SimplyHelp

63rd Annual UN DPI/NGO Conference - Melbourne

9/1/10

Roundtable Discussion – Achieving the MDGs in Our Changing World

This roundtable included themes about facing our aging population, the economic crisis and obtaining funding, the using the media to prioritize the MDGs for the local community, as well as impacts of war. The latter I found the most resonating.

I was glad to hear from Dr. Sue Warham about the influence of war on global health. She mentioned that holistic healthcare is the promotion of peace and freedom from fear. Further, to accomplish this task one must address the consequences of war. The consequences of war that impact health include sexual crimes and violence, inadequate sanitation, displacement, overcrowding, weapons specifically nuclear weapons, and environmental effects to name a few. Turns out the world spends 1.46 trillion dollars on war efforts (42% is contributed by the USA alone). However, according to a Stockholm Convention in 2007 it would only cost 1.35 billion to achieve the MDGs. Now if we could only try to stop killing each other just a little.

SimplyHelp Workshop

The workshop went off without a hitch. The speakers included Tina Bow, the founder of SimplyHelp, Anne-Marie Scully, spoke about the history of women’s health in Australia, Rosemary Ukata, Center for Womens Studies in Nigeria and Debra Boudreaux, Secretary of Tzu Chi Foundation in the US.

Workshop

My last workshop was refreshing. It was “Advancing Women’s Health, Empowerment and Resilience: Case Studies and Successful Tools for Achieving the MDGs”. It was held by the International Association for Human Values.

This group seeks to empower women by addressing both internal and external sources. Their program includes vocational training as well as breathing / meditation training. The breath allows for trauma relief, builds self-efficacy, leadership, etc. They apparently have programs all over the world and presented a study that showed statistically significant reductions in stress as well as increases in empowerment measures. As part of the workshop a member of the NGO lead the audience through a 20 min breathing exercise. It was helpful and much appreciated as an end to the day. I think this program is unique and was glad to see that more alternative sources of global health were being represented at the Conference. Something they mentioned that I plan to look up later is that their specific brand of breathing exercise if part of the exit program at the Los Angeles prison system.

Closing Ceremony

One memorable point of the closing ceremony was the moment when Sir George Alleyne of Barbados vibrantly quoted Bob Marley. He stated there is “a natural mystic blowing through the air”. The attitude at the end of the conference was one of optimism, hard work and renewed enthusiasm.

63rd Annual UN DPI/NGO Conference - Melbourne

G’day mate. I’m the ‘land down under’. –I promise that will be the last of the Aussie references. I’m here as an ambassador for a Los Angeles NGO (SimplyHelp) and attending a UN Conference. I wanted to give you a brief background on the Conference before I got into the excitement of the Conference details.

63rd Annual United Nations DPI/NGO Conference – Advance Global Health/Achieve the MDGs

History of Conference – The UN holds a conference annually for interested Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). The topics of the last four conferences were human dignity and security, climate change, human rights, and nuclear disarmament. Only the last three years has it been held outside of New York. This year it is in Melbourne, Australia.

Goal of Conference – As I understand it, the aim of this Conference is to provide a venue for NGOs working on the MDGs to collaborate and hopefully be more effective deliverers of global health programs. The hope is this meeting will spark suggestions for the upcoming UN Summit in New York.

The projects of the NGOs present at this conference are diverse and include chronic diseases, blindness, HIV/AIDS, drug use, migration, women empowerment, mental health, maternal and child health as well as indigenous health concerns.

Review of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce Child Mortality Rate
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

Website: http://www.un.org/dpi/ngosection/conference/

8/29/10

Pre-Conference Concert the night before

I attended a concert to welcome the NGO delegates to the Conference in Melbourne. It was spectacular to say the least. The concert began with a ‘Laser man’ who bent light and created a sense of awe in the audience. I can’t begin to explain how he possibly manipulated the laser as he did. Traditional dancers representing various countries including Greece, Australia, Britain, Japan, China, India, the USA, Africa, etc followed up the ‘Laser man’. The concert was an exciting way to receive the delegates and set the tone for a global conference. I'll post a video of the laser man just as soon as I figure out how to do that.

8/30/10

The Opening Ceremony

The Opening Ceremony inspired passion toward achieving the MDGs. By inviting keynote speakers from the Australian Parlament, UNAIDS, an Aboriginal health advisor, and Equality Now to name a few.

