Poverty damages health. Conversely, health is a key to social and economic
development and to overcoming poverty. This is true not only in poor countries
and societies, but in Switzerland as well, where studies on the inter-relationship
between poverty and health are causing serious concern.
A
health policy whose scope extends beyond
healthcare must also confront the twin
problems of poverty and the battle to
eliminate it. And in healthcare itself,
the question arises of equality of access
to healthcare for the poor.
This
year’s Swiss Health Cooperation
Symposium spotlighted options for health
work with the poor and health work aimed
at overcoming poverty, and also focused
on aspects of combating poverty relevant
to health.
The
symposium started with a striking illustration
of the kind of poverty that causes illness
and the illnesses caused by poverty. We
sent René Schraner, a film-maker
based in Basel, to the mountains of Kyrgyzstan,
to a remote province of Haiti –
and to Bern. The films documented impressively
his encounters with families hit by poverty
and illness.
These
film portraits formed the starting point
for a wider-ranging and in-depth view
of the situation in a series of lectures
and discussions. Experts from Switzerland
and other countries presented their strategies
for breaking out of the vicious circle
of poverty, social inequality, destitution
and sickness as a basis for discussion
and described approaches for intervention
within and outside the health sector.
During
the symposium the 41 member organizations
of the Medicus Mundi Schweiz network presented
their manifesto “Health for All
– a realistic project” which
reflects the contribution made by the
non-governmental organizations in Switzerland
to overcoming the global health crisis
and to achieving health for all.
Organizer
Medicus Mundi Switzerland. Network Health
for All
Murbacherstrasse 34, CH-4013 Basel, www.medicusmundi.ch
Responsible for the symposium: Thomas
Schwarz, Co-Managing Director
Phone +41 61 383 1810, tschwarz@medicusmundi.ch
Specialist input from: Nick Lorenz,
Swiss Tropical Institute, Basel; Thomas
Vogel, advimed, Geneva; Beat Stoll, IMSP,
Geneva University; Daniel Mäusezahl,
SDC
Sponsors: The events organized by the Medicus Mundi Switzerland network are
supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC.
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