This month, PHR is examining the health workers shortage in Africa ahead of the introduction of the Global HEALTH Act, which would provide $2 billion over five years to strengthen the health workforce in developing countries.
Today, we want to highlight an organization that is working right now to fill health worker vacancies in rural areas in Southern Africa. If you are a doctor or nurse, Africa Health Placements (AHP) needs your skills to support rural health in South Africa, Lesotho, and Swaziland—contact them today for more information.
Africa Health Placements originated in South Africa and now works in several other countries in the region to increase the public sector health workforce through recruitment from the private sector and through recruiting foreign health workers who are looking for the excellent work experience and unrivalled lifestyle that is offered through such an opportunity. AHP’s support is aimed specifically at those provinces and areas where there are major shortages of doctors, nurses, and other health professionals.
AHP’s focus is on patients and equity in healthcare for rural and disadvantaged communities—communities that are suffering high burdens of AIDS and other diseases, including malaria and TB.
These efforts are having far-reaching results. In 2009, their foreign recruitment efforts placed approximately seven times more doctors in rural South Africa than the long-term rural placements of all 8 South African medical schools combined. Learn more about their work by watching the film Bush Doctors.
AHP delivers support to health workers by offering a way of smoothing the application and registration process, matching interested health workers with available opportunities, and by providing clinical, cultural and logistical orientation and ongoing support throughout a recruit’s placement. AHP also supports the strengthening of human resources in health in the region through consulting, advocacy and knowledge-sharing with relevant partners and government bodies.
AHP recruits into rural areas, where health workers are asked to commit to at least 12 months of services. Many renew their term of service—for one year, two years, even longer. Since its founding in 2005, AHP has placed more than 1,500 health professionals in Southern Africa, half of whom are from abroad.
Check out AHP’s website, and consider working with them to deliver health care to the rural poor in Africa. If you have friends or colleagues who might be interested in this critically important opportunity, please spread the word!
Posted in: africa, Africa Health Placements, AHP, GHA, Global HEALTH Act, Health, Health Rights Advocate, Lesotho, phrstudents, south africa, Swaziland
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For the past six years, PHR Chapters across the US have led the annual Global Health Week of Action (GHWA) at their schools. Your GHWA can be part of a larger push for Health and Human Rights Education (HHRE) at your school, or it can be a short period of intense advocacy around a global health issue. Either way, you are educating others and encouraging them to act.
What are you doing for GHWA on your campus? We’ve got a couple ideas to get you started:
2010 Global HEALTH Act
A great option is promoting the passage of the 2010 Global HEALTH Act. Representative Barbara Lee will introduce the bill in the House of Representatives soon. As Helen Potts wrote in a recent post,
The bill’s consistent focus on equity, non-discrimination, participation and accountability indirectly promotes the incorporation of a human rights approach to health into the Strategy… It is essential that it obtain a large number of co-sponsors to demonstrate significant support for this legislation, which will help move this bill towards final passage. This is not only for the benefit of the populations in the countries receiving direct assistance but also for the benefit of the US. This bill has the potential to do more for the credibility of the US in the arena of human rights and global health than anything that has gone before.
During GHWA, set up a meeting with your Representatives to encourage them to sponsor the bill! If you’re not sure how, email Barbara at bcastro[at]phrusa[dot]org and she will help you arrange and prepare for a meeting. It’s a worthwhile experience. I’m planning to meet with Representative Michael Capuano in April, and you’re invited to join me.
Also, on April 7—World Health Day—please be ready to email your Representatives and encourage them to sponsor the bill!
Humanitarian needs of women and girls in Darfur
Another option for those who want to focus on the impact of conflict on health or ending gender-based violence, PHR recently released Joe Read’s Action Agenda for Realizing Treatment and Support for Women and Girls in Darfur. Since 2004, PHR has documented the systematic human rights abuses in Darfur, including displacement and killing. In March 2009, the Government of Sudan expelled 13 international NGOs who had provided lifesaving humanitarian assistance. A year later, the needs of women and girls are as urgent as ever. The Action Agenda has recommendations for addressing critical needs in Coordination, Humanitarian Access, and Programming.
The main action for a week focused on Darfur is to call the US Envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration, at 202-647-4000. You could create a call-in table: invite people to sit down, call General Gration, and urge him to increase funding for programs that protect and promote women’s rights and support survivors of sexual violence. You could also have a reading group on your campus meet to discuss the Action Agenda, or work with another student group to host a panel discussion or photo exhibit.
The GHWA Toolkit
Whatever topic you choose for your campus’ GHWA, you’ll find tips and resources in the new GHWA Toolkit.
Please take photos during your Week of Action to share with PHR and inspire other Chapters!
Posted in: Barbara Lee, Darfur, gender-based violence, GHA, GHWA, GHWA Toolkit, Global HEALTH Act, global health week of action, Health, Official PHR Posts, Student Blog, Take Action, World Health Day
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Yesterday, Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced the Global HEALTH Act (House Resolution 4933) in Congress. We are thrilled at this opportunity to transform America’s global health policy and provide billions more in aid to develop health systems in poor countries.
Take 10 minutes to read the bill (pdf)—there is a lot to learn:
- What the HEALTH in Global HEALTH Act really stands for (This one I’ll give you: Global Health Expansion, Access to Labor, Transparency, and Harmonization Act of 2010).
- The overall goal of the bill (This one you get too—the rest you have to look up: To establish a strategy to coordinate all health-related United States foreign assistance, to assist developing countries in improving delivery of health services, and to establish an initiative to assist developing countries in strengthening their indigenous health workforces).
- The GHA’s vision for a new United States Global Health Strategy (page 2).
- Which Millennium Development Goals the new Strategy would target (page 4).
- The ration of health workers to population the Strategy will aim for (page 12).
- How the Global Health Strategy will really work—what it will support, what it can do (page 8).
- How the US Global Health Strategy will support National Health Strategies in developing countries (page 30).
- How the new Global Health Workforce Initiative fits in to the Global Health Strategy (page 39).
- How many countries the GHWI will target (page 40).
- The criteria for selecting these countries (page 40).
- What the GHWI will do to support health workers in developing countries (page 43).
- How much money the Global HEALTH Act will provide for all these critical global health capacity building programs (this one I have to tell you—$2 Billion over 5 years. Amazing. See the yearly breakdown on pages 64-65).
Read the bill, and get ready to take action. On April 7th, World Health Day, we’ll ask you to email your Congressperson and urge them to co-sponsor the Global HEALTH Act. And spread the word—this is a transformative bill, and you can make a difference.
Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
Posted in: Barbara Lee, congress, GHA, GHWI, Global HEALTH Act, Global Health Strategy, Global Health Workforce Initiative, Health, Health Rights Advocate, HR 4933, Millennium Development Goals, phrstudents
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