Global Health Fellowship at Harvard

The Harvard JD Admissions strangely enough has a blog. Here’s a post on a new initiative with Global Health and Human Rights. Click Here for more: Harvard JD Admissions

“The Joseph H. Flom Global Health and Human Rights Initiative is a new partnership between Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics. Its mission is to promote academic research as well as engagement in practical measures to develop and apply global public health and human rights norms.”

Doc-in-a-Box

Thomas Barnett describes Doc-in-a-Box…

Yet another good stab at making more portable a good set of best practices and creating leave-behind connectivity assets.

Click here for more information: Thomas P.M. Barnett Weblog

Gates Foundation Changes

Gates Foundation money has gone a long way towards countering this trend. For example, the foundation currently accounts for 1/6th of world spending to eradicate polio. And it has just gotten bigger, roughly doubling in size. Today Warren Buffet announced a planned donation of roughly $30 Billion additional dollars, making the Gates Foundation the largest charitable foundation in history. It will be spending somewhere between 2-3 Billion dollars a year, with a very large percentage of it going towards global health.

Check out the link here…Sepia Mutiny

Global AIDS: Triumphs and Failures

Robert Weissman pens an interesting account of the failures and triumps of our fight against the meddling virus. 

There has been amazing progress in addressing global AIDS over the past five years. Activist pressure and generic competition has driven the price of AIDS drugs down by more than 98 percent, making it possible for donors to invest money in treatment to keep people alive. An HIV-positive diagnosis is no longer an automatic death sentence.
Check it out here: The Huffington Post 

A Mithi River Development Project Story

An estimated 4,055 settlements have been displaced as a result of the Mithi River Development and Protection Authority's (MRDPA) plan to clean-up and rejuvenate the Mithi river. Along with open plots in Mandala in Mankhurd, and buildings constructed by the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) and the Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project (MUIP), Tunga Village is one of the sites where the displaced Project Affected Persons (PAPs) have been relocated.

An incredibly well-written, and informative account about a development project in Mumbai gone awry. Sonia Faleiro

Women Entrepreneurs

Stories about women starting their own buisnesses are classically rare. We only hear about them within the context of microfinancing schemes, if ever. So here's a change.

Lately a topic that has been getting a lot of my interest has been women entrepreneurs in India. You would be amazed at the dearth of material there is out there on women who run their own enterprises. This is illustrated by the fact that most of the information is about Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, the founder of Biocon. The other category of information is about women who have inherited their family run business or parts of it. What is really lacking is stories of first generation women entrepreneurs, or even those who broke out of the mould of their fathers' businesses and did something on their own.

Check it out here: Everday Entrepreneurs

Peace Corps

For many who are about to embark on a career in international health, the Peace Corps is almost a rite of passage. Here's a community blog that gathers corps volunteers stories and photoes.

In a matter of weeks, my life, as I have known it for 61 years, will drastically change. On July 24th, I will begin my 27-months with the Peace Corps serving in South Africa. This realization came to me for the first time 2 days ago – I began to cry. At first, I didn’t know what I was crying about. But then, the fear made itself known. I would be leaving behind everything that I had become familiar with: my house, my work, my friends, my cats, my . . .probably things I have yet to imagine. And I felt SCARED. Perhaps this is the first of several emotional reactions that will jump out at me as I prepare to leave.

Check it out here The Third Goal

Sleepless in Sudan

A fascinating blog on one aid worker's experiences in Sudan. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), the blog is now closed.

An aid worker diary from Darfur, Sudan: real stories, random observations and occasional rants on the lives of Darfur’s two million displaced people and the somewhat bewildered humanitarian agencies who are trying to help them. Sleepless in Sudan is just another website on just another violent conflict in Africa – but uncensored, direct and without the sugar-coating that the tightly controlled and highly politicized environment demands from the official sources. Sleepless in Sudan

Sudan Activism

Rwanda will for the first time in history send troops for a United Nations assignment, the Rwanda Defense Forces (RDF) Chief of General Staff General James Kabarebe, has disclosed.”You are the first group in our country’s history that our force is sending for a UN mission. I believe you understand beyond reasonable doubt what this means.

Find out more from the Sudan Activism Blog

Palestinian Health Crisis

Not surprisingly, UN Donor Freezes on Palestinian AID has had a devastating impact.

Where is the logic in making available essential supplies while at the same time strangling the system that delivers them?" The Palestinian Authority has long relied on foreign donors to run its health sector and other public services. Such aid previously covered around half of the Palestinian health budget.

A post from the Iraq Solidarity Campaign