by Jenny Dyer, Ph.D.
Belmont University hosted an event today with Senator Bob Corker announcing his co-sponsorship of the Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2009. Joining Senator Corker included water activists Dan Haseltine and Jars of Clay with Blood: Water Mission, Dave Barnes with Mocha Club, and Bill Hearns of EMI for Healing Water International.Although the Rwandan genocide occurred fifteen years ago, I see its impacts everyday in the hospital. The region I live in was an area of great violence. There is a memorial site here in Nyamata were 10,000 people crammed into a small church seeking refuge, only to be killed. It is hard to believe that the reserved, kind spirited people I know went through such a horrible event.
Tracking Survey on U.S. Role in Global Health
Nov 13 2009
by Jenny Dyer, Ph.D.
FROM Kaiser Family Foundation: The Foundation has issued its latest global health survey, Views on the U.S. Role in Global Health Update, which probes American public opinion about efforts by the United States to improve the health of people in developing nations. According to the poll findings, most Americans support current U.S. spending to improve health conditions in poorer nations despite the economic recession. Two thirds of the public supports maintaining (32%) or increasing (34%) spending on global health, while a quarter say the country is spending too much. More of the public prefers an emphasis on health infrastructure rather than fighting specific diseases. When asked to rank the importance of the two approaches, 58 percent say it is more important to emphasize programs that help countries build their health system infrastructure, under the theory that stronger health systems can better handle a variety of problems. In contrast, 36 percent say it is more important to emphasize efforts to fight specific diseases like AIDS and malaria because efficient methods for treating such diseases already exist and can save large numbers of lives. All the survey materials are available online.This is interesting and great news given our economic climate that the majority of Americans still care deeply about helping those with the fewest resources worldwide. I find intriguing that the American public has marched forward from embracing the issues of HIV/AIDS and the global pandemic, or malaria and the need for bednets, to realizing the need for health systems, working together, to build infrastructure for smart, efficient use of assistance. Health systems and health infrastructure are far from sexy topics, but that is what is needed and needed now.
Gates Foundation Living Proof Project
Nov 12 2009
by Bill Frist, M.D.
A couple weeks back, the Living Proof Project was unveiled in Washington, D.C. by Bill and Melinda Gates. The goal of this great project is to share the good news of the implementation of assistance. U.S. investments in improving global health are delivering real results. From significant declines in child deaths, to global eradication efforts against polio, to insecticide-treated bed nets that reduce malaria transmission, global health initiatives are working. At http://www.gatesfoundation.org/livingproofproject you can learn more from their progress sheets. Watch the speeches of these "Impatient Optimists." I have the pleasure of serving on the Advisory Council.
The video below was shown yesterday at a Save the Children Survive to Five Council meeting in NYC. This is a great example of real results, combating infant mortality. Saving the life of a little one.
by Bill Frist, M.D.
Yesterday morning, I had the honor of speaking at both services at Christ Church in Nashville. Over 5000 people attended. The services were dedicated to the doctors and nurses in the community, recognizing all health care workers for their healing care. It was a wonderful opportunity to share the work of Hope Through Healing Hands at home and abroad. As you know, HTHH's selects Global Health Leaders, annually, to travel to underserved clinics around the world to bolster health care and training of community health workers for sustainability. Right now, we have Leaders in Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya, and Guatemala. We are proud to support their efforts, using health as a currency for peace. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly."
Thanks to all at Christ Church for the warm welcome.
Celebrating World Pneumonia Day: Reception
Nov 09 2009
by Bill Frist, M.D.
Today, I joined Save the Children, the US Coalition for Child Survival, the World Pneumonia Day Coalition and Vicks at a breakfast reception on Capitol Hill to recognize the first annual World Pneumonia Day, a day for people everywhere to turn awareness into action to control the #1 killer of children under age 5: pneumonia. Each year, a disease which often starts as a cold, claims the lives of nearly 2 million children under age 5 -- more than malaria, AIDS and measles combined. Despite this staggering death toll, childhood pneumonia has never been a global health priority, and the current basic maternal child health programs --that need to be in place to control the disease-- are under-funded.Help-Portrait: Photographers Giving Back
Nov 04 2009
by Jenny Dyer
November 4, 2009
How can art save the world? Photographers have the gift to capture a moment of beauty. And, capturing moments of beauty for a person who has never known s/he is beautiful, can give life back to the most downtrodden of spirits--proving everyone holds a spark of the imago dei.
Jeremy Cowart wondered how he could give back, offering his gift of capturing the lovely in those who may have never seen that loveliness. His Help-Portrait movement has sparked interest around the world to provide photos to those individuals and families in need. His website provides the tools to do the following:
1. Find someone in need
2. Take their portrait
3. Print their Portrait
4. And Deliver Them.
If you're a photographer -- check out this movement. Your art could change the world. Consider joining the community: