Grassroots Public Health Organizations

David Sasaski, Rising Voices

In this week's newsletter I am going to highlight a few citizen media
projects related to public health, both grassroots and institutional.

Physicians for Human Rights is using social networking platforms like
Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube to improve their advocacy efforts around
campaigns related to AIDS, torture survival, and youth health. They
also offer a wide assortment of RSS feeds and have launched a student
blog to encourage university students to become more involved in
issues related to global health and human rights. (They are also
currentlyhiring a web producer to strengthen their online advocacy
efforts.)
The Nata Village Blog is a completely grassroots effort in rural
Botswana started by a traveling blogger, a peace corps volunteer, and
Martha Ramaditse and Selomo Tiro, two Nata residents. They were soon
picked up by Global Voices, the World Bank,Jason Kottke, and
eventually won the Peace Corps ICT contest. By creating a strong web
presence they have been able to attract an incredible amount of
donations from all over the world and the attention of local and
international politicians.
Blog.AIDS.gov is an effort by the US government to highlight projects
and opportunities present in new media to fight against HIV/AIDS. It
highlights, for example, video games about HIV prevention, the
importance of accessibility when it comes to web pages about HIV/AIDS,
and health-focused social networking sites.
The International Carnival of Pozitivities is another grassroots
project, organized by Ron Hudson who is HIV-positive and based in the
North Carolina. Each month a different blogger picks a theme and links
to featured posts about that theme by fellow HIV-positive bloggers.
The latest two round-ups have are particularly international. They
include posts about topics like Diet For Healthy Teeth And Gums, Peace
Corps To Pozzers: Get Out, and what it's like to be HIV-positive in
Peru.
CRIB (Chasing rainbows is our business), was designed by a group of
young people living with HIV and AIDS in London. It includes stories
and testimonials, online chat (so far, seldom used), and videos. Its
purpose is to create an online space for HIV-positive young people who
are not able to join physical support groups.
Aftercare is a cell phone application and communication platform for
therapeutic counsellors to more efficiently liaise with HIV+ patients
by collecting data from the patient about symptoms and drug adherence.
Lots of other interesting applications of cell phones within a public
health and human rights-related context are available on MobileActive
here and here.
As you can see, there are already lots of innovative ideas about how
online media can be used to advocate for better health and empower
those who live with diseases that often isolate them from their
societies. But, so far, few of them come from the developing world.
Our hope is that on June 28 we will announce five more health-related
projects that are even more impressive and innovative than those
listed above.

Have a great weekend everyone!

David

If I am not for Myself, Who am I For?

If I am not for Myself

It’s okay to be anti-Zionist and Jewish. But will it ever really catch on, asks Ben du Preez, FirstPost.co.uk

In a week in which the writer Mike Marqusee released his much anticipated memoir, If I am Not for Myself, in time for the 60th anniversary, a spate of media commentary has brought Jewish anti-Zionism out of the shadows and onto blogs, feature articles and the radio.

Marqusee's assertion that it is 'okay' to be Jewish and anti-Zionist in 2008 has been liberating: there have been calls for the formation of an officially recognised mouthpiece to represent this section of Anglo-Jewry, and fight the atrocities being carried out in Palestine in their name.

Sadly, history suggests that such an organisation is doomed to fail. On February 5, 2007, the IJV (Independent Jewish Voices), a group of 150 prominent British Jews, including the likes of Harold Pinter and Eric Hobsbawm, announced their arrival in Jewish discourse with a much-trumpeted media inauguration.

Keen to refute "the widespread misconception that British Jews speak with one voice", they sought to create a media impression of Jewish dissidence and Jewish liberal pluralism. As a political entity they folded soon after; their latest online newsletter is embarrassingly dated February 19, 2007.

It is easy to see why such a group failed. Journalist Seth Freedman has criticised the IJV's approach as "vague and indistinct" while in November 2007 one of its leading members, Rabbi David Goldberg, resigned from the group, citing its "lack of direction".

Adding to the problem is the fact that anti-Zionism - attacking a Jewish state whose crimes are committed in the name of the Jewish people - forces the Jewish anti-Zionist to ask, 'What is Judaism? What is Jewishness?' The answers are very different depending on whether people see themselves as cultural Jews, biological Jews, religious Jews or ethnical Jews. There is, and will be, no homogenous response.

Zionism in comparison has been gloriously consistent. Like a bullet from a gun, it has one straight and dynamic aim. It is just unfortunate that in the process it has hit quite a few others in the leg.