Wallack, Executive Director of Massachusetts Medicaid Policy Institute and David Himmelstein, MD, Physicians for a National Health Program, debated about the most effective path for the United States to achieve national healthcare as a human right. The discussion of different models that would make healthcare an indispensable right in the United States was explored through the lens of Massachusetts’s pioneering universal healthcare policy.
Promoting Your Cause: The Essentials of Publicity and the Art of Persuasive Speaking:
Frank Donaghue, the dynamic CEO of Physicians for Human Rights, used the stories of students in the room as an example of how to effectively tell stories about the causes you are advocating for. He offered suggestions for how to effectively and passionately articulate the stories of your respective cause in a way that captures the imagination, mind, and heart of listeners. I appreciated his approach to putting faces on these issues of healthcare and human rights that everyone at the conference is working dilligently to address.
It was an enlightening weekend – great speeches given by leaders in the field of international healthcare and informational sessions about issues that intersect with health as a basic human right. Most importantly, the weekend was an incredible opportunity to meet students and other healthcare professionals who share the same passion as the members of Salud del Sol for reaching out to underserved communities and being a voice for health as a human right.
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Thanks for sharing with us, Anna!
I am reminded again of Albert Schweitzer. He spoke of a “Reverence for Life”. “Only by a means of reverence for life,” he wrote, “can we establish a spiritual and humane relationship with both people and all living creatures within our reach. Only in this fashion can we avoid harming others, and, within the limits of our capacity, go to their aid when they need us.”
Thanks for sharing info from the conference. Awareness can lead us to a sensitivity and a desire to promote human health, education, and wellness in its many forms.
How can we put our beliefs into actions. My capacity today is simply to practice random acts of kindness.
Scwietzer says it well. “Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust and hostility to evaporate.”
What better time than now to begin
Happy Sunday.
Glad you enjoyed! Thank you for sharing the quotes from Albert Schweitzer, they are very inspiring.