Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 21 2007 (IPS) – The world #39s sanitation crisis, caused primarily by the lack of toilet facilities for over 2.6 billion people, is an insult to humanity , says the Geneva-based Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council.
Every 20 minutes we spend sitting in our offices, organising meetings, passing resolutions and discussing policies, a child dies as a direct result of poor sanitation, complained the Council #39s executive director Jon Lane.
According to the U.N. Children #39s Fund (UNICEF), an average of about 1.5 million children die every year due to inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene.
And so, on Wednesday, the United Nations formally launched the International Year of Sanitation 2008 (IYS), a theme set by the …
Interview with Eduardo Praselj, Chairman of the Perez-Guerrero Trust Fund
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 26 2007 (IPS) – We have provided financial support to 179 South-South cooperation projects since 1987 in the fields of food and agriculture, trade, technology, energy, raw materials, technical cooperation, finance, industrialisation, and health, Eduardo Praselj, chairman of the Perez-Guerrero Trust Fund (PGTF), told IPS.
The PGTF was established by the General Assembly in 1983 to support activities in economic and technical cooperation among developing countries (ECDC/TCDC). PGTF-funded projects are designed to have a maximum multiplier effect and in the case of regional projects, serve as pilot projects for other regions.
The Trust Fund is named after the late Manuel Perez-G…
Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Feb 4 2008 (IPS) – An innovative mental health plan developed in a town in the Argentine province of La Pampa has reduced to a minimum relapses among patients discharged from hospital, while at the same time providing new and valued employment for jobless people living on state subsidies.
The Mental Health Home Companionship Programme began 14 years ago as an initiative of the professional team serving acute psychiatric patients at the Gobernador Centeno Hospital in General Pico, a town of 60,000 in the north of La Pampa, 600 kilometres northwest of Buenos Aires.
We had 16 beds, for acute psychiatric patients only, within the general hospital, social worker Cristina Proia told IPS.
We saw that they were staying in hospital for t…
Neena Bhandari
SYDNEY, Apr 13 2008 (IPS) – While millions of children s lives have been saved as a result of a successful worldwide campaign to boost vaccination programmes, governments across the world are failing in following through on their commitments to health aid and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Wealthy countries such as the G8 members continue to content themselves with largely symbolic gestures. We have to make sure that the pledge made by governments (on MDGs)is followed, eminent medical scientist Gustav Nossal told IPS.
Global resources for fighting AIDS, Tuberculosis and malaria now total eight billion US dollars a year. The amount should be several times more than this. After all, we are only talking about the price of a couple of jet fighter…
Farid Ahmed
DHAKA, May 24 2008 (IPS) – Authorities here have stepped up surveillance against avian influenza after the case of a 16-month-old boy, who took ill in January, was diagnosed as one of infection with the deadly H5N1 virus.
Culling operations gainst bird flu outside Dhaka. Credit: Farid Ahmed/IPS
Bangladesh become the 15th country to report a case of human infection after the Geneva-based World Health Organisation (WHO), citing results from laboratories at the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, confirmed the in…
Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 19 2008 (IPS) – The devastating impact of rising food prices is expected to hit most of the world s 2.2 billion children the hardest particularly in developing nations.
They are likely to be its main victims, says Kul Gautam, a former deputy executive director of the U.N. children s agency UNICEF. Remember, 80 percent of the human brain is formed in the first 18 months of a child s life.
And whether a child will grow to live up to his or her full human potential, or the child will be condemned to be a slow learner and poor achiever in life, is largely determined in the first few years of a child s pre-school life.
The damage caused by malnutrition, infection and poor child care in early childhood often lasts for the whole lif…
Ali Gharib
WASHINGTON, Aug 27 2008 (IPS) – From the party platform ratified by delegates between speeches Monday, to primetime, headlining speeches by two heavy hitters in the election Sen. Hillary Clinton and first-lady hopeful Michelle Obama the initial two days of the Democratic National Convention were dominated by women.
Michelle Obama addresses delegates at the Democratic National Convention, which ends on Aug. 28. Credit: rklau…
Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA, Oct 27 2008 (IPS) – A draft protocol to eliminate all forms of illicit trade in tobacco products, such as contraband, illegal manufacturing and counterfeit cigarettes, has been outlined at the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The second meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body in charge of drafting the protocol, which ended on Saturday, debated the possibility of creating a group of experts to review certain initiatives, including the feasibility of an international system for monitoring and tracking tobacco products.
The system must have international standards and be appropriate for low- and middle-income countries, said Eduardo Bianco, a Uruguayan doctor and the Latin American head of the Framework Convention Alliance on Tobacco C…
Prime Sarmiento
MANILA, Dec 22 2008 (IPS) – Cecilia Moran never thought that she would one day have to give up farming owing to poor health. She grew up helping her father tend a family-owned plot in Davao province. The sale of such produce as rice, corn, coconut and durian in the local market took care of family needs.
A few months ago, after being weakened by tuberculosis, Moran retired from farming. Her illness, Moran said, was brought on by constant exposure to aerial spraying with toxic pesticides.
Big agribusiness corporations in Davao employ aerial spraying to kill Sigatoka , a fungus that attacks the leaves of banana plants and causes premature aging of fruits. Bananas, primarily grown in Davao, are a valued export crop and earns for the Philippines over 400 m…
Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Mar 23 2009 (IPS) – The colourful new magazine of the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW) in Latin America and the Caribbean has a modern look and provides not only information but articles on fashion and entertainment. It is also the perfect size to carry in a purse.
Magazines in doctors offices often show HIV-positive women in the role of victims, leading tragic lives. But the ones I know are happy, full of energy, and living healthy smoking-free lives, keeping close track of their immune systems, María Mansilla, the editor in charge of content for the publication No estás sola (You Are not Alone) told IPS.
The name of the magazine emerged from the slogan of an ICW Latina campaign targeting pregnant women livi…