Hug a nurse

by Patrick Klerks, Online Campaigner, Oxfam Novib
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Oxfam’s Health & Education For All campaign is active in over 15 countries around the world.

This week, we take a look at the campaign in the Netherlands, where signing a petition means hugging a nurse.

Curious what this looks like? Watch this video…

The question remains, why exactly are the Dutch are hugging nurses?

In many poor countries public health services are kept afloat by a skeleton of staff of overworked and underpaid nurses, doctors and other workers. Many put in long hours with for very little pay. Oxfam calls that heroic! We want these nurses and doctors to be seen for the heroes that they are.

Hugging a nurse shows that we appreciate the work these amazing people are doing despite these challenges – we are saying thank you! But people are also hugging to show that they want governments and international institution to invest in and support quality health care for all people.

Poor countries need 4 million more doctors and nurses. This serious shortage of health workers across the world is one of the biggest challenges to achieving health and development goals, and ultimately ending poverty. The crisis is stopping people getting the medicines and vaccinations they need. It is the reason why every minute one woman still dies in pregnancy or childbirth. This is a crisis that’s preventable with the right money provided to poor countries. That’s the money that will pay for more nurses and doctors as well as the medicines and medical equipment they need.

The campaign in the Netherlands has just started and already more than 7000 people have hugged a nurse – and there are far more who have pledged their support for our campaigning on health and education.

Check out these photos to see some hugging action!

And if you’re Dutch yourself, why not get involved in Oxfam Novib’s campaign and hug a nurse yourself!

Hugging a nurse. Credit: Oxfam Novib

Oxfam on tour with Coldplay

by Pete Lusby, Oxfam Coordinator on Coldplay’s Tour
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I’ve just come back from Quebec, Canada and America, where I’ve been organising Oxfam’s presence at Coldplay’s concerts. We’ve been campaigning on the For All campaign, asking the crowd to sign up to the For All Pledge.

We had some great nights. Montreal was an amazing show; the crowd were in full voice all night. The Oxfam Quebec volunteers worked tirelessly, signing up an amazing 1,887 people. In Toronto there were two amazing shows, and thanks to the efforts of the awesome Oxfam Canada volunteering team, almost 3,000 people signed the For All pledge.

I’m so pleased we’re part of this tour. Sitting amongst the road cases, blogging backstage. Or talking to people on the concourse, before they take their seats. Coldplay may well be stopping by in a town near you on this tour. It’s a show worth waiting for. There’s no reason to wait to get involved with Oxfam’s work, you can take action by signing the Pledge. To find out the latest from Coldplay’s tour, follow my blog.

Oxfam is on the road with Coldplay on their 2008 tour of North America & Europe. Credit: Pete Lusby

On everyone’s lips…

by Anna Marriott, Health & Education For All Policy Advisor, Oxfam GB

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At the recent World Health Assembly, there was one thing on everyone’s lips and that was International Health Partnership (IHPs).

Eh? What’s that then?

Put simply, last September this new IHP initiative was launched to speed things up in reaching the Millennium Development Goals – by scaling up and improving health services.

On Wednesday at the World Health Assembly we were at one of the big IHP events. Oxfam’s crew made sure they were in a good spot for question time. When it came to questions, I wasn’t ashamed to ask what really mattered, ensuring they were directed at the big names in development.

I also challenged ministers from poor countries – whether they were really committed to putting their money where their mouth is – to deliver healthcare for all. Not making the poorest pay.

On the last day of the World Health Assembly, IHP talk continued and delegates, Ministers, charity people and ordinary people from all over the world crammed into an exciting event to discuss whether IHP has been a good idea and what lessons can still be learnt.

The trouble with these high profile events is those actually affected by these ‘global’ decisions are often not in on the act. But the great news here was that there were over 80 representatives from developing countries who had the opportunity to have their say.

In fact it was actually agreed that from now on civil society will be represented more formally at these meetings so that they can have a say in the international decisions that affect their countries. Great news! People power does work.

What else went on?

Well there was a lot of positive talk from NGOs from the IHP countries (those who had already signed up) but also quite a number of people were a bit concerned. “Have we seen all this before?” “Why should we get involved?”

