Initiatives linked to
PHM carried out by AIFO during 2001-2003:
Information about PHM and the Charter were discussed in AIFO during summer
of 2001 and subsequently a number of initiatives were carried out to
promote information about PHM among AIFO groups and among general public.
These included:
Translation
and printing of the Charter in Italian. The Charter in more than
15,000 copies was then distributed to persons linked with AIFO groups.
A summary of the Charter was also published in the AIFO magazine, in
80,000 copies. Charter was promoted to different Italian magazines and
was published in some of them including the monthly magazine called
Vita and in the journal of Italian Association of Paediatricians.
Finally a calendar for 2002 was prepared based on the themes of the
Charter and distributed widely.
Campaigns
for asking people to sign the Charter: Apart from the general
diffusion of the Charter, in January 2002 and in January 2003, a
special campaign was carried out in almost 25° cities of
Italy
, when volunteers and scouts set up tables in main
city squares, asking people to read the Charter and sign it. During
these campaigns, more than 12,000 persons and NGOs signed the Charter.
Organising
meetings regarding PHM and right to health: As a result of the above
two activities, different AIFO groups as well as other groups such as
church groups, scouts, NGOs, etc. organised meetings aimed at general
public or specific groups like school teachers, health professionals,
etc. to discuss issues related to right to health, the role played by
developed world in terms of equity and justice in the world, role of
international financial institutions like World Bank, etc. These
meetings continue even now and new groups continuously ask AIFO to
help them in such meetings by providing resource persons as speakers
and information materials. For example in the city of
Pavia
in North of Italy, during one such meeting, all 
the
local municipal government members and all the professors at the city
hospital signed the Charter. An important event was participation of
Dr. Halfdan Mahler and Dr. Mira Shiva for introducing PHM in AIFO
general conference in Assisi (Italy) in 2001 (Dr. Shiva & Dr
Mahler in picture on right). In 2003, Dr. Ravi
Narayan, Ms. Mwajuma Masaiganah and Ms. Maria Haamlin Zuniga as PHM
from Asia, Africa and Latin America participated in the AIFO
conference to receive the Follereau Award for human rights for PHM's
work in safe-guarding the right to health. (Picture below: Mwajuma, Ravi, Maria and Sunil with Ms.
Medha Patkar, a speaker at AIFO conference 2003)
Support
for other campaigns linked to right to health: During 2003 some other
campaigns linked to right to health have been taken up by persons
interested in PHM and these include the
million signature campaign, right of
access to health services by women campaign, etc. All these
campaigns as well as signing of the Charter continue through the AIFO
website.
Italian
Newsletters on PHM: A supplement on PHM is
added to AIFO’s mailing list twice every month providing updates
from around the world about news and information related to Right to Health.
A monthly electronic Italian newsletter called Condividere (Sharing)
is also sent out by email and is available on AIFO website.
Lot
of this work is done with help of “electronic
volunteers”, who help in translating materials in English, French
and Portuguese to Italian.
Other reports from PHM Italy
Latest report from PHM
Italy
Report on PHM-Italy
activities in 2006-07
Report on PHM-Italy
activities in 2004-06
If
you wish to know more about PHM in Italy write to: sunil.deepakataifo.it
(for email, substitute "at" with "@")
