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The first team of registered nurse volunteers from California, Michigan, and Washington State will depart for Haiti Wednesday morning using the Department of Defense’s Continuing Promise, National Nurses United (NNU), the nation’s largest organization of registered nurses, announced. The volunteer RN team will be treating patients in Haiti and Columbia during their month long deployment.

The group is part of a continuous series of assignments of volunteer RNs from NNU’s Registered Nurse Response Network (RNRN) which included working onboard the USNS Comfort, the critical Navy relief effort that cared for the most seriously injured following the disaster, and Hopital Sacre Coeur (HSC), the largest private hospital in northern Haiti.

Teams of RN volunteers will be based aboard the USS Iwo Jima, a Navy amphibious ship, in one-month rotations from July to November. They will be working in makeshift clinics on the shores of Haiti, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Guyana, and Suriname.

“I had been traveling in Haiti with another nurse and we had left the day before the earthquake,” said Brook Casipit, an RN from Seattle, Washington with previous disaster relief experience in Central America who is part of RNRN’s first Continuing Promise team. “We had just arrived in the Dominican Republic when we heard about the disaster and tried desperately to return to volunteer, but were not able to find an organization on the ground to function with. I am delighted to finally be able to volunteer my service by way of RNRN.”

The first team consists of NP’s and RNs with a background in women’s wellness, disaster relief experience, and many have recent experience in Haiti such as:

Cherie Thurner, an RN from Michigan, who went with RNRN to Sacre Coeur Hospital and has been on 13 medical mission trips to Haiti over the last 13 years. She has been on two medical missions in the country following the January earthquake and worked disaster relief following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

Amanda Howard, an RN from the San Diego area, who spent six weeks in Haiti after the earthquake and established pre- and post-natal care in an existing clinic.

Jane Ernstthal, a San Francisco Bay Area women’s well being nurse practitioner with clinical experience in Malawi, Kenya, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, and Haiti, where she conducted household planning trainings for neighborhood clinicians.

Brooke Casipit, a Seattle, Washington recovery room RN who has trained nearby midwives in Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Nicaragua. “We have learned from our experience in Hurricane Katrina that the kind of skills needed in the weeks and months following a disaster are nursing skills,” said Bonnie Castillo, RN, director of RNRN. “The kind of care that’s needed is everyday care, and things are exacerbated by the lack of medication and basic first aid. Wounds fester and spread. Something that was preventable ends up a life-threatening situation. Nurses are the heart of a long-term recovery effort.”

Source:California Nurses Association

care Prof:

Understanding teens’ determination and passion for change, Neutrogena, the #1 dermatologist-recommended skin care brand, is launching Wave for Change, a charitable campaign that makes it easy for teens everywhere to not only give back, but to choose how Neutrogena will support communities in need to have.

This summer, starting on July 17th by means of August 23rd, Neutrogena will donate $1 for every Wave? Sonic Power-Cleaner and Oil-Free Acne Wash Pink Grapefruit product sold, up to $200,000 to GlobalGiving. GlobalGiving, an organization that links donors to great causes, will then distribute the funds to environmental, educational and disaster relief charities.

“Often men and women want to participate but they don’t know how so the fact Neutrogena is opening the door and kids are getting to be a part of something and help the world is an amazing thing to be a part of,” commented Neutrogena Brand Ambassador Hayden Panettiere. “You think I am just one person, I can’t make a change, but when you actually try and see results it is a pretty incredible feeling,” said Panettiere.

Neutrogena is putting the power into the hands of teens to determine how much of the $200,000 will be distributed to each cause- environment, education and disaster relief. By visiting the Neutrogena Facebook Page teens can take a customized quiz which determines the type of cause they would most likely support and will help determine what percentage of the funding will be donated to each cause.

With Neutrogena’s Wave for Change, teens can make a huge impact before they head back to school. To stay connected together with the cause, they will be able to visit the Facebook page and get real-time results on the support of each cause as well as view the quiz results of Neutrogena celebrity brand ambassadors Emma Roberts, Gabrielle Union, Hayden Panettiere, Miranda Cosgrove, Susie Castillo, and Vanessa Hudgens.

