Your Input Helps
Lend a hand, and a brain?
Join the World Care Council's new Strategic and Technical Advisory Group that is being constituted to provide a greater depth of knowledge and broader expertise to our organization and actions. Although we have shown that we can 'drive forward' quite well, further inputs, critiques and suggestions from a group of 'experts' would help us to navigate better the twists and turns of the road to improving care for TB and HIV. The Strategic and Technical Advisory Group will be a voluntary body functioning mostly by Internet on a monthly basis. Participation will essentially require reading a one page progress report and then providing inputs.
If joining our new Strategic and Technical Advisory Group is of interest to you, contact us - your input would help our output.
Comments
Joining the WCC STAG
Thank you for the open invitation to join the WCC STAG! I am working to engage communities in TB Drug Research with the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance), and am looking forward to participating in this group!
Best
Stephanie Seidel
stephanie.seidel@tballiance.org
I will be very happy joining STAG
I'm the National coordinator of International AIDS candlelight Memorial in Mali, I will be very happy to join STAG. Bon courage
Zou Isaac
Joining STAG: Please let me know, how I can help?
Dear Celina and friend’s acTBistas.
I would like to be officially part of this initiative. I have been fighting TB, AIDS, Malaria and other neglected diseases for more that 20 years in Latin America. I spent almost nine years of my life referring and assisting international cross border TB and AIDS patients. I have been promoting the Patients' Charter for Tuberculosis Care in Latino America.
Please let me know, how I can help?
For Health, Peace, and Social Justice.
Alberto Colorado, San Diego, California
acTBistas@gmail.com
SHARING IS CARING
I feel good about this initiative. At least we can start sharing information. Information is a powerful tool, which if used properly can be potent. There are so many things which needs answers. So many people are left high and dry without getting any answers. Sometimes all this gives rise to despair. If all of us in the society unite and respect each other for what we are, and not we have got. Things would become much more easy. We all will not feel so left out in our every day fight.
I truly appreciate this tool thorough which we can raise our voice and would be sure that we would be heard. There is so much that we all can do.
I can only recount one proverb here "Life isn't fair, but it's still good."
Let us all join hands and get up once for life...look life is calling...
Thank you and warm regards,
Tapasya
I feel part of you
It's been three weeks only since I have got associated with WCC and I already feel closely linked and an integral part of the outfit. My mental and physical energies are now flowing towards WCC. The reason why it took me such a short time to feel so strongly about WCC is the dedication of its members which I have found infectious and I think I have got infected with this urge to help and support in whatever way I can.
I am keen and eager for an active participation and hard work to ensure that the endeavours of WCC are successful. My hard working hands and a small writer brain - are at your service to be used to their maximum capacity.
I stand in solidarity with all of you.
Alka
I would be very interested in joining your STAG...
Dear Celina
I would be very interested in joining your STAG and in talking with you further about increasing civil society participation in access to TB care and prevention. PATH is supporting ACSM work in India and globally and I would like to talk with you further about possible collaborations. I am copying my colleague in India, Dr. Satish Kaipilyawar, who is our TB Project Director there.
Best regards,
D'Arcy
M. D'Arcy Richardson, RN, PHN, CNS, MSN
Technical Director, TB Program
PATH
1800 K Street, NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20006 USA
I would be very interested in helping...
Dear Celina,
Thanks very much for this message.
I would be very interested in helping with the new Strategic and
Technical Advisory Group that you are in the process of setting up; and
look forward to hearing more about this soon.
All the best,
Charles
Prof. Charles Gilks, Country Coordinator (India), UNAIDS
From Theletu, a very active HIV/TB Activist based in Zambia
I am writing to be part of the newly created Strategic and Technical Advisor \Group of the World Care Council.
I am very active HIV/TB Activist based in Zambia where I work as a volunteer for Treatment Advocacy and Literacy. I am also a Community Health Journalist whose articles have appeared in several publications on the both Internet and in hard copy.
Some of my articles have appeared in Safaids News, The Post Newspaper in Zambia and Health and Development Network website Partners Zambia.
I would be grateful if I can be part of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group as I will be able not only to contribute, but learn from others within the working group.
