The Picha Mtaani national peace building initiative and exhibition tour contains photographs of Kenya’s 2007/8 post election violence, which have been displayed throughout Kenya since 2008. The exhibition has enjoyed tremendous support from the Kenyan public, as evidenced by the participation of over 700,000 young people, the submission of 30,000 completed questionnaires and the subsequent signing of more than 61,000 peace pledges during the exhibition series. This project involving community photography may be of interest to community photographers looking for ideas. Visit the address given above, as well as the following flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pichamtaani/6440573085/in/photostream/lightbox/
Useful Resources
Community photography: Picha Mtaani national peace building initiative and exhibition tour
Kenya: 2008-2012
Health Policy & Systems Resources
Consortium for Health Policy & Systems Analysis in Africa (CHEPSAA)
The official website for the EU-funded Consortium for Health Policy & Systems Analysis in Africa (CHEPSAA) has just been launched. CHEPSAA is working with universities in Africa and Europe to strengthen teaching, research & policy networking activities for the rapidly emerging field of health policy and systems research and analysis. The new website collates resources and information on health policy and systems research for teachers, researchers, students, policy-makers & decision-makers, including recommended readings selected by experts; open access teaching materials; course & event news and more.
Launch of new Asia Pacific health equity website: HealthGAEN
The Asia Pacific network of HealthGAEN has just launched its new website. It is intended to function as a tool for information sharing and helping to keep people connected around issues affecting health inequities, particularly in the Asia Pacific region, rather like EQUINET in east, central and southern Africa. AP-HealthGAEN is a partnership of researchers, policymakers and non-government organisations across Asia Pacific - a region that stretches from Mongolia in the north to New Zealand in the south and from Kiribati in the east to India in the west. The network analyses the various ways in which health equity is impacted through the intersection of the social, environmental, health-care and development agendas, drawing on a range of disciplinary expertise and aims to build action on four fronts: collaborative learning and action; cross border action; cross sectoral action; collaborative learning and action.
Setting Up Community Health Programmes: A Practical Manual for Use in Developing Countries
Lankester T: Hesperian Books, 2012
Originally published in 2009, this updated version of Setting Up Community Health Programmes covers all the basic principles of community-based health care, setting up specific programmes, and managing them, while reflecting post-millennium realities. Topics covered include: health awareness and motivation; learning about the community; setting up a community health clinic; setting up community programmes for TB, maternal health and family planning; a community development approach to HIV/AIDS; setting up environmental health improvements; and managing personnel and finance. Designed for both urban and rural locations, this manual addresses the needs of health workers, programme managers, doctors, nurses, health planners and all those who seek an evidence-based and practical approach to health care in the developing world.
Tools for organisational risk evaluation for occupational health stressors (OREOHS) for the small-scale mining industry
Edwards AL, Franz RM, Schutte PC and Steenkamp T: Occupational Health Southern Africa 15(4) July-August 2009
Some of the main reasons for occupational health and safety deficiencies in small-scale mining are unawareness of risks of chronic occupational diseases and inadequately implemented education and training. The key needs of the sector is to provide access to knowledge and tools that will raise awareness and disseminate affordable, best practice methods for use by small-scale mines. With this in mind, the CSIR Occupational Health and Ergonomics research group have developed the OREOHS tool, which is a comprehensive model for hazard identification and risk assessment of occupational health stressors that can be applied to mining operations of various types and sizes but in particular by small-scale enterprises. A scoring system was included in the checklists to facilitate a quantifying of the risk which would further enable a risk rating and ranking of health hazards in the workplace. Guidelines for the use of the organisational evaluation of risks associated with exposure to health stressors and guidelines for the use of each checklist are included. The OREOHS can be transposed onto a spreadsheet that will facilitate the automatic calculation of the risk rating and ranking of health hazards in a small mine.
A community guide to environmental health
Conant J and Fadem P: Hesperian Publishers, 2011
This highly illustrated guide helps health promoters, development workers, environmental activists, and community leaders take charge of their environmental health. The book contains activities to stimulate critical thinking and discussion, inspirational stories, and instructions for simple health technologies such as water purification methods, safe toilets, and non-toxic cleaning products. 23 chapters cover topics including: preventing and reducing harm from toxic pollution; forestry, restoring land, and planting trees; protecting community water and watersheds; food security and sustainable farming; environmental health at home; solid waste and health care waste; and how to reduce harm from mining, oil, and energy production. With dozens of activities to stimulate critical thinking and discussion, instructions for simple health technologies such as safe toilets, safe cleaning methods, and water purification methods, and hundreds of drawings to make the messages clear, the guide should be useful for people just beginning to address environmental health threats, as well as people with many years’ experience in the field.
Green economy and sustainable development: Bringing back the social dimension
UNRISD: 5 January 2012
This is the first of six films in the series "Bringing the Social to Rio+20". The film uses footage from recordings and interviews from the 2011 UNRISD conference, "Green Economy and Sustainable Development: Bringing Back the Social Dimension". It explores the green economy's potential as a path to inclusive, sustainable development and poverty eradication.
Health information pamphlets
Learning Network: 2011
These six right-to-health pamphlets contain basic, easy to read information and can be placed in any South African public health service facility or distributed to patients and organisations working in public health. Topics include: community involvement; the Patients’ Rights Charter; individual and collective rights; access to information; and rights and resource allocation.
Management guidelines for acute infective diarrhoea/gastroenteritis in infants
Wittenberg DF: South African Medical Journal 102(2): 104-107, February 2012
Existing guidelines for management of diarrhoea are often ignored in public and private practice, possibly because of a perception that the guidelines are too simple, or because of expectations of the need to give ‘real’ drug therapy to stop diarrhoea. This guideline provides a problem-based approach to the basics of present-day management of acute gastroenteritis, and discusses the evidence for the recommendations. The guidelines recommend that each episode of diarrhoea must be seen as an opportunity for caregiver education in the prevention of the illness, in the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of oral rehydration and re-feeding, and in the recognition of when to seek help. The vast majority of patients recover rapidly, but serious complications do occur, and must be recognised and managed correctly. The guidelines are endorsed by the Paediatric Management Group (PMG) in South Africa.
Toolkit on the right to health
Fick N, London L and Coomans F: Learning Network, 2011
This toolkit was designed in response to the need for a practical tool to empower communities on what the right to health means, how to identify violations of health rights and how to respond to these violations. The toolkit can be used as a stand-alone source of information or as training tool for workshops on the right to health. Each section uses practical examples to illustrate ideas, and has a number of exercises and case studies that could be used for training purposes. At the end of each chapter is a set of workshop handouts that can be photocopied for participants. Many of these examples are actual cases that emerged from the work of the Learning Network for Health and Human Rights over the past few years. The toolkit is designed for use by civil society organisations (CSOs) such as health committees, NGOs working with health issues, educational institutions, community members or anyone with an interest in health rights.