Source:
GlobalGiving
Neutrogena

care Prof:

The Washington Post examines the international effort to rebuild Haiti after the January 12 earthquake.

“U.S. lawmakers and international aid officials have expressed mounting concern about the slow recovery with the hemisphere’s poorest country … Despite ambitious plans to ‘build back better,’ as U.N. and U.S. officials promised, the reconstruction has been hobbled by a lack of coordination and cash and by a virtually incapacitated Haitian government, officials and specialists say,” according to the article, which outlines the challenges facing the rebuilding effort and the reasons why pledged aid has been slow to reach the country.

The Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC) has brought unique obstacles. U.S. officials stated Haitian President Rene Preval “was slow to warm” to the IHRC – a “centerpiece” with the rebuilding effort – as well as the Haitian government took weeks to approve it and “assemble a staff.” Meanwhile, the “commission’s board has held only one meeting. … It still hasn’t named a full-time executive director to run it on a day-to-day basis.” Leslie Voltaire, the Haitian special envoy to the U.N., said, “It’s like Catch-22. I think the donors are waiting for the IHRC to show its capacity. To have capacity, it has to have resources.”

The newspaper notes that the U.S. has not yet disbursed about $900 million of promised aid money, according to http://haitispecialenvoy.org. “Although the U.S. government has spent hundreds of millions on short-term emergency aid, the rest of the funds are in a supplemental budget bill that has been held up in Congress by an unrelated dispute over state aid,” the Washington Post writes (Sheridan, 7/19).

This data was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with type permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Loved ones Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Everyday Global Wellness Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org.

? Henry J. Kaiser Loved ones Foundation. All rights reserved.

care Prof:

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today said it is massively scaling-up its food assistance operation in the west African state of Niger to feed up to 8 million hungry folks who have lost crops and livestock due to a especially severe drought.

“The drought in Niger is an unfolding catastrophe for millions of men and women and we are struggling against time to scale up quickly enough to reach the escalating number of hungry,” stated WFP Executive Director, Josette Sheeran, who arrives in Niger today in the start of a fact-finding mission. “I want to see for myself the scale of the needs in Niger as well as the challenges in WFP’s huge ramp-up of hunger operations – especially those targeting vulnerable young children.”

The food and nutritional crisis in Niger has grown dramatically in the months since the last harvest in September 2009. A national Nutrition and Child Survival Survey released in June showed that young children are under particular threat from malnutrition.

“We are massively scaling up special nutritional help for children under two years of age, whose brains and bodies face permanent damage from acute malnutrition,” Sheeran added.

Working using the government and NGO partners, WFP has been expanding its operations to the point where it now aims to feed 7.9 million men and women by way of to the end of the year. WFP is deploying rations in Niger that include highly nutritious food supplements such as enhanced corn-soya blend and Plumpy’doz – a paste made of peanuts, oil, sugar and milk fortified with vitamins and minerals to assist to address the nutritional needs of young children.

“For young children in Niger, the food we are providing is literally a life-saver,” Sheeran said. “But we are also taking measures to provide for the wider families so that nobody goes short, as well as the special nutritionally enhanced products we are providing for the very young can pack the optimum nutritional punch.”

The cost of WFP’s expanded operation in Niger is US$213 million and at the moment it is barely half -funded. While some food supplies can be purchased from neighbouring countries in the region, the normal lead-time to deliver food that is procured further afield is between two and three months.

“To meet the needs with the individuals of Niger, we are searching for urgent and immediate cash contributions from our donors,” Sheeran stated. “The months of August and September are critical, and I am urging our supporters to help us mobilize the resources we want to feed the millions of hungry in Niger.”

