The Million Message

The Million Message March 2011 is a collaborative communication
campaign to mobilize community support and political commitment for
the Right to Health and Universal Access. It aims to reach out
globally to collect one million messages (by SMS or tweets) from
people in need of treatment and care (for HIV, Cancer, TB, Diabetes,
Hepatitis and other life threatening diseases) and their families,
care-givers and allies.

These ‘Voices’ will be amplified, disseminated and projected along the
‘March’ starting at the World Health Assembly in May, through two UN
High Level Meetings (HIV in June and Non-Communicable Diseases NCDs in
September), and other major health events. The Million Message March
will ‘arrive’ on Human Rights Day, the 10th of December, at the Office
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) so
that the messages can ‘Speak-Up’ and be heard at the top of the UN and
its Member States.

We launched the Million Message March today from the Institute of
Palliative Medicine in Calicut, Kerala, India, The Institute, a WHO
Collaborating Center, is a global model for participatory community
based care,  and a fitting starting point from which to begin the
March. First Steps: the 2nd World OPEN Health Assembly (WOHA2011), in
tandem with the World Health Assembly, 16-24 May.

WOHA features a non-stop global 'chat' and dozens of 'Speak-Up
Sessions', moderated live by partners in Asia, Africa, Europe and the
Americas, on diverse topics they choose. these partners include the
Institute of Palliative Medicine (WHO Collaborating Center), INPUD
(International Network of People Who Use Drugs), the Lawyers
Collective, the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance, People's Health
Movement, International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO),
Foundation for Hospice in Sub-Saharan Africa, African Palliative Care
Association, National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (US),
Human Rights Watch, The International Community of Women with HIV/AIDS
(ICW Asia-Pacific), World Care Council and others.

The Million Message March to the UN (MMM2UN) is a civil society
initiative, spearheaded by the iMAXi Cooperative with the dynamic
participation of many partners. Together, we're forging a new tool for
social mobilization via social media. Open Minds > Open Source > Open
Health  (Open to you, too!)

Join the Million Message March to the UN.  Tweet @MMM2UN  Follow
#Right2Health
Starts May 16 with the World OPEN Health Assembly.
Tweet @WOHA2011  Follow #WOHA
SMS: +41 787597991,  +91 8129094433  FB: http://on.fb.me/gxLyzl
Blogs: http://www.imaxi.org


This 'open' and online event allows distant health experts and
activists to provide news, views and healthy commentary for launch of
the innovative MMM2UN campaign, with direct connections to leading
'actors' in Delhi, Chennai, London, Cape Town and from the World
Health Assembly in Geneva.


Twitter: @MMM2UN  #WOHA
Skype: MMM2UN
Blogs: http://www.imaxi.org
FB: http://facebook.com/MillionMessageMarch

Media contacts:
Malayalam / English:  saifsabil@yahoo.com  +91 9846690490
English/ French: gordon@imaxi.org  +91 8129094433  / +41 787597991
Hindi / Konkanni:  menezes@imaxi.org  +919673205044

Being Responsible

One of the first TBY-Vayali micro-credit beneficiary

Last year at the World Travel Market in London, one of the leading destination management companies from Cochin asked us this question. “All your talk about responsible tourism is fine. It’s easy for a property to be more responsible than a tour operator like us. They can make simple changes like install energy saving bulbs or setup rainwater harvesting in their property. They might purchase local produces. Even if we had aspirations to be a responsible tourism operator, frankly we don’t know how to do this. Do you have some suggestions?”

This kept me thinking and here are some observations posted on The Blue Yonder blog

Social enterprises redefining sector boundaries?

“I am investigating the possibilities of creating awareness of non -malignant palliative issues among various communities and to encourage community participation, and would like some ideas and advice. Thank you very much”


We are quite certain that not many travel companies will receive enquiries that are unrelated to holiday planning! Especially something like the one above. This was a message The Blue Yonder team received from a pathologist in South Africa recently. For us, this is a proof of what an impact a maturing relationship between two social enterprises can create. One- working to spread the community owned palliative care to rest of the world (Institute of Palliative Medicine) and the other- a sustainable tourism operator using tourism as a tool to bring attention of the world to successful and inspiring initiatives like Kozhikode model of Palliative care (The Blue Yonder).



Read the complete blog here

Networking in Palliative care

18th International Conference of Indian Association for Palliative Care just concluded in Lucknow with a call to explore adopting social media as one of the tool to network amongst peers and share knowledge to bridge islands of excellence.

Delegates from Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Singapore, UK and USA along with their Indian colleagues attended the conference organised by Cancer Aid Society. Two sessions ran by n i i t i consulting on the importance of social media networking for promoting palliative care across the world received enthusiastic response. Except for the handful of delegates using twitter or facebook, rest of them were mostly using email as a tool for communication.

Case studies show-cased on the power of social media ranged from :

• Recent campaign to oust Hosni Mubarak in Egypt  and the role of social media in accelerating the downfall
• How sustainable tourism companies used facebook as a tool to network and raise funds online during the crisis of Cyclone Aila in 2009
• How footprints initiatives get support from innovative micro-funding model of worldnomads
• Real time results of how users of #IAPCON11 manage to network with peers in Australia, US, UK and rest of the world.
• Max Coop - a network promoting 'Open Health through Open Source
• Ushahidi platform on how effectively it was employed during Kenyan riots of 2008
• Nila foundation facebook campaign crowd-sourcing sketches for its publication

While the sessions ignited interest amongst novices to social media, many 'I-have-twitter-but-I-don't-use' delegates were urged to explore the potential of social media, while the 'converts' were urged to build up a palliative care wiki to encourage collaborative content creation about various experiments going around in different parts of the world.

