Yet Another Global Health Program . . . They're EVERYWHERE!

Well, new as of April 2005, according to the news release . . .

New UBC Program Essential for Global Health Workers

By Brenda Austin

Karen Lund prepared to change careers and teach in the nursing program in Dhaka, Bangladesh by taking the UBC course in international health and development.

This course is one of five in the new Certificate in International Development (CID), offered by Continuing Studies at the Centre for Intercultural Communication.

“This is a flexible, mainly web-based certificate that can be taken part-time while working, as long as it is completed within three years,” says CID Program Manager Leah Macfadyen.

Although Lund has been a researcher in academic health sciences, many who take the course do not have a healthcare background. They might be members of non-governmental organizations, engineers, bankers or educators -- people who want to lend their skills in ways that enhance the broader vision of health.

This vision extends further than freedom from illness and disease to include sustainable development, access to clean water, human rights, security and safety.

The variety of backgrounds of the students is a positive factor, says Dr. Michael Seear, professor of clinical medicine and pediatric respirologist at BC’s Children’s Hospital. He is the instructor for the international health and development course and presently in Sri Lanka where he is providing assistance after the Tsunami disaster in December 2004.

“Every discipline and every profession or job in some way impacts on someone’s health somewhere in the world,” he says. “And for every activity we undertake there is a medical price to pay, whether it is due to agricultural policies or goods manufactured in sweatshops.”

For his own participation in Sri Lanka, Seear and others, funded by the Asian Medical Doctors’ Association, set up a functional children’s ward from a rough hospital in the village of Srila Kalmunai, one of the poorest areas on the east coast of Sri Lanka. This includes a school and counselling services for children with depression.

Seear’s course raises awareness of international health and aid issues as well as cultural, social, economic and political environments aid workers might encounter which could hinder effective use of relief monies.

“We sometimes suspend belief, thinking if we give money or goods to aid agencies, we are helping. But this is not always the case,” Seear says. “We have to be aware of fakes and crooks, of money not reaching those for whom it is intended.”

Seear stresses that no student should leave university without understanding the impact and importance of health issues around the world. Many students are idealistic, they are nice people and want to “do good,” but it is more complicated than that.

“To tie in with the global vision UBC has, we need a university degree in International Health,” Seear believes. “We would be first in the field and it would meet the needs for competent, aware people who could include this with studies in their own discipline.”

Lund took the international health and development course after planning for two years to move from health sciences research into something that focused more on people and would allow her to see another part of the world. The project she chose focuses on improving the standard and status of nursing in Bangladesh.

“What Dr. Seear’s course did more than anything was to teach me not to impose my own assumptions on other cultures,” Lund said. “It was an eye-opener for me to discover how much well-intentioned aid funding is wasted because those who hope to help don’t communicate well with the people receiving aid. Without the health course, I could have been one of that group.

“The Web-based framework was fabulous because it saved me so much time commuting to classes. You miss out on the personal interaction with the instructors, but the online communication is excellent,” she said.

The CID program is also useful to people in Canada who work with multicultural communities, Macfadyen says. Marie-Claude Lavoie is one such person, currently working in Iqaluit, Nunavut as an occupational therapist.

“I have been very pleased with the CID program,” Lavoie emailed from Nunavut. “There are unique challenges here of over-crowded housing, malnutrition and the presence of TB. There is much financial need, but the Inuit are very rich in culture and traditions.”

For more information visit: www.cic.cstudies.ubc.ca/cid

Canada & Cluster Bomb Munitions

In my daily random perusings on the net, I found this on the Physicians for Global Survival Website. Cheers!

Oslo talks bring cluster-bomb ban within reach: Canada agrees to wording of text that will form treaty

Peter O'Neil
Canwest News Service
Thursday, May 29, 2008

PARIS - Crippled civilian victims of cluster bombs helped convince Canada and more than 100 other nations to move a step closer yesterday to a treaty that would ban the production and use of the weapon, according to a lobbyist participating in the negotiations.
The participating countries agreed to the wording of a text yesterday and all will be asked to endorse the wording during the final day of negotiations in Dublin tomorrow, according to officials involved in the talks.

However, countries won't be locked into the treaty until they attend a signing ceremony in Oslo in December.