Source:
WFP

care Prof:

“Innovation, science [and] technology ought to again become fundamental components of how we conduct development work,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told a “high-level meeting of international development and science experts” last week, SciDev.net reports. The meeting, Transforming Development By means of Science Technology and Innovation, “was originally billed as a consultation to help map out a ‘bold new’ science method for [USAID]. But observers say it went beyond that, putting science and innovation firmly in the heart of USAID’s perform along with the administration’s development policy.” The write-up notes that the meeting “follows the current appointment of a science and technology adviser and repeated calls for USAID to consider more focused approach to its support of science and technologies in developing countries,” the news service writes.

Specifically, Clinton “emphasised the require to collaborate with the private sector, non-governmental organizations and, particularly, nearby groups.” She also said the administration is encouraging science diplomacy and exploring techniques to promote innovation by which includes competitions “that encourage a lot more individuals to put their very own intellectual capital to perform.”

The article also consists of comments from Alex Dehgan, conference co-chair; Rajiv Shah, USAID administrator; Vaughan Turekian, an officer in the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and John Holdren, director of the White Residence workplace of Science and Technologies, who “told the meeting that [President Barack] Obama would be seeking approaches to take concrete actions on the conference recommendations” (Sharma, 7/16).

This info was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with type permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You’ll be able to view the whole Kaiser Every day Global Well being Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for e-mail delivery at globalhealth.kff.org.

? Henry J. Kaiser Loved ones Foundation. All rights reserved.

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AIDS Vaccine, Cure Important Long-Term Solutions

A Globe and Mail editorial discusses the importance of “the quest for an AIDS vaccine and also the search for a cure,” stating that “it is simply not possible to ‘treat’ our way out of this illness.” The authors write that “for every person who receives treatment – which must continue over their whole lifetime – about three new individuals become infected.”

The editorial cites two “exciting breakthroughs” and cautions that they “may take years to become therapeutic realities.” 1st, research published in Science “identified two antibodies in an HIV-positive individual which, when put together, block 90 percent with the HIV strains.” Additionally, “one researcher is focusing on the case of a leukemia patient in Berlin who appears to have been cured of HIV following a stem cell transplant. The donor had a genetic mutation that rendered him – and his recipient – resistant to HIV” (7/19).

China Should Shift From Significant Global Fund Recipient To Donor

In a Foreign Policy opinion piece, Jack Chow, who was the lead U.S. negotiator at talks that established the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, writes about China’s relationship using the Global Fund, noting that although the country has “$2.5 trillion in foreign currency reserves,” it could be the fourth largest recipient of grants from the fund. “China has won malaria grant money totaling $149 million (and $89 million more might be on the way) – in a country exactly where only 38 deaths from the mosquito-borne illness had been reported last year. That is much more than the $122 million awarded towards the Democratic Republic with the Congo, which reported nearly 25,000 malaria deaths for the duration of the same period,” Chow observes just before explaining why China is eligible for these grants and its motives in seeking them.

Despite his opposition towards the amount of money China receives from the Global Fund, he grants that China’s wellness technique faces “formidable challenges,” but writes that it is “audacious for China to assert that it wants international health help on par using the world’s poorest countries.” Chow continues, “In fact, in the same time it is drawing from the Global Fund, China is constructing its whole global image … To boost its public profile and prestige, China spent billions to host the Beijing Olympics as well as the Shanghai World Expo. … Surely it could spend yet another $1 billion of its cash on health too. And why not take it 1 step further? By becoming a Global Fund donor, China could win acclaim using the West as well as the world’s poorest – earning exactly the kind of respect that a rising power deserves” (7/19).

Congress Should Pass Act To Prevent Child Marriage

Congress can “take action by passing the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act (H.R. 2103), a bill with 100 bipartisan co-sponsors that has the power to protect girls and bring an end to forced marriage,” Reps. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) and Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.) write in a Roll Call opinion piece.