Michel Sidibe the Executive Director of UNAIDS was my favorite. He spoke of social justice as being an integral part of attending to any global health need. In fact, he mentioned that the social movement to eradicate HIV/AIDS was the first of its kind. Further, that this momentum need be continued for other diseases. Also, he stated what I think many of us struggle with as novices entering the field. That there should be integration of NGOs working together for similar causes. Finally, he also noted that the MDGs are not independent of one another. If we as global health interested individuals need to address them as a unit.

Workshop

My first workshop entitled “Nyumbani Village: Responding to Children and Families Living with HIV/AIDS” was a great way to start off the Conference. This is an amazing organization and one in which people should check out.

This is the brief description: Nyumbani (meaning home) was started in 1992 by a Catholic priest and nuns in Nairobi, Kenya to help orphaned children with HIV/AIDS. They have 3 projects: a home for orphaned children, a village of orphaned children and their affected families, as well as a community support program that helps provide basic needs for families in the home with children who are HIV+.

Their successes include 100% of the kids are in school and 100% are on ARVs. They have an impressive sustainability program with irrigation systems that irrigate crops to feed the kids. They offer vocational training to the surrounding community so that they can provide services to Nyumbani (such as bee keeping and egg production). They offer micro-credits to the families involved in the community support program so that they can be weaned off the donations. They also are involved in reforestation projects. They do it all.

But they do face heart-wrenching obstacles. Apparently, the ARVs available are only a standard first line and a second line drug. In the US, the protocol is to test an individual’s resistance and tailor the first line drug to their specific strain and if that isn’t sufficient there are second and third lines available. However, in Kenya they only provide a generalized first line drug and if resistance is observed a generalized second line. Sister Mary, the head nun, mentioned that right now there is a 15 yr old boy who was determined to be resistant to the second line drug but they don’t have any other options available for his treatment. She refuses to tell him that he is going to die because drugs that are available in hi-income countries are not reaching his lo-income country. So, she is lobbying at this Conference and other areas in order to seek help in getting the third line drug.

This charismatic, passionate sister with a wealth of knowledge about this population mentions that if social justice isn’t a good enough reason for people to help perhaps being reminded that this newly bred super resistant strain will reach the developed world eventually - The Catholic nuns don't disappoint on offering threats! ;-)

Nyumbani www.nyumbani.org
Protis Lumiti Chief Manager protis@nyumbani.org
Mary Owens Executive Director mary@nyumbani.org

Roundtable Discussion – The Role of NGOs and Civil Society in Helping Achieve the MDGs

The Roundtable discussions consist of multiple panelists that discuss questions posed to them from the audience regarding the specific subject of the discussion. I have to mention it gets a little lively when you give people the freedom to stand up on their soapbox for one minute to preach their viewpoint. The questions posed by the audience were at times insightful and at times anarchist.

This panel included individuals from an Afghan education program, an Australia midwife from World Vision, an African doctor, and a Cuban physician. The overall message was that programs need to be of benefit for the government in order to receive support, that community mobilization and ownership of the MDGs is essential in their success, and that the lack of primary healthcare is causing a gap that the NGOs are compelled to fill.

Dr. Aleida Guevara, the Cuban physician, was exceptionally well spoken and her words remain with me. When speaking on healthcare as a right she mentioned that “the right to life is non-negotiable.” Additionally, she believed that in order to gain community support an NGO must “not say what need to be done but do what need to be done”.

Dr. Ruth Bamela Engo-Tjega, the African doctor, touched on a point that I naively had not previously considered regarding the barriers to NGO collaboration. She enlightened me by stating that often times because funding donors come from diverse backgrounds and often dictate relations they segregate the NGOs.

Opinion

After day 1 of the Conference I am inspired by the work these NGOs manage to accomplish given the lack of resources, lack of collaboration and support and often inefficient methods. I believe they are innovators and visionaries that offer a wealth of knowledge about their populations and the fields of interest. Plus, most of them are incredibly talent public speakers.

8/31/10

Roundtable Discussion – Equity, Rights and Progress toward the MDGs

This discussion started off with a conversation on data collection and analysis. Fortunately, my epi and biostats classes provided me enough background to not follow the discussion but also see the value and limitations of such research. Thank you USC faculty.

