This is the beginning—from “I” to “we.”
Huddled over the conference table, we are trying to map the route for the march. The mid-day sun warns us of the passing time: permits need to be passed, information needs to be disseminated, plans needs to be finalized — I have so many things to take care of. One week until the day of action. Every few hours I check my Facebook and see new and distant friends, people I may never meet but will still call my friends, holding their own meetings in Cameroon, Cambodia, Chicago. Banners are printing, mosquitos are buzzing, people are organizing. The sun gets brighter. We will have to be ready.
Edwin Wetoyi | Mumias, Kenya
I talked to some friends this morning and the mission became clear. Gather the people, rally around a common message, join with others around the world. We are used to organizing here in Chiapas. There is no hospital, no clinic, no doctors where we live. We rely on community health assistants and self-help, but we need also need the resources and knowledge that you can find in the city, that others have had for a long time but have yet to reach us, the indigenous. We are used to organizing here, but on October 25th people all across the world will also be gathering. People will be gathering in all these cities and countries so far away, but so much like our own community and situation here. We only have a few days, but this time we will not be alone.
Elias Diaz | San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico
As I wake, the dawn shines a light on the wedge of floor near my feet. It looks like this every day, but today feels different. Today I have a lot of responsibility to my community and youth groups. I get ready quickly and find the materials that I stashed in the corner of my home a few days of ago, once again I check my all list for the program. I feel the heavy weight of the candles in my arms and ask my sister and brother to help lighten the load. The morning mountain air dissipates and we replace it with our own nervousness, anxiousness, hopes waiting on the day. Though the vigil is in the evening, I let my first hour set the theme of success and positive action that is certain to echo my entire day. Today doesn’t just feel different. It is different. Today will never happen again. Today is a beginning.
Manjushree Maharjan | Kathmandu, Nepal
Today people are rallying, marching, debating, dancing, painting, writing, speaking, and demanding the right to health. All across the world, more than 160 events in over 60 countries mark the first Global Day of Action for the Right to Health. Edwin, Elias, and Manjushree are three of the thousands of people who are taking part. They aren’t ‘professional’ activists or organizers. They aren’t ‘technical’ or ‘bureaucratic’ experts.
They are — perhaps an even more powerful concept — people.
People who will not compromise on their values, because there is a clear right and wrong when it comes to life and death. People who will not stand for corruption, because strong public health systems are a foundation for society. People who will not sit idly when their fellow citizens are oppressed, because violent political and economic structures make all of us responsible for and accountable to the plight of the poor.
People, who care about their communities.
In the face of a global economic order that aims to widen the gap between the rich and the poor in any community or country, this is a bold fact. In a history where ‘people power’ has been routinely dismissed as naive, this is an almost impossible fact. And their belief that “health is a human right” is all but a claim to war on the status quo.
Established more than five decades ago, Article 25 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) recognized everyone’s right to health and well-being, including all necessary social services. Article 25 and the UDHR was a declaration of universal love — it was the first time the world came together to affirm the existence of universal human rights. But since then, whenever people have come together again to re-affirm this love and put it into action, any common purpose or “we” fractures along the lines of race, class, gender, sexuality.
Just over three decades ago, in Almaty, Kazakhstan, health advocates from all across the world convened for an International Conference on Primary Health Care. Ms. Turmenova, who is coordinating an event in Almaty today, attended the conference in 1978 and witnessed the landmark Declaration of Alma Ata. It identified ‘health for all’ by 2000 as an achievable goal through investment in strong primary health-care based systems. Yet under the pressures of neoliberal reforms — economic policies that prioritize profits over people — this movement failed to transform values into action. And now we stand in 2014 with rampant inequity in health outcomes, weak health policies from corruption and false technical guidance, and broken health systems without accountability to patients.
Man-made economic policies and political decisions have trapped people in cycles of poverty and ill health, but in today’s ‘biomedical’ era, our health systems layer band-aid over band-aid, prescribe pill after pill, so much so that we have forgotten what the wound was in the first place. Complex webs of structural violence and oppression mask the root cause of the global health crisis: power. People are more and more distanced from the policies and decisions that affect their health. People are more and more distanced from each other. A system of community is missing. A fundamental notion that people have a right to health is missing. When it comes to development and health, we have lost our moral compass.