“Beyond violating a girl’s most basic human rights, child marriage causes myriad negative educational, social and well being consequences … child brides are at a greater risk for domestic violence, contracting sexually transmitted infections for example HIV, and complications in pregnancy and childbirth,” the authors write. In addition, child marriage “undermines U.S. foreign assistance investments to improve education, wellness and economic development” because it hinders girls from accessing U.S. funded school or well being help. The legislation, in accordance with the piece, would require the U.S. to create an “integrated, strategic approach to protect girls” and “require the State Department to identify countries where child marriage is common inside the annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices” (7/19).

Gorbachev Calls For Secure Water As A Human Right

“The right of every human becoming to safe drinking water and standard sanitation should be recognized and realized,” writes Mikhail Gorbachev in a New York Times opinion piece. He notes that the U.N. estimates that nearly “900 million folks live without clean water and 2.6 billion without proper sanitation.” The former Soviet Union leader writes the “humanitarian catastrophe has been allowed to fester for generations. We must stop it.”

Gorbachev calls this month’s U.N. General Assembly vote on an “historic resolution declaring the human right to ‘safe and clean drinking water and sanitation’” a “pivotal opportunity.” The piece examines the situation in nations that have declared secure water as a human right, including ones in Asia and Europe, but writes “the United States and Canada are among the very few that have not formally embraced the right to safe water.” The author also states that “expanding access to water and sanitation will open many other development bottlenecks. Water and Sanitation are vital to everything from education to well being to population control” (7/16).

This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with type permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. It is possible to view the entire Kaiser Everyday Global Wellness Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org.

? Henry J. Kaiser Loved ones Foundation. All rights reserved.

care Prof:

Implications And Challenges Of India’s Proposed Food Security Bill

A Reuters article discusses the implications of an Indian bill that would “subsidise grains for the poor, a move that will impact government finances at the same time as political support.” In accordance with the news service, the proposal “aims to partly shield a substantial voter base from surging inflation in a country exactly where about 40 percent with the 1.2 billion population lives below the U.N. estimated poverty line.” The “draft bill envisages making available 25 kg (55 lb) of grains a month for 3 rupees (6 U.S. cents) a kg to the poor across the country.” The write-up also examines the financial implication, political significance as well as the challenges to implementing the bill (Mukherjee/Neogy, 7/20).

Asian Forum Expected To Boost Disaster Response Coordination

“Asia’s largest security forum is expected this week to adopt a plan boosting civil and military co-ordination in response to natural disasters – a rising threat across the region,” Agence-France Presse reports. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Region Forum will meet in Hanoi this week to improve “disaster relief by 2020, according to a draft action plan,” the news service writes (O’Brien, 7/20). VOA News adds that “[t]he ASEAN forum is viewed as a confidence-building mechanism that makes few, if any, binding decisions” (Schearf, 7/20).

U.N. Cuts Back On Iraqi Food Aid

“Lack of donor funding has forced the United Nations to cut back on its humanitarian efforts in Iraq, with its food aid agency halting distributions to hundreds of thousands of girls and young children within the conflict-ridden country,” writes AOL News. The cut back will affect around “800,000 pregnant and nursing ladies and malnourished youngsters, in accordance with Edward Kallon, the U.N. World Food Program’s representative for Iraq.” The news service reports that the U.N. launched the Iraq Humanitarian Plan in the beginning with the year but so far it has “raised only $22.three million – or about 12 percent – with the $187.7 million of new funding the project requires” (Sharma, 7/19).

IRIN Examines Why Fistula Plagues Kenya

IRIN examines the reasons why “obstetric fistula plagues the lives of thousands of women in Kenya every year, leaving them incontinent and ostracized.” The article cites “lack of reproductive wellness education,” prohibitive cost with the procedure, lack of trained surgeons, nurses and traditional birth attendants, and “inadequate hospitals.” The article also examines the role of cultures “where a woman’s status and self-esteem may depend almost entirely on her marriage and ability to bear kids,” female genital mutilation/cutting, early marriage, stigma and rape (7/19).