Cluster bombs explode in mid-air, spreading smaller "bomblets" across an area as large as several football fields. Some might not explode until picked up months or years later by curious civilians.

While lobby groups declared victory, the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper wouldn't say whether Canada was firmly committed to the ban.

"Canada is supportive of all efforts to prohibit those cluster munitions that are known to be inaccurate, unreliable and that cause unacceptable harm to civilians," spokesman Andrew Lemay said in a cautiously worded statement sent by e-mail. "We are participating in the Oslo Process," the statement said.

Earlier this week, Afghan cluster-bomb victim Soraj Ghulam Habib, 16, presented the Canadian Embassy in Dublin with a letter saying that a bomblet blew off his legs and killed his relatives.
"When the delegates looked the survivors in the eye, it was very hard for them to say, 'I need this weapon,' when you're talking to someone who has lost two, or all four, limbs or who is blinded," said Paul Hannon, Executive Director of Mines Action Canada and one of the many non-government lobby groups at the Dublin negotiations.

"It's very powerful for them. They understand it's not just a statistic. These are all innocent civilians."

Mr. Hannon said he'd be shocked if Canada didn't endorse the treaty since this country obtained the wording it was seeking that would ensure the agreement wouldn't prevent Canadian soldiers from working with the American military.

The U.S. government, which has refused to take part in the negotiations, has been accused of pushing allies such as Canada, Britain, France, Germany and Australia to oppose or try to water down the treaty.

China, India, Russia, Israel and Pakistan, which produce and stockpile the weapons, have, like the U.S., refused to participate in the talks.

Pope Benedict XVI and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have supported the ban.
"I'm a little bit breathless," Mr. Hannon said. "This exceeds expectations."
Cluster bombs haven't been used since they were fired by the Israeli army in Lebanon in 2006, he said. They haven't been used in Afghanistan since 2001 or in Iraq since 2003.
Mr. Hannon said the ban, if it goes ahead, will ultimately make the weapons politically prohibitive for non-signatories.

"This treaty will now stigmatize the weapon," he said. "Any country that wants to use this knows it's politically very difficult. The world knows it's inaccurate, it's unreliable, and we (will) have a legal treaty saying it's unacceptable."

Mr. Hannon said Canada, which played a lead part in the Nobel Prize-winning initiative to strike a land-mine-ban treaty in 1997, has played an effective diplomatic role in the Dublin talks.

(c) The Ottawa Citizen 2008

Potential WHO fundraising opportunity for our Western and National Conferences

I wanted to let you guys know of a potential fundraising opportunity
for our Western and National Conference. It was brought to my
attention while I was in Geneva. The WHO has a project named "Blue
Trunk Library" where they distribute basic health and medical
information to district health teams in developing countries. This
'ready-to-use' mini-library are used to disseminate health information
in places where there are little or no medical and public health
information and internet access. They are delivered in these blue
metal trunks to ensure easy transportation and storage. Info can be
found at http://www.who.int/ghl/mobile_libraries/bluetrunk/en/index.html

Content of the materials in the trunks include:
* General medicine and nursing
* Community health
* Primary health care
* Health management and epidemiology
* Maternal health and family planning
* Child health
* Diarrhoeal diseases
* Nutrition and nutritional disorders
* Essential drugs
* Communicable diseases and vaccination
* Parasitic diseases and vector control
* Sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS
* Surgery, anaesthesia and hospitals
* Medical and laboratory technology

Each library costs $2000 US and I was told that other student
organizations in the past have fundraised for a library to be
delivered to their country of choice. They also have the trunks in
French, Portuguese, and Arabic. Just an idea for us to consider since
we can perhaps incorporate this to a fundraiser night in both the
National and Western conferences.

Contact info to the WHO is: bluetrunk@who.int

What do you guys think?

Eugene

Western Regional Conference for International Health

I attended this conference 3 days ago, as Jazmin did.  Typing this, I realize I really should have done this blog sooner.  My memory's already faded a bit.  Not only that, but I've never done a blog before, so I'm just going to treat this an informal email/story telling.  I'm not even too sure how this works, but I assume the publish post button will be helpful when I'm finished.  I don't live in this century.  I just found out today how podcasts work.  