The major themes addressed here were again community ownership of the data. Justin Narayan, an Aboriginal representative, mentions it is important to ask the community what measures indicate the outcomes of interest, to train the community to collect the often times difficult to obtain data due to cultural barriers and geography, and to make sure the analysis is benefiting the community. I understand the purpose of data analysis and research is to verify a program’s success or usefulness. However, the data itself must also be useful in the community. I was surprised to hear opponents of data collection. Their argument was that numbers are meaningless to vulnerable communities and that limited resources must all go to the community. I understand the frustration of wanting to help the most people possible but I think it’s more cost effective to evaluate a NGOs efforts.

Dr. Claudio Shuftan, member of PHM and an adjunct professor at Tulane University, spoke about the MDGs as quick fixes that do not address the root of the problem, which is human rights violations. He boldly continued by saying that achieving the MDGs will not result in global health. In fact, he seemed to condemn NGOs for only aiming to advance the MDGs. He stated that human rights should not be woven into programs aimed at the MDGs but they should be the ultimate aim themselves. I think he’s probably correct about human rights violations being the root cause of deficits needing to be overcome by the goals. However, I’m not sure pragmatically how one addresses these violations without restructuring societies as a whole. I hope someone smarter and more experienced than I can offer tangible suggestions.

Workshop

The second workshop I attended was titled “Primary Health Care Prioritizing Women and Children Delivers MDGs”. Speakers in this workshop represented a few organizations including the Burkett Institute and Save the Children.

What struck me about this workshop was Jilda Shem’s work in Vanuatu. She detailed a program sponsored by Save the Children that trained village health workers (VHW). From what I can gather, Save the Children has developed a program that trains rural community leaders to provide basic health care needs and dispense basic medicines. The VHW tasks include delivering babies to malaria testing and treatment. For example, they are so successful at reaching, diagnosing and treating malaria patients that the community is on track to eradicate malaria in by 2015. The VHW are community volunteers that do not receive financial remuneration. The NGO additionally works with the community leaders to support the VHW by providing their families with food, for example. I think that this builds community ownership of the health concerns and builds sustainable community resources.

Workshop

The third workshop I attended was “Slipping Through the Crack: Women and Infectious Disease (TB & TB/HIV)”. The NGO presenting this workshop was Result.

I learned that women are more prone to TB infection and complications. Women’s traditional role as caregivers in the home puts them at greater risk for acquisition. Additionally, I am aware that HIV transmission rate is greater for women and therefore the complications from TB/HIV are more prominent in women. Shockingly, the TB test most often used was designed over 120 years ago and the most common drug prescribed was identified in the 1960s. Their message was that TB is detrimentally overlooked. Additionally, 70% of the funding for TB comes from a single source, the Global Fund. Governments are apparently debating right now on how much to refinance the Global Fund due to recession demands. Therefore, Result was asking the audience to appeal to their governments for aid.

Lucy Chseire, a member of Kenyan AIDS NGO Consortium (KANCO) and a HIV+ public health worker, spoke eloquently about her experience being diagnosed with HIV and the stigma she faced as well as her complications for TB infection.

Opinion

To be honest, the second day was a bit disillusioning. From the perspective of a student trying to forge ahead in this field, I feel there was a lot of rhetoric about the problems and theoretical solutions but few practical options were offered. The lack of publicized and dramatic change is often a criticism of the UN. I don’t necessarily prescribe to that perspective because I think the issues they face are challenging. There was a need for the formation of the UN and NGOs because other governmental organizations and individuals were not accomplishing this task either. The challenges they face are difficult to accomplish for a number of reasons. Additionally, some NGOs at this conference have an agenda to only promote their work and get more funding. This gives the impression that they are not open to hearing new experiences or even on collaborating. While individual NGOs are accomplishing great strides locally I believe grand scale collaboration and organization is required to make significant changes in global health.

SimplyHelp Collaborates with LA County to help Homeless

SimplyHelp will collaborate with LA County’s Project Homeless Connect this winter and distribute food and items that will help 4000 homeless families and individuals in Los Angeles get through the winter.

SimplyHelp is starting its collection of these items this week. Please consider donating scarves, winter jackets, blankets and winter clothes in good condition.

• Please hold on to your donations until next week. The warehouse will be closed this Sunday.

Have a wonderful week,

Lotte

lotte@simplyhelp.org

www.simplyhelp.org

UN-DPI Conference Update

Youth Delegate Breakfast Series at the UN-DPI Advance Global Health conference in Melbourne, Australia.