This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with type permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Loved ones Foundation. You are able to view the whole Kaiser Daily Global Well being Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for e-mail delivery at globalhealth.kff.org.

? Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

care Prof:

Somalia Humanitarian Aid Underfunded; Donors Discouraged Due To Violence

“U.N. humanitarian activities in Somalia are severely underfunded, hurting Somalis who are outside areas controlled by Islamist rebels, a senior U.N. official said on Wednesday,” Reuters reports. The news service writes that humanitarian coordinator Mark Bowden “told reporters health, water and sanitation assistance for Somalia’s massive population of internally displaced individuals, who fled conflict zones across the lawless Horn of Africa nation, was now ‘seriously underfunded’” (Charbonneau, 7/21). According to the U.N. News Centre, funding is needed to help “3.two million individuals – or far more than 40 percent of the population – who rely on international aid. The agencies have received “56 percent of the $600 million required to fund crucial areas” (7/21). Meanwhile Bloomberg writes, “[p]ersistent violence in Somalia is discouraging Western governments from funding aid” even though “Islamic rebels who manage much of the country are allowing relief work to continue” (Varner, 7/21).

Food Insecurity In Sahel ‘Out Of Control,’ U.N. Says

Speaking about Africa’s Sahel region, U.N Under-Secretary-General John Holmes said, “The levels of food insecurity have begun to spiral out of control and affect a number of countries across the region,” CNN reports. Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Program, added that the region could be out of “the severe danger zone” in six weeks so “the ramp-up has to happen not in a few weeks but now, just before this very difficult time” (Yaslik, 7/21). The Canadian Press reports that the U.N. made an appeal on Tuesday for $230 million for Niger, “which has been hardest hit” (Lederer, 7/21).

Book Chronicles Social History Of Malaria

NPR’s Fresh Air discusses the social history of malaria in an interview using the author with the book, The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years. Journalist Sonia Shah discusses the illness “which has plagued humans for thousands of years and shows no sign of slowing down, despite being treatable with drugs.” Inside the interview she talks about the malaria parasite, how malaria spread and how the “symbiotic relationship between the mosquito and also the malaria parasite developed.” The interview also includes an excerpt from the book (7/20).

This data was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Loved ones Foundation. You are able to view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Well being Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org.

? Henry J. Kaiser Family members Foundation. All rights reserved.

care Prof:

Organizations attending the International AIDS Conference-AIDS 2010 highlighted the plight of HIV-positive earthquake survivors in Haiti who are “still waiting for aid promised to them before” the quake as rebuilding efforts slowly move along, Agence France-Presse reports.

AFP notes the sentiments of a few of the organizations’ representatives. “It’s very difficult for grassroots organisations to operate since the quake. We basically don’t have the means to do so,” said Liony Acclus, head of PHAP+, a Haitian coalition of groups for men and women with AIDS. Based on Acclus, about 90 percent of funding for AIDS in Haiti is from sources overseas.

Edner Boucicaut, head with the NGO Housing Works, said that programs established to help individuals who’ve AIDS earn a living “are no longer operating” considering that the earthquake. Prospective employers often ask job candidates to prove they’re HIV-negative, Boucicaut stated.

“We’ve lost 70 percent of our office space. But that isn’t stopping us operating,” stated Jean-William Pape, director of the Haitian NGO Gheskio. “The situation is not going to deteriorate, because health organisations are nicely organised.”

“What we hear about Haiti is always very negative, but before the earthquake, good things were happening there, in the health sector especially,” said Jonathan Quick, director of Management Sciences for Wellness (MSH).

To move forward, Gheskio, MSH and Partners in Well being using the Global Wellness Council, released a statement (.doc) recommending that the international community direct support to a “‘whole of society’ integrated approach to strengthening health systems as the best way to sustain HIV/AIDS prevention, care and remedy more than the long term,” APF writes (Guillard, 7/21).