So anyways, the conference...As you've read from Jazmin's post, it was held at SFU.  I agree completely with Jazmin's comments about the first day one of the key speakers, Dr. Julio Montaner.  I always seem to have certain expectation with these events: they need to inspire me, make me think more about global health, and confirm all of the efforts I put forth for the cause that is global health.  Myself, not being from a medical background, was certainly looking for a bit more than the data from his research in HAART.  While I was definitely impressed, for me, it was a bit too one sided.  It made me think about SUNSIH's own Western Regional Conference I'm helping plan.  For me, one of my main goals for this conference is to avoid the emphasis of medicine.  Global health is so much more than that.  I found myself asking questions after his presentation: what was the impact on family dynamics? What were the economic implications of HAART?  And, as Jazmin mentioned, what about access!? One thing that did strike me as a particularly good observation: Dr. Montaner acknowledged the success of HIV/AIDS, and the necessity to bring other diseases, like TB and Malaria up to the standards of HIV/AIDS.  By that, he means that the world has given so much attention to the AIDS pandemic, that all of these other less "sexy" diseases get ignored by the world.

I wasn't able to see all of Dr. Samantha Nutt's key note address.  The details are not particularly important, but I had to save my luggage from being locked in at the gym.  I was incredibly disappointed to leave this plenary address, as even within the the first few minutes, I was engaged.  She left me thinking about our role in Global Health: how we tend to think of it as "how we will help them" ( I mean to italicize the work "them", but the function isn't working for some reason).  Dr. Nutt calls us to think about our role as practitioners in global health and to be aware of those dynamics.  I think back to some of my anthropology courses, where we discussed the importance of recognizing the implication of assigning those you are offering aid, as "them."  It creates a distance between those who are giving aid and those who are receiving it.  The distance removes grounds for equality, mutual respect, and inclusiveness.  This distance becomes exacerbated considering the history of colonialism.  Dr. Nutt touched on this noted that sometimes, we provide the role of "band-aid."  Which, according to Nutt, is "the incomplete apology for failures to behave more responsibly."

For the opening plenary on the second day, of particular interest to me was Dr. Michael Seear's lecture on the Historical Roots of the MDGs.  Dr. Michael Seear is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at UBC and a Pediatric Respirologist at the Vancouver Children's Hospital.  To sum up the basis of his discussion, he said "To work in the aid industry, you need to understand the history." What can we learn from our past mistakes? Dr. Seear's lecture addressed the MDGs as the developed world's third attempt to solve everything.  As many of you know, the modern aid industry emerged from the social and scientific advances during WWII.  Dr. Seear spoke about the developing world's first attempt: The Marshall Plan in 1947.  I haven't even thought about this since grade 11.  I couldn't even remember what it entailed.  But get this- this was a good deal: the US was only a DONOR.  There was NO tied aid. And, there was DEBT FORGIVENESS!  This plan was implemented to the European countries, which as we know, got a pretty quick recovery.  But what about the developing countries???  This makes me wonder how we can make such optimistic goals, such as "Health for All" by 2000 and the MDGs, if the world cannot make the commitment that's required.  It's worked before...if only we could make it to that ODA projection of 0.7% of our GNI....

Anyways, more to come later...it's getting late and I fear I'm making less sense...

 

Western Regional International Health Conference - Day 1

I am in the mountains of BC, spending the weekend immersed in health rather than medicine. Conversations around global health, and more specifically around the inequities and the violence that continue to oppress the movement towards justice, security, and health are engaging and overwhelming, so much so that I often come away with so much energy and spirit, but never knowing where to start, or how to even continue, when the problems are so endlessly immense. However, here are a few "pearls" from the conversations that I have been fortunate to have, and hope to continue to be a part of in the future.

The Context: This is the 6th annual conference, and is put on as an ongoing partnership between the Pacific Coast universities: University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, University of Washington, and Oregon Health Sciences University. The mandate of WRIHC gathering is to provide a truly interdisciplinary forum to understand the fuller and grander picture of global health, beyond the pictures and stories of students, researchers and aid relief workers at the front line. I say truly because since I've been really workin' the global health conference circuit this year, too much time is spent dwelling within the domain of medicine in global health, and not enough on the processes that give rise to the travesties that global health hopes to address.