I look forward to receiving a favourable reply from you
Your faithfully
Thuletu Tikili-Hanene
From Ranganadh in India...
Thank you for inviting to participate in World Care Council branch in India.
It is a great opportunity to be of assistance to TB and HIV community.
I will be happy to join strategic and Technical advisory group and
participate in its activities.
I also would like to inform you that through our organisation, LEPRA
Society Health in Action, we will be very happy to participate in
developing systems supporting TB patients.
With best regards
Sincerely
Ranganadh
Membership Acknowledgement on STAG
I am very pleased that the Executive Director/CEO responded to the email of interest that I had sent her. I find this type of work, interesting, innovative and life changing. I am enthused in working with a bundle of expertise, academia, professionals, program implementers, and decision makers in exhilarating provision in improving care for TB and HIV; scaling up programmes for essential medicines, developing innovative strategies which open up doors in TB/HIV diagnostics.
My name is Marco Gomes, 29 years old. Graduated with a B.A in Health Policy and Governance, a Masters (MSc) in Public Health and will be pursuing further education in Research and Health Financing. I am a Young Person living with HIV, committed to Health Systems Research and Advancing Global Health, Vaccine development. I work for the Center for Health Policy and Innovation, Toronto Canada, as a Global Health Research Policy Advisor. Relocated to Johannesburg, South Africa at the commencement of the Month.
Best Regards,
Marco Gomes
Center for Health Policy and Innovation
Global Health Research Policy Advisor
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria- Communities Delegation
UNITAID Communities Support Team Supply Chain and Procurement Advisor
Email: marcogomes.healthpolicy.gmx.com
Your enthusiasm...
Hola Marco, Your enthusiasm is a great model - hopefully, it's contagious!
We not only thank you for your participation, but moreover, appreciate your uplifting spirit. We'll send you further details in the next day or two, and really look forward to working with over the months to come. Warm regards.
STAG: I'd love to help
I just read the STAG page and think this is brilliant. The idea of bringing many diverse people, each with an expertise in different areas, including PLHIV and Providers, Patients and Programme Officers, all to help advise and guide a dynamic little NGO that cares about care for the community... this is spot on. Please send me whatever I need to do, and I'm more than willing to help out. Good stuff - keep it up.
...and we'd love your help!
Thanks Erika - we are happy that you want to join STAG. It is indeed the diversity of experiences that will allow this open advisory system to be both interesting and effective (hopefully fun too!) We will send you the 'next steps' very soon, and we are overjoyed to step in stride with you. Cheers.
hello
I find myself lucky to have located one site and one such organisation which is eager to seek help. I am a journalist who feels strongly about such issues. I am actively associated with an organisation Humsafar - in my city Lucknow in the state of Uttar Pradesh, which is working for women in distress. I would love to share my experiences and learn a lot from the working knowledge of others about issues and topics which are still considered tobaoo in India.
I congratulate the people behind the site and the organisation and extend my full support in whatever way I can be useful for the cause.
All the best..
Our good luck now
Hello Alka.
You may be in Lucknow, but we feel quite lucky now that we have read your comment. Your experiences would be very valuable to us, and perhaps many others, and we are excited by the possibilities that your participation can offer.
It seems that for a small city, there are a number of good people in Lucknow. As Bobby Ramakant, a member of the WCC, is also there, perhaps we can all explore the idea of what we can do together to assist Humsafar. We'll send you an e-mail soon to further this process of sharing, and look forward to working with you very much.
Thanks again.
Brilliant initiative!!!
At the outset, I would like to thank World Care Council for initiating this noble group. I feel priveledged to be in this Advisory group.
I feel this forum and the group will give a pedestal for all experts and supporters in this field to share the knowledge and expertise and we all would see a brighter world tomorrow.
We would love to stay connected with all in this World Care Council.
Regards,
Siddhartha
Dr. Siddhartha Sankar Datta
MD (Community Medicine),
India
Maybe a brighter world tomorrow starts today.
