People's Health Movement in Istanbul
We have organised a panel discussion with almost twenty representatives from five continents of the PHM with which INSEV has long been collaborating to build the Turkey Circle.
The panel discussion which PHM founders and activists that had come to Istanbul for the 12th World Public Health Congress attended, and that took place on April 29, 2009 in the Turkish Medical Association drew a lot of attention.
In his welcome speech, the PHM Turkey Coordinator Fatih Artvinli gave brief information about the PHM Turkey Circle that has been founded in September, 2008. After Prof. Dr. Özdemir Aktan’s (the president of İstanbul Medical Association) opening speech Dr. Hüseyin Demirdizen summarized the struggle of right to health in Turkey in the name of Health for All Secure Future Platform. He noted that “different sections have been struggling together for the right to health” and said that “they will in the future develop the habit of struggling together with the political structures and professional organisations for common demands.”
Prof. Ronald Labonte from Ottowa University Faculty of Medicine and Prof. Dr. Zeki Kılıçaslan from İstanbul Faculty of Medicine (also the president of İNSEV) moderated the panel discussion.
The first lecturer, Prof. David Sanders presented PHM generally. Sanders who have been directing the School of Public Health in the Western Cape University in South Africa since its foundation in 1993 and who has played an important role in the foundation of PHM summarized in his speech that PHM was founded in a world where “diseases caused by poverty is gradually increasing” and with the aim of struggling for “equal right to health for all” and the PHM’s course since the People’s Health Congress gathered in December, 2000. He emphasized that to struggle with the global health crisis the World Health Organisation needs to undergo a transformation and that more people need to come together to put pressure on governments about their health policies.
After Sanders, Dr. David McCoy from University College London talked about Global Health Watch. He noted that the Global Health Watch report that the PHM is actively supporting is a strong alternative with a political point of view and solidarity and asked the health activists in Turkey to do health watch in national and regional levels and to contribute to the Global Health Watch.
Dr. David Legge from La Trobe University, Australia talked about the International People’s Health University (IPHU) the PHM formed and which he has been coordinating. He talked about the importance of the IPHU courses and illustrated with examples that many health activists were educated by these courses.
Denise Nascimento and Camila Giugliani from the Federal Universtiy of Rio Grande do Sul who are among the founders of PHM Brasil Circle talked about the building up of PHM in Brasil, the organisation process and the IPHU course that took place in Porto Alegre.
Dr. Lanny Smith from Liberation Medicine who is among the founders of PHM USA Circle shared his experiences about the struggle for the right to health in the USA and gave examples of solidarity.
In the Q/A – evaluation part the similarities and the differences between Turkey and other countries were discussed. The president of the Right to Health Association Dr. Mustafa Sütlaş who has an active role in the building up of the PHM Turkey Circle contributed to the discussion by stating the need of socialization in the struggle for right to health in a regional and global level and the ways of overcoming the obstacles.
After the panel discussion, more than a hundred native and foreign guests and participants continued to talk about health in Turkey and the world in the coctail given by the İstanbul Medical Association.
We thank everyone who participated in the panel discussion in the name of İNSEV and PHM Turkey Circle and the İstanbul Medical Association and Health for All Secure Future Platform that have helped the organisation of the panel.
