I am in Geneva this week attending the World Health Organisation’s Executive Board meeting. Today I had the opportunity to make a statement in front of government officials from around the world and the WHO’s Director-General, which was nerve-wracking!
Whilst we were in Kalela, a child arrived on a stretcher constructed using scraps of wood and cloth, having been referred from another health centre.
He was carried by two men, with a third holding an umbrella to shade the sick patient from sunlight and rain. They had walked for many hours. It is because of poverty that this boy was slow to access care.
When Sierra Leone launched the EVERY ONE campaign to save more children’s lives, it didn’t want to fall back on the tired, standard formula of simply pointing out a problem and looking to the government for solutions. What they really wanted, was CHANGE.
More than 5,000 midwives from 76 countries have signed a petition calling on leaders everywhere to show bold leadership and put midwives and other health workers at the heart of efforts to improve the health of mothers and their children.
I am at a meeting of the GAVI Civil Society Steering Group – a group of NGOs and community groups which advises the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation. After the huge success of the Pledging Conference in London last month, we need to make sure donors also recognise the (much more difficult) challenge of building health systems in developing countries.
Today we passed a milestone in our No Child Born to Die campaign, and it was an overwhelming success.
If you’ve been wondering whether it’s worth signing that petition or making that noise. If you’ve been thinking ‘These things don’t make a difference, there’s no point’ I’m here to tell you that there is.
Vaccines are high-profile at this year’s World Health Assembly. With the GAVI Pledging Conference looming and Bill Gates keynote address, the topic is in the front of delegates’ minds. I am sat in the vast circular room where Committee A is meeting, waiting to make an intervention from civil society.
What a wonderful day for the Tanzanian programme! It was one of those days when you know exactly why it’s worth staying in the office long hours, struggling through fundraising, reporting and writing pages and pages of documents.
In the middle of the 7k race, I saw one girl of about 11. She looked very tired, and had slowed down to a walk. Someone threw her some words of encouragement and she said “yes, I’ll keep running and finish the whole race”. I was inspired by her enthusiasm.
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