Dear Dr Siddhartha,
Thanks for the boost of energy that your comment gives us, and for your membership on STAG. We are almost finished developing the custom-built online forum to be a platform for many, and its details will be sent to you shortly. We see that you specialize in community medicine, and we are interested in knowing more of what you do and where you do it. We're glad we are now 'connected', and can learn from you. Thanks again.
Thanks for the reply!!!
Dear Welcome Committee,
Thanks for the reply. I should say that your message comment is absolutely correct and realistic. Every step taken today, be it small or big, will lead into a big leap that will be seen only tomorrow. So i feel it's TODAY which is more improtant. You can see how many people of so diverse region and experience are together with you which always indicates the noble initiative you all have started.
I am really eager to have a look into the online forum and let me know if you need any support from me.
About me, sure. I have completed my masters in Community Medicine after completing my MBBS in India. I have an original research work on adolescent sexual and reproductive health. This study involves various aspect of sexual health of adolescents. I presently work with WHO/National Polio Surveillance Project with Routine Immunization section. I have been working with both Polio and Routine Immunization in Uttar Pradesh, India (Largest State in India, hope you all know this part of India) for past five years.
I have special interest in the field of HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health. I have completed my online email course from John Hopkins on HIV/AIDS care in low resource settings. Thus this background brings me close to your STAG. Hope I can really support your initiative.
Thanks and Regards,
Siddhartha
A great initiative !
warm hello to all of you from Sanghamitra, a public health professional working in Orissa (India). First of all my heartfelt congratulations to World Care Council for raising this genuinely vital and highly relevant health care issue. TB and TB/HIV are emerging as the major threat to human health globally with developing nations bearing the maximum brunt. We need to work collectively with an unified goal both locally and globally. In this regard your efforts are highly commendable. We in Orissa (India) too have established a state level NGO named SAIHP , South Asian Institute of Health Promotion www.saihp.org.in. Its aim is to promote community health with special focus on the underserved section. Our organization and me would be more than happy to render any kind of support to combat the stubborn menace of TB and generate TB treatment related health literacy amongst people and foster adherence to TB treatment.
Please let me know how we could be of help.
thanks for this sincere invitation
Sanghamitra
Dr Sanghamitra Pati, MD MPH
Chief Coordinator, SAIHP
4R/F13, Unit IX
Bhubaneswar-751022
Orissa, India
sanghamitrapati@yahoo.com
info@saihp.org.in
www.saihp.org.in
From shared objectives to action in Orissa
Thanks Dr Sanghamitra for your participation on STAG, and hopefully other areas of common cause. We visited your website and were pleased to see that your objectives share many points in common with ours. Furthermore, your interest in research based interventions may be something we can explore together, as we are interested in learning more about how we can conduct operational research on various community initiatives. For example, the Hotline support service for TB patients (and soon PLHIV) that we are rolling out in India and elsewhere, how can we frame a study of its impact in Orissa? As our peers in Orissa have very great challenges, we want to see if a SMS based peer-support hotline can improve things for them concretely, and see what it might mean in terms of scaling up TB Care locally. We'd be interested in discussing designing a study with you and any other interested folks in the near future. Although amongst ourselves and comrades we know from experience that peer support is really beneficial, we need to gather evidenced based data to convince donors and programs that this is indeed an essential element of scaling up care. We look forward to further comments and inputs from you, both via STAG and other means. Thank you.
Membership on STAG
I am happy to join this advisory group and sincerely like your 'open-invitation'. I can't think of another organization or institution that actually seeks the advice of outsiders so find this very refreshing and a healthy sign of hope. In the public health arena, most agencies and NGOs only reach out to donors, and just to get more funding. Looking through your website, it seems that the World Care Council is truly intested in connecting with a widest possible audience - this is vital if public health is going to be improved anywhere.
Please send me the monthly report and I would be overjoyed to support your work with my views and advice. Keep up the worthy work for which I thank you.
Open invitation, open door, open health...
Thanks Jessica. We're happy we caught your attention and interest. The public health arena as you called it, is a big building for essentially 'members only', so we are just trying to lever open some windows so that a few other people can get inside. With some luck and some work together, maybe public health can have not only levered-open windows, but open doors without locks. Towards this, we will send you some more information in the coming days. Warm regards.