Day Two

The morning commenced with a delegate who attened the World Youth Conference in Mexico, Ana Garcia. She discussed about her experience at the conference as well as conflicts of interests that often occur between youth and government organizations. While youth have a mentality of advocating rights to all people: marginalized, lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender, indigineous, rural, and other communities, many governmental organizations are often hesitant to accept these concepts. However, this is the opportunity for youth to work with their respective NGO's and take it into our own hands and bridge the gap. It is great that the speaker highlights conflicts that occur and focus on practical methods of overcoming obstacles.

A croissant and orange juice later, our breakfast then shifted over to discussions about what we have seen work towards achieving the MDG's personally, or through our organization. As our table discussed, we came to a consensus of how localizing efforts and having communities believe in the work that is done, produces longer lasting impacts.

In the past two days of the conference it has been interesting to compare  the youth breakfast meetings and the general conference. While the general conference has been very informative, the excitement and energy towards achieving the MDGs is much more prevalent during these breakfasts. Youth delegates are continually excited to share ideas, listen to each other, and encourage each other to continue each other's work, and hopefully pool resources together to improve the lives of the global community. However, we also realized that the MDG's of the United Nations must be more emphasized through the media, and communities if we want a global awareness in how we can create peace on this earth.

Our session ended with Hamish from the Global Health Gateway sharing with us with a simple inspiring video that reminds us what work needs to be finished in achieving the MDGs. (I will find that link and post it up after the conference.)

Each community and country has it's own conflicts, and there are many situations that are difficult to overcome, but I really think that if NGO's can continually doing all the positive work that they can, and we raise more awareness throughout the global community, we can and will bring peace to this world.

With excitement,

Theresa Tsao =]

P.S. Did you know that ketchup is called "tomato sauce" here?  (Prouncounced "toe-MAH-toe") And a very popular food item here is a "meat pie." I treated myself to a vegetarian one, but others have said that the meat ones are definitely good comfort food as well. We found a stand named "Pie Face" that is open 24/7.

UN-DPI Conference Update

Youth Delegate Breakfast Series at the UN-DPI Advance Global Health conference in Melbourne, Australia.

Day One

Walking to the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Center at 6:45 a.m. I felt nervous and excited of how this day was going to turn out. Upon arriving, a group of other youth delegates were also waiting for the security check to open. Initially I stood their by myself, feeling a bit awkward as most of the people were already in groups and chatting away. I took a deep breath, kicked myself, and walked over to two other delegates talking to each other and introduced myself to them. The hardest part of the day was finally over.

Being able take the initiative to approach someone at conferences is an intimidating experience. But once you are able to put aside that fear and understand that by talking to people that you gain a wealth of knowledge and information, networking and meeting strangers becomes essential in making a conference worthwhile.

Each morning youth delegates (ages 18-24) are invited to attend a breakfast to network, motivate, and empower each other by sharing ideas and communicating to each other about their experiences. Today Alfonze from the Oaktree Foundation in Australia welcomed and reiterated the purpose of the conference. The most important message that resonated with me was his emphasis that, while we have made numerous advances towards achieving the Millenium Development Goals (MDG's)  there is still much more work that needs to be accomplished if we want to achieve the goals by 2015. It is pertinent that in this during this conference we don't focus on ourselves but what we could do for others.

With approximately 50-60 youth delegates, we went table to table and introduced ourselves and the work our respective organizations do. Many of the delegates were unfamiliar with SimplyHelp but were certainly interested and asked many questions about our projects. Hopefully we will see some of them at our workshop on Wednesday. The breakfast series was a great opportunity to produce more consistent networking opportunities during the conference.

Upon listening to evryone's ideas and experiences, it was empowering to see people my age advocating for their local and global communities to be a better place!

Sending my regards from Down Under,

Theresa Tsao

P.S. While introducing ourselves to each other someone mentioned to answer the question, "What is your favorite condiment?" Somone mentioned cumin, and I followed it with basil. However they were completely confused and did not understand my pronunciation of it. In America we prounounce it "baze-le" while here they prounounce it "bazz-al." Remember that if you ever intend on going to Australia!

Please make a donation for the victims of floods in C-America and China

• SimplyHelp had a successful trip to Nicaragua

.  The four schools that received computers and other material assistance years ago are doing very well.

