Indonesia,
January 2008
HEALTH
IN HARMONY
A PROGRAM IN BORNEO THAT LINKS
COMMUNITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
In November 2007 I had the opportunity
to visit Health in Harmony, an innovative new
program in a remote area of West Kalimantan, on
the island of Borneo. This pioneering program
is crucially relevant to our imperilled times
because it strives to address, in an integrated
participatory way: 1) the pressing health needs
of the local villagers and 2) the environmental
protection of endangered tropical forests. In
a holistic
manner, it combines community-based health care
with the overarching issues of deforestation,
global warming, and the conservation of the intricate
balance of life.
In the words of the program founder,
Kinari Webb, “Health in Harmony is inspired
by the recognition that global health for all
depends on linking human and environmental health
at the local level.”
South
Africa, February—March 2007
SOUTH
AFRICA’S UPHILL BATTLE FOR EQUITY AND HEALTH
A report by David Werner on workshops facilitated
with the
Western Cape Association for Persons with Disability
For three weeks in February and
March 2002 David Werner visited South Africa at
the invitation of the Western Cape Association
for Persons with Disability (WC-APD). During his
3-week visit he facilitated a
series of seminars and workshops on Community
Based Rehabilitation, first in the city of Cape
Town, then in outlying areas in the Western Cape
Province. David had an opportunity to visit the
homes of some of the people with disabilities
assisted by APD, and witnessed the grinding poverty
and powerlessness that still oppress the majority
of South Africans, despite the celebrated liberation
from the apartheid regime that was achieved, after
some years of negotiating, by the democratic elections
in 1994. Here David describes the continuing socioeconomic
polarization in South Africa, and the challenges
it creates for those striving for rights and opportunities
of people with disabilities.
Morelia,
Michoacan, Mexico, December 2006
"Child-to-Child"
with disabled and non-disabled children
in Michoacán, Mexico:
An effort to make schooling more inclusive and
enabling
The state's Department of Education—in
the brief window of opportunity opened by the
current progressive governor Lázaro Cárdenas—is
striving to "contextualize" public education
to local culture and needs. Toward the goal of
"Educational Reform," an international
Congress on Education and Culture was held in
December 2006 in the state capital, Morelia. David
Werner, as a keynote speaker, shared experiences
using a "Child-to-Child" approach both
to facilitate the inclusion of children with special
needs, and to make schooling more enabling for
all children. This stimulated so much debate that
Professor Juan Hurtado, Director of the Technical
Educational Consultancy (CEE) for the State Dept.
of Education, asked David to lead a workshop in
March (2007) on "ways to make education more
inclusive, relevant, and fun." The aim was
to train a core team of teachers and educators
as "multipliers" who could adapt the
Child-to-Child methodology to local needs and
then progressively scale up the process across
the state. In this report, David describes the
workshop, its evaluation by those who participated
in it, and prospects for implementing these ideas
on a larger scale.
