Country Partners are
groups who are committed to the oneVillage Foundation
mission and who seek to implement this on a practical
in their home countries. They facilitate the development
of Cross sector partnerships at the local state and
national levels in their countries.
Integrated
well-being in the spirit, mind and body level is the
foundation for health. Healing from the source reminds
us the importance of maintaining a balanced life.
Vision Health care is not a priviledge it is a human right but we must
come together as people of like mind and work together to assert
that right that we have as humans towards a practical practice of
healthy living. If we expect to have a just and stable global society,
there must be adequate health care for all.
Current
Reality and Challenges
Paul Martin former finance minister and now PM of Canada says AIDS
threatens two decades of progress in development (Paul Martin Statement
Prepared for the Development Committee 4/30/01 www.fin.gc.ca/).
But AIDS is not the only major health challenge we face:
7.5 million children die each year in the
prenatal period due to inadquate health care
30 percent of the world's population lack access to clean
drinking water
Malnutrition is a common problem not only due to lack
of food but lack of variety of fresh foods that are chief
source of various vitamins, minerals and other essential
nutrients
Among the poorest and most marginalized regions disease and malnutrition
continues to be a everyday fact of life. Ironically enough the challenges
of affluent countries are similar as many diets are based on just
a few dominant crops, and sedentary lifestyles, which make us more
susceptible to disease. Hunger and diseases like AIDS have been
seen to mutually reinforce each other in damaging our ability to
survive. Overuse of antibiotics, including in the food supply, has
resulted, and continues to result, in the creation of drug-resistant
diseases, which threaten to over-run the populations of crowded
cities as well as the struggling rural areas.
It is important that we see the underlying causes
of these problems. We believe that development practices have not
considered a comphrensive approach to modernization. The conventional
mindset has focused on the treatment of particular problems, epidemics
and diseases. This approach emphasizes allopathic solutions that
are based on the symptomatic approach to human health. Such thinking
leads to an approach that facilitates a dependency mindset
among those recieving aid avoiding the root issues that sustain
the condition of poverty and underdevelopment.
Current health care approach of Western societies
particularly in America tend to focus on practices and policies
that enrich the health care establishment while providing questionable
services to health care consumers. Health care is increasingly not
only addressing problems with human health that would naturally
occur in human development but also added problems associated with
the shortsightedness of modernization and this applies to affluent
as well as non-affluent regions:
Research has increasingly documented links
between Western diets promoted by the now emergent global
commercial culture and the disease of affluence like obesisty
and heart disease and diabetes
There is a heated debate about additives in foods as to
whether they may increase health problems and possibly even
cause the proliferation of diseases and cancers
Occupational hazards associated with modern chemicals and
materials is leading to an increase in cancer rates according
to some research
High stress modern lifestyles only add to the mix
Neglect of Rural Regions - OVF sees
that the neglect of rural regions have been a major factor in continuing
developmental dynamics that overwhelm emerging economies
and preventing economic take off of these societies. The mass migration
from rural villages carries with it harmful lifestyle changes:
Basic human needs are not being met for
nutrition, clothing and shelter
Brain and resource drain results as ablebodied people
flee rural areas in search of a better life in cities
Stressful, competitive environment reduces human potential
Approach
We seek to promote development solutions that focus on understanding
the root cause of these health problems. A key component of our
health care and wellness program is to educate people of the alternatives
to Western diets and medicine which ironically is usually because
of unsustainable and unhealthy lifestyle of the typical consumer.
Equally daunting is the challenge of epidemics and pandemics like
TB and HIV/AIDS. It is our belief that an proactive and whole systems
approach to health is needed in affluent and non-affluent nations
alike. Our focus however is to initiate a proactive approach to
the AIDS pandemic in Africa by seeking to develop adequate sanitary,
health and educational infrastructure at the community level as
well as effective treatments for AIDS and other serious diseases.
To prevent unnecessary and increasingly scarce resources
from being expended on health care, we need to develop a health
care model for developing societies that embraces a more holistic
approach that carefully considers the impact of modern technologies,
approaches and chemicals in relation to human health. Also important
is to consider the use of alternative and holistic health care to
prevent illness before drastic allopathic approaches like surgery
or cancer treatment become necessary.
Education programs can cut child, birth rates and maternal mortality
dramatically. Public health measures, only a little more expensive,
can produce another significant step. Local availability of health
services is also important. In a whole systems approach to development,
there will be incremental costs for the specific resources needed
to run sufficient multidisciplinary clinics. However, by far the
largest impact will come from eliminating the original causes of
morbidity and mortality through improved diet, overall well-being,
social support, and a healthy environment.
An integrated approach to improving health in low-income nations
includes:
Rebuilding social support structures and
indigenous culture
Economic development
Promotion of healthy lifestyles
Nutritional and herbal supplements
Allopathic medicine
Easy access to clean water, healthy food and health
care
Personal Transformation - An
often overlooked aspect of health care is a strong mental state
of being. Personal development is central to the realizing of
our innate potential of our ideas to the people who can help
us to make them happen. To achieve the goal of releasing psychological
and social processes to serve in rebuilding a healthy community,
Sarvodaya
incorporates "the essence of religion, which is spirituality.
What is the most practical way in which the spiritual 'being'
of human personality could be awakened? Whether it is Buddhist
or any other religious teaching, whatever prevents people from
awakening their personalities and transforming themselves spiritually
is of no use in our work."
Objectives
Reduce child mortality by two thirds the
mortality rate among children under five
Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio
In the developing world, the risk of dying in childbirth
is one in 48
oneVillage
Health Care Ecopartners
Kenya
AIDS Intervention Prevention Project Group KAIPPG
Malaria - A combination of sustainable
ecological management, proper use of netting, and maintenance
of strong immune systems through preventative and alternative
health measures can reduce the impact of malaria. There are
effective indigenous treatments, which can be made available
without using foreign exchange reserves and can provide incomes
for those who gather and process them.
HIV/AIDS- A concerted and well-coordinated
program can rapidly eliminate it if these systems experience
the renaissance they need. HIV/AIDS is also a social and environmental
disease. Forty million people are living with HIV, including
five million newly infected in 2001. Countries like Brazil,
Senegal, Thailand and Uganda have shown that the spread of HIV
can be stemmed. The current cost of US$300 per person for HIV
treatment, medicine alone will cost US$12 billion annually.
A comprehensive program including education, medication, doctors
and other health workers, administration, and so on, might cost
US$20 billion annually.
Health Care Knowledgebase - Health
care involves the development of knowledge, systems and resources
to ensure that basic health needs are met.