The plenary addresses are always fun, because they help me to refocus my intentions in this 'movement'. The first was Dr. Julio Montaner, a veritable landmark researcher in the utility of HAART in HIV/AIDS, and in the advocacy of therapies in poor countries ravaged by this virus. I am somewhat familiar with the immense body of his work, but found the topic of his plenary address somewhat misplaced, since he focussed solely on the hard scientific facts illustrating the reductions in morbidity and mortality with regular usage of HAART. Individuals with HIV/AIDS are now living near-normal life expectancies with these therapies. Tremendous!!! What a technological and scientific coup!!! Now, it's just all a matter of access . . .

There were a couple of studies that he highlighted through his talk that stuck out in my mind the most, the Phambili arm of the HIV/AIDS Vaccine trial being one of them. A quick Google review revealed that it was the Americas/Australia arm (N = 1500) that was stopped early, in the fall of 2007, due to a marginally statistically significant increase in the rate of infection of the subjects (predominantly MSM, and some serodiscordant heterosexual couples) within the treatment arm versus the study arm. It was difficult to find the actual number of subjects who became infected with HIV, and although this did not occur through direct infection via the vaccine itself (which only contained fragments of the HIV genome), but through a mechanism that is still baffling researchers and scientists today. The fact that the initial analyses showed an increased susceptibility to infection once exposed to the virus paints a ethically unsavoury picture of the research process . . . the era of scientifically-sanctioned iatrogenic HIV infections. Which compels me to ask: What is the human cost of HIV research? Although it is a 'failure and scientific disappointment' in research terms, has there been any consideration of the sheer devastation and grief that has been bestowed upon the subjects now infected with HIV in the name of science? The press release from Merck-Frosst, I believe, states that those newly infected will be given due care and treatment, which is great and I would certainly expect no less, but does that include reparations for the relationships that are now irrevocably altered, the sense of self and destiny that is now changed as a result of this now life long and fatal diagnosis?

Dr. Samantha Nutt was the second plenary speaker of the evening. I was happy that I had yet another chance to hear her speak; the first time I was so star-struck. Now, I am a little less inclined to buy into this new fleet of "global health celebrities" (if you've been to enough of these global health conference, you know who I'm talking about). I won't sully the immensity of this woman's work, I think a quick Google search would suffice in this case. But her core message was simple, and her delivery powerful: she implored us to step back a little, from the front line issues that get so much press, and look at the policies that enable these crises to be perpetuated. To be critical of the politics, the economies, our consumer demands and practices that fuel the first two items, and our environmental uses that render these poorer states and populations tied to our material comforts and lifestyles. She urged that our roles as global health practitioners should always serve two purposes: first, to attend to the immediate needs of the people right in front of us, then second, advocate and agitate for changes in the oppressive policies that give us reason to be involved in global health in the first place.

She then proceeded to spend most of her time recounting stories from her times in conflict zones, the absurdity and abject instability of war, failed states where teenage boys rule with impunity, violations of the rules of war and the neutrality of the aid process prevail, where insecurity and the arms trade that supports it, beyond food, hygiene, vaccinations campaigns, etc. are the biggest threat to achieving true health globally.

She left the students with FOUR ways to sustain involvement in global health activities:

1. education, networking, exposure: stay involved with connecting with groups that work locally.
2. regular donations to NGOs
3. critically analyze our own indivdual consumer practices, to determine how we can mitigate our unwitting and inadvertent detriments abroad.
4. never allow life abroad be valued less that our own here in North America.

Take from that what you will.

Calgary Social Scene

I've been a resident of Calgary now for 10 months, and am growing more and more fond of the scene here, as I become familiar with the services and general social philosophy of the crowd here. A few home grown local organizations making a difference:

www.homefrontcalgary.ca
A network of services unified by the vision of combating domestic violence.

www.cupshealthcentre.com
CUPS = Calgary Urban Project Society dedicated to promoting health through a comprehensive and collaborative manner for the homeless, and those living in poverty.

www.cdic.com
Calgary Drop-In Rehab Centre. Also an organization dedicated to skills-building, social services, and advocacy for the dispossessed in the downtown core of Calgary.

www.calgaryhomeless.com
An agency that provides capital funding, through partnerships with service agencies, governments, and private sector, for housing projects in Calgary.

www.endinghomelessness.ca
Calgary Committee to End Homelessness crafted the "10 Year Plan to End Homelessness" strategy, in January 2008. For further details, read below:

Committee Unveils Calgary’s 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness Cost of homelessness in Calgary pegged at $322 million annually. Ambitious plan promises to end homelessness in 10 years with a $3.6 billion savings for taxpayers.