That’s why this day is so important to us — to Edwin, Elias, Manjushree, and the thousands of others: we are in desperate need of a right to health community. More than a community, we need a movement that can challenge the status quo and try to orient our compass towards a more fair and just future. This day of action is about building momentum to make ‘health for all’ a possible future.
In physics, momentum means to have mass and direction. It comes from Latin, meaning “movement, moving power.” Today, on the first Global Day of Action for the Right to Health, in more than 60 countries around the world, we start to move the balance of power in the world back towards people. And with this momentum, we can take on bigger campaigns to tackle our world’s most wicked problem: health inequity. This movement is not only about disruption — this movement is about direction. People built broken health systems. People can change them.
Today is different. Today is a beginning.
Today we launch a people’s movement for the right to health.
Afghanistan, Kabul
Algeria, Algiers
Antigua, St. John’s
Armenia, Dilijan
Aruba, Oranjestad
Aruba, San Nicolas
Australia, Sydney
Bangladesh, Chittagong
Bangladesh, Dhaka
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zavidovici
Botswana, Gaborone
Brazil, Promissão
Burundi, Bujumbura
Cambodia, Phnom Penh
Cameroon, Douala
Cameroon, Yaoundé
Canada, Montreal
Canada, Vancouver
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasa
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lubumbashi
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uvira
Ecuador, Guayaquil
Egypt, Cairo
Ethiopia, Addis Ababa
Ethiopia, jimma
France, Rennes
Ghana, Accra
Guatemala, Patzun
Guatemala, Quetzaltenango
India, Ahmedabad
India, Chennai
India, Faridabad
India, Kolkata
India, Kozhikkode
India, Viralimalai
Indonesia, Jakarta
Iran, Tabriz
Israel, Holon
Japan, Tokyo
Jordan, Amman
Jordan, Taberbor
Kazakhstan, Almaty
Kenya, Kisumu
Kenya, Kowka Island
Kenya, Mumias Town
Kenya, Nairobi
Kenya, Wote
Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek
Laos, Vientiane
Liberia, Monrovia
Malawi, Blantyre
Malawi, Lilongwe
Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur
Mali, Yirimadjo
Mexico, Chiapas
Myanmar, Yangon
Nepal, Kathmandu
Netherlands, Maastricht
Nigeria, Abuja
Nigeria, Agbor
Nigeria, Agege
Nigeria, Asaba
Nigeria, Benin City
Nigeria, Gwaram
Nigeria, Lagos
Pakistan, Hyderabad
Pakistan, Multan
Peru, Kallpa Iquitos
Peru, Ollantaytambo
Philippines, Angeles City
Philippines, Manila
Portugal, Cascais
Portugal, Coimbra
Puerto Rico, Caguas
Puerto Rico, San Juan
Republic of Moldova, Orhei
Romania, Brasov
Romania, Zalău
Rwanda, Kigali
Sénégal, Dakar
Sierra Leone, Freetown
South Africa, Johannesburg
Spain, Barcelona
Spain, Cáceres
Sri Lanka, Colombo
Sudan, Khartoum
Tanzania, Dar es Salaam
Tanzania, Mbeya
Thailand, Chiang Mai
Togo, Lome
Turkey, Muş
Uganda, Kampala
Uganda, Mukono
United Kingdom, London
United States of America, Atlanta
United States of America, Austin
United States of America, Austin
United States of America, Boston
United States of America, Boulder
United States of America, Chapel Hill
United States of America, Chicago
United States of America, Cincinnati
United States of America, Duluth
United States of America, Durham
United States of America, Fargo
United States of America, Fort Collins
United States of America, Greenville
United States of America, Honolulu
United States of America, Kansas City
United States of America, Kirksville
United States of America, Las Vegas
United States of America, Los Angeles
United States of America, Memphis
United States of America, New York
United States of America, New York City
United States of America, Northampton
United States of America, Oakland
United States of America, Philadelphia
United States of America, Poughkeepsie
United States of America, Providence
United States of America, San Francisco
United States of America, St. Louis
United States of America, Stanford
Zimbabwe, Harare