You can see their point really can’t you? Here we go again yet another initiative…..

But with the right questions and problems being thrashed out, could this be a great opportunity for the future, to really improve healthcare for all? Especially as the UK and Norway agreed to increase their financial contributions?

The last day at the World Health Assembly was really inspiring – by coming together like this, everyone could channel their energy into making sure donors and governments do what they should be doing – you can’t hide now!

Aid works!

The media often publishes one story after another arguing that giving aid to poor countries is a waste of money. It’s disappointing – not only is it untrue, more aid is urgently needed if the world is to have any chance to halve worldwide poverty by 2015.

In 2000 countries all over the world agreed to go for this goal and for seven other ‘millennium development goals’, such as getting all children to school, promoting gender equality and reducing child and maternal mortality.

Aid does work. Thanks to aid, in many countries more children go to school and more people have access to basic health services. In Tanzania for example between 2000-05 child mortality decreased by a third and the number of children going to school increased from 4.4 to 7.4 million. In 2004 alone, the government built 10 thousand classrooms and trained 10 thousand teachers. In Mali, the government stepped up investments in primary education and the number of children going to school increased from 38% to 51% between 2001-05.

Unfortunately, there are some occasion aid does get wasted. Sometimes this is because corrupt governments steal the money or use it to their own personal gain. But rich countries are also to blame. They often demand that poor countries implement economic policy conditions that can increase poverty. Or they require that poor countries spend the money given to them on expensive experts from rich countries.

That’s why Oxfam and other don’t just ask for more aid – we also ask for better aid. And at the same time, we support partners in poor countries that work hard to fight corruption.

In 2005 the richest countries in the world promised to double their aid by 2010. But for 2 years in a row, global aid is on the decline. European Ministers of Development are currently meeting to talk about aid to poor countries at the General Affairs and External Relations Council.

Oxfam was there to demand that rich countries will keep their promises, and give more and better aid to fight global poverty. We were there with Aidwatchers & GCAP Europe, and through our calculations we’ve estimated the the EU is currently a staggering €75 million short on the aid they promised.

If they fail to keep their promises, the aim of halving poverty by 2010 will be missed for sure. And that is no option.

Aidwatchers & GCAP Europe stunt outside the EU meeting

A reflection…

by Claire Seaward, Health & Education For All Campaigner, Oxfam GB

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Last week was a jam-packed, exciting week of campaigning at the World Health Assembly. We set ourselves some pretty tough challenges! Targeting world Health Ministers, organizing high profile events and dressing up in ‘70s gear to remind everyone of Ministers’ health commitments made 30 years ago.

….phew it was a lot to cram into a week!

So what did we achieve?

Oxfam were like ants – marching around every corner of the Assembly – armed with statements, hunting down Ministers to persuade them to sign up and recommit to promises for health for all.

Our allies at Save the Children, World Vision, Action for Global Health and Global Movement for Children were also in on the act – it soon became difficult to avoid us! We managed to track down and sign up a whopping 60 Countries!

The star of the day was the Bolivian minister – he managed to persuade the whole of the Americas region to sign up! Great news!

What else?

We also held two high profile events to discuss some really big issues: making sure poor people can access affordable medicines and debating public vs. private healthcare systems.

What was the point?

Well, we wanted lots of people including people from world organisations like the World Health Organisation, ministers, charities and ordinary people to come and listen and be spurred into action!

We wanted people to know how and why people cannot access affordable medicines and challenge the World Bank (head-on) that their private policies will not help the poorest. Our events were packed to bursting and resulted in some fantastic positive heated debates.

So what a fantastic week of campaigning but the pressure doesn’t stop there! We’re turning up the heat in July’s at the G8 in Japan. Why not send a wish to G8 leaders now by taking our Tanabata to demand action on Health, Aid and Climate Change!

For more information on why we are campaigning for public solutions to healthcare services and access to medicines, check out our short video messages below from Rohit & Anna, our policy advisors who were in Geneva last week:

– On public healthcare

– On access to medicines