Five years ago, when the schools received computers, none of the youngsters had ever touched a computer. Now the students at one of the schools were participating in ‘Design the Best Website’ Contest!  The school has become one of the top schools.

• SimplyHelp will attend the 63^rd annual United Nations ‘DPI NGO’ conference. This is the largest annual United Nations conference for nonprofit organizations.

The conference will focus on advancing Global Health and SimplyHelp gives 5 bright students majoring in health related topics, the unique opportunity to attend this conference, learn about the current health situation around the globe and meet experts from around the world in this field.

SimplyHelp will host a workshop at the conference ‘Improving Global Health through Education of Mothers and Grandmothers’ on September 1^st.

• Both China and Central America have been hit by heavy rains, mud slides and floods.  Many people are forced to move out of their homes. SimplyHelp is preparing to help these people and send out disaster relief supplies.
• Please come help pack donations this Sunday, so we can ship a container to people in need.   And please consider donating to assist this mission and help those in need.
• The warehouse will be open this Sunday, Aug. 29. From 2pm-4pm.

Address: 14944 E. Don Julian Road, City of Industry, CA 91748

Have a wonderful week,

Lotte

lotte@simplyhelp.org

www.simplyhelp.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SimplyHelp supports victims of floods in China

• SimplyHelp is preparing a fundraiser for the recent floods in China. SimplyHelp has a coordinator on site to assess the needs in the Gansu province.

Torrential rain since Aug. 11 left at least 36 people dead and 23 missing in western China’s Gansu, adding to the 1,200 killed this month in rain-triggered mudslides in the mountainous province. Flooding and landslides in Longnan city also injured 295 people and forced the evacuation of 122,835 residents. The death toll from the Aug. 7 mudslide in Zhouqu county rose to 1,254 yesterday, with 490 people still missing.

• SimplyHelp has a Facebook and Twitter page. Please become our friend on Facebook and Twitter and spread the word to your friends!
• Tina and Andrea are in Nicaragua to visit the vocational schools SimplyHelp has supported over the years and to do a donation distribution. More news and pictures next week.
• The warehouse will be closed this weekend.

Happiness,

Lotte

lotte@simplyhelp.org

www.simplyhelp.org

Successful Trip to Honduras - 3500 people benefitted

SimplyHelp just returned from a successful trip to Honduras.

Tina and Andrea met with Dona Rosa, the 1^st lady of Honduras and she is interested in exploring how we can set up a vocational training school together.

 

SimplyHelp also did a donation distribution and benefitted 3500 people.

Pictures of the trip will be on the website soon – www.simplyhelp.org

 

The warehouse will be open for donation drop-off this Sunday Aug.15, from 2pm-4pm.

Address:

14944 E. Don Julian Road
City of Industry, CA 91748

 

Joy,

Lotte

lotte@simplyhelp.org

www.simplyhelp.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over $30.000 raised for Schools in Cambodia, Thank You!

• SimplyHelp’s Charity Event for our Vocational Training Schools in Cambodia was a great success!

The goal was to raise money and increase awareness for the need of quality vocational training in Cambodia, and with an attendance of over 400 people and $32.700,00 raised,  SimplyHelp certainly achieved that goal.

SimplyHelp would like to thank all the donors and volunteers for opening their heart and helping out.

Together we change lives.

• Tina and Andrea are currently in Honduras to distribute donations.

There will be stories and pictures of their trip next week.

• The warehouse will be closed this Sunday, but will be open on Sunday Aug. 15.

Joy,

Lotte

lotte@simplyhelp.org

www.simplyhelp.org

Volunteer at Event for Cambodia on Aug. 1!

This Sunday, Aug. 1, SimplyHelp needs your help!

 

SimplyHelp will present a large fundraiser for its vocational training schools in Cambodia, and needs volunteers to help with various tasks throughout the event.

 

Tasks:

• Welcome people in the reception area
• Sell products to visitors
• Setting up the rooms

 

Time:   Volunteers are asked to be present from 12pm till 5pm, or any part there of.

Address: Culture Center of Taipei Economic & Cultural Office,

   9443 Telstar Ave., El Monte, CA 91731.

Contact: Please get in contact with Andrea (213 626 7676) if you can volunteer this    Sunday.

 

We hope to see you there!

 

The warehouse will be closed this Sunday. It will open on Aug.8.

 

Joy,

Lotte

lotte@simplyhelp.org

www.simplyhelp.org