“This approach would draw on the diverse insights and experiences of all participants within the Haitian well being sector, incorporating the public, private and NGO sectors and involving the government too as communities. It supports integration of HIV services with other health services, for example tuberculosis, malaria, loved ones planning/reproductive wellness and maternal, newborn and child well being,” the press release states. It also calls “on the donor community to support the Haitian Ministry of Health’s plea for training of far more well being workers and growing the salaries of existing workers so that vital care health centers can stay functional” (7/20).

In related news, the Globe and Mail examines the challenges face by a group of HIV-positive teenage girls who’ve been living in a “handful of flimsy camping tents” given that the earthquake.

“On Jan. 12, the epic earthquake that rocked Haiti wiped out the downtown secure house that a nearby HIV-awareness group had rented for the girls to live in. By then, life had already been specially cruel by a number of metrics – all had been born with HIV and have lost their parents to AIDS. Loss with the space where they had begun to feel human once again was crushing: Jacmel is really a place exactly where discrimination against individuals with HIV is rampant. The virus is so misunderstood that folks still believe it can be contracted by sharing silverware with infected men and women,” the newspaper writes.

The article notes the involvement with the NGO “KALMI (… Kombit Aysien Pou Lavi Myio, or Haitian Committee for a Better Life),” which has tried to help the teenagers (Leeder, 7/21).

IMF Executive Board Cancels Haiti’s Debt, Approves New Loan

“The executive board with the International Monetary Fund approved Wednesday the cancellation of Haiti’s $268 million debt to the fund,” CNN reports. “The board also approved a three-year request by authorities to support Haiti’s reconstruction and growth program” (7/21).

“The $60 million, three-year loan, which bears no interest until the end of 2011, will help the central bank manage potential currency volatility as donor funds flow in, the Washington-based IMF said,” Bloomberg Businessweek writes.

“Donors must start delivering on their promises to Haiti quickly so reconstruction can be accelerated, living standards quickly improved, and social tensions soothed,” IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said within the press release. In addition, the IMF stated it would supply Haiti with technical help aimed at strengthening government institutions, including the tax method and budget.

Reacting towards the news, Oxfam International Policy Adviser Pamela Gomez said in a statement, “While it is welcome that the fund is delivering Haiti with debt relief, it is deeply concerning that in the same time the fund is risking a build-up of Haiti’s future debt problems having a loan.” Gomez added, “This help should be a grant, not an additional loan” (7/21).

This details was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with type permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Loved ones Foundation. You are able to view the whole Kaiser Every day Global Wellness Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for e-mail delivery at globalhealth.kff.org.

? Henry J. Kaiser Loved ones Foundation. All rights reserved.

care Prof:

The political situation in southern Kyrgyzstan has calmed down. But life for Kyrgyzstan’s kids has not. As their stories vanish from the front page, we risk putting their safety on the back burner.

We cannot allow that to happen for the 100,000 children displaced by violence. We cannot allow that to happen for the 400,000 kids who require to start school in September and yet find their schools damaged or destroyed.

Right now, UNICEF has raised about 40 per cent of the approximately $11.8 million these children need to have.

To date, UNICEF has airlifted some 200 metric tonnes of UNICEF supplies into the region, provided water and sanitation kits to internally-displaced households and given essential material and child well being supplies to wellness care facilities.

But winter is coming. Kyrgyzstan’s young children desperately need additional support. Unless we take the steps now, the harsh winters common in this region will result in further harm to youngsters, a lot of of whom already suffer from psychological trauma and wellness troubles.

UNICEF and its partners are focusing on establishing child friendly spaces exactly where children from all communities can feel safe and receive assistance and where females can also get psychological support. These spaces can also help supply a range of essential wellness interventions.

Along with urgent humanitarian assistance and recovery activities, UNICEF is operating to help restore trust among different groups and communities. Already, people from different communities have banded together for aid and shelter. Their example can present a model for broader reconciliation.

We must take the steps that can protect Kyrgyzstan’s children. The time to act is now. If we succeed, we will have not only helped save children’s lives, but helped promote peace in the region.

Source:
UNICEF