The state of the international health is not hopeful when reviewing the numbers. We talk about millions of people who suffer from diseases without receiving any necessary attention. From Farmacéuticos Mundi and Medicus Mundi Catalunya we would like to translate those numbers into – also millions – of people ready to fight for Health, which should not be a missing signature.
We frequently receive information about health in the world with scandalous numbers. Immediately, we speak about millions of people who, for example, suffer from AIDS, die from denutrition or lack of medicines. The impact of this reality in our lives is decreasing and, little by little, we are becoming insensible in front of the facts that succeed in our environment.
Farmacéuticos Mundi and Medicus Mundi Catalunya, two health-related NGOs with many years of experience in international cooperation, are aware of those datas. We want to make people know, not in order to generate more desperation, but in order to promote a global initiative which could put an end to poverty, guarantee Human Rights and improve life conditions of the whole humanity: the Millennium Development Goals.
In 2000, in the frame of the United Nations Summit, 191 Governments created the eight Millennium Development Goals and compromised themselves in achieving them before 2015. Four of them are directly related to health:
Goal 1: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Goal 2: achieve universal primary education
Goal 3: promote gender equality and empower women
Goal 4: reduce child mortality
Goal 5: improve maternal health
Goal 6: combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and others diseases
Goal 7: insure environmental sustainability
Goal 8: develop a global partnership for development
Some experts criticized the initiative of the Millennium Development Goals for being a declaration of minimums to reach and because there is no obligation to fulfil them. Knowing these limitations, from Farmacéuticos Mundi and Medicus Mundi Catalunya, we are convinced that the Millennium Project can contribute to focus every effort to solve the problematic of the global inequalities and, concretely, those who refer to health. Moreover, we believe that the Millennium Goals’ decision – not to be unnoticed – is into the hands of the citizenship, since it can exercise the role of social auditor.
In order to make the Catalan society get closer to the Millennium Goals and involve it actively in their consecution, Farmacéuticos Mundi and Medicus Mundi Catalunya are carrying out the public awareness campaign “Health in the Millennium: a missing signature”.
Next 26th and 27th of May 2006, international personalities specialized in health and cooperation will gather with sanitary professionals, NGOs, public administrations and students in cooperation, health and public politics of the whole Catalan territory with the aim to think about the situation and the strategy to use in order to reach those Goals.
To collaborate with the Campaign “Health in the Millennium: a missing signature”, you can visit the Website, sign the manifest and participate in the Meeting.
www.lasalutenelmillenni.org
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