CALGARY, Alberta (January 29, 2008) – The Calgary Committee to End
Homelessness today released its 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness. The plan represents a fundamental shift from managing homelessness to a community-wide effort to end it. The plan includes strategies that have proven successful in other jurisdictions as well as some new local innovations. “On January 9, 2007, a group of leaders from business, the non-profit sector, faith, health and all three levels of government came together to stand up and say that we could no longer tolerate the homelessness of so many of our fellow Calgarians,” says Steve Snyder, Chair of the Calgary Committee to End Homelessness. “We committed ourselves to developing a 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness in our city. Today we are delivering on that commitment. “Calgary’s 10 Year Plan contains practical, results-oriented solutions that cut through the underlying systemic barriers. It rewards personal accountability and initiative; it helps people move to self-sufficiency and independence; it ensures people will receive the care and support they need when they need it; and it will result in a net cost savings to taxpayers.” Homelessness in Calgary has risen 650 percent in the last decade. On any given night, more than 3,400 people including families with children, sleep in shelters, on the street, or in their cars. At the current rate, the committee estimates that there could be as many as 15,000 people homeless in Calgary on any given day by 2018. At that rate, the committee estimates taxpayers would cumulatively spend over $9 billion in the next 10 years and wind up with a homeless problem five times worse than today. By executing their plan, the committee is confident homelessness in Calgary will be eliminated and a cumulative cost savings of over $3.6 billion realized. According to a study completed for the Committee by national accounting firm RSM Richter & Associates Inc., homelessness in Calgary costs more than $322 million annually. This translates into an annual cost per person of $134,000 for each of Calgary’s estimated 1,200 chronically homeless individuals.

“Economically, homelessness costs taxpayers far more to manage it than it will to end,” says Snyder. “The up-front investment in this plan will pay for itself by 2016 as the number of people experiencing homelessness declines, and the related costs are reduced.” The plan has both short- and long-term goals. In the short term, it aims to create rapid, visible and meaningful change by focusing attention on chronic homelessness and prevention. In the longer term, the plan calls for the creation of 11,250 affordable and specialized housing units over the next decade and proposes major systemic changes to eliminate barriers that currently entrench homelessness.
The guiding philosophy of the plan is a proven concept called “Housing First” which puts the highest priority on moving homeless people into permanent housing with the support necessary to sustain that housing. Key elements of the plan include coordinated intake and assessment, city-wide case management and a Homeless Management Information System that will bring a more consistent, coordinated approach to Calgary’s homeless serving system.

The Calgary Homeless Foundation has been charged to lead the implementation of the 10 Year Plan. “The mission of the Calgary Homeless Foundation is to end homelessness in Calgary,” says Wayne Stewart, President and CEO of the Calgary Homeless Foundation. “We have the capacity, ability and courage to take on this challenge. “We’re going to move forward in partnership with the many homeless serving agencies, the private sector, our government partners, the faith community, foundations and all Calgarians to end homelessness in Calgary once and for all.” The Calgary Committee to End Homelessness was formed on January 9, 2007 as a
community response to our homelessness crisis. The committee includes 28 senior
leaders from the private, public and non-profit sectors, the faith community, healthcare and foundations.

www.freshstartrecoverycentre.com
The Fresh Start Recovery Addictions Centre has been in operation in Calgary in 1992 to serve the addiction treatment needs of the community.

So despite the wealth and excesses that oil provides, it's renewing to see that those at the fringes of society aren't quite forgotten.

If you know of any more social organizations within Calgary, please let me know!

jazmin

Welcome to the SUNSIH/REUSSI Blog

This is a space where students involved in global health, both in Canada and abroad, can come together and share their projects, stories, adventures in global health. Additionally, if you have new resources, find interesting and poignant stories in the media, or any questions in global health, post them, and hopefully a discussion can then follow. If you'd like to blog, send us an email at:

general@sunsih.ca

http://www.sunsih.ca/

Can't wait to read everyone's stories!!!

Jazmin, on behalf of the SUNSIH/REUSSI team! (2007-08)