Will be interesting to see some of the recommendations given to set up the next conference in Kolkatta is implemented.

Second part of the workshops specifically involving student volunteers and core team of Institute of Palliative Medicine will be on 19th Feb in Kozhikide. 

Destination stories : the unique fund raiser

N GopalaKrishnan with PM Narayanan Image courtesy The Hindu



This Saturday, Malayala Manorama newspaper featured a story about a gentleman called N. Gopalakrishnan who is involved in fund-raising for Institute for Palliative Medicine.



We had met Gopiettan, as we call him, about 5 years ago when The Blue Yonder had just started taking travellers to remote areas along the River Nila. He spent about a week every month in his traditionally-styled cottage called 'Vaappikudi', facing the river, mostly sitting in the portico reading and writing. His house was named after the slave his forefathers had as part of old-age feudal system in Kerala. For the occasional traveller who came visiting this region, Gopiettan makes for an ideal company. A man of letters, a close friend of writer M.T Vasudevan Nair, he entertains them with his wit and intellect while sharing anecdotes about his life in the IRAS (Indian Railways Accounts Service) and in Kolkata. His love for the railways is so great that even the gate to his cottage is designed like a level crossing! The name board written in Malayalam, Hindi and English reminds one instantly of the yellow-black railway sign boards!



A Kendra Sahitya Academy Award winner for his translation of 'Oriya classic 'Sri Radha'', Gopiettan has also translated 'The Insider', a political novel authored by earlier Prime Minister of India, P V Narasimha Rao. Malayalees though remember him for his beautiful translation of K P Ramanunni's 'Sufi Paranja Katha' (Story told by the Sufi) to English.





Sufi Paranja Katha has been made into a feature film



We met him recently again at the Institute of Palliative Medicine (IPM)). Like many citizens of Kozhikode, Gopiettan spends a few hours every week at the in-patient section at IPM. Seeing the impact the palliative care movement was having on thousands of people with terminal illness needing end of life care and the community of volunteers alike, he decided to do his bit to raise funds for the movement. He was then discussing how he planned to go about the fund-raising. When we met him after a week, he had actually traded a place with a beggar in the city as the 'spot' looked promising to 'beg'!



Rather than ask his friends for donations (which would have been far simpler and easier for him!), Gopiettan in his unique way decided to get the local community participate in this process. Elegantly dressed as always, resplendent in his royal - waxed moustache and the gold-trimmed walking stick, he cut a majestic figure as he walked about non-descript streets with a small white card requesting the public to donate Re 1 in support of the palliative care movement! Curious and amused, passers-by not just gave him the money he asked for, but impressed with his commitment and humility, many gave a lot more. In the last few months with just a few rounds of his “begging” tour, Gopiettan has collected more than a hundred thousand Rupees, in addition to raising awareness among locals in the city about the movement. With the steady inflow of small amount of cash that Gopiettan brings, IPM has now set up a separate bank account that goes by the name of 'thendu fund' (thendu means “to beg” in Malayalam).





Kozhikode Palliatve care movement: 'a beacon of hope' according to EIU report



In a world that seems bankrupt when it comes to compassion, people like Gopiettan fill us with hope. While India ranks amongst the lowest in the list of 45 countries surveyed in the recent Economist Intelligence Report on end of life palliative care, the same report highlights the palliative care initiative in Kozhikode as a beacon of hope.The report says "With only 3% of India’s population, the tiny state provides two-thirds of India’s palliative care services"



It is volunteers like Gopiettan and a movement like this that can perhaps help us dream of a 'compassionate city'.

Compassionate City - Gandhigiri by City Police

Police in the City of Kozhikode in Kerala were flooded by complaints of people who lost their motor bikes over the last few months. Many had also lost gold, computers and mobile phones. The Police department was in for surprise, when they arrested more than fifty nine teenagers who were from lower middle class families and some of whom who were as young as 13! What was even more interesting was that many of them were selling it for silly amounts of Rs 3,000.



Kozhikode City Police says, “Police recovered 15 bikes and seven personal computers stolen by the juvenile group from different locations. Besides, spare parts worth Rs 1 lakh was also recovered by the police. The teenagers used to steal new motorbikes with prices ranging Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 and put them up for sale at cheap rates ranging from Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 to their friends. Many of the juveniles belonged to low-income groups and broken families, but the buyers were from middle-class families. The culprits were utilizing the money received through theft for enjoining costly food, dress and mobile phones. Police will carry out further investigation and are expecting to recover more material evidences”

If the police were to follow regular procedures, they would be taken through routine course of questioning, lock-ups and year-long trials. In a typical loop of social branding as criminals, there is a hardly a way for any of them to be part of the main stream social life. Instead, Police Commissioner P.Vijayan who is credited for starting many new innovative initiatives in social policing including Student Police Cadet Project has turned a new leaf in the history of Kerala Police.

Today saw the most unique intervention of police to explore the possibilities of bringing these arrested youngsters to the mainstream and hence avoiding the near sure destiny of bring criminals of the future. Engaging the likes of palliative care movement (Institute of Palliative Medicine), few City Rotary Clubs and IMHANS (Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences) along with a group of socially active citizens, the City Police is attempting to bring the youngsters back into main-stream with social acceptability.



Dr.Jairam Ramakrishnan, consultant Psychiatrist from UK also has been pitched in to provide expert service to the youngsters. Dr. Suresh Kumar, founder director of Institute of Palliative Medicine, popularly known as “poor men’s Doctor” considers such initiatives with public private participation is a beginning to build up a “compassionate city”.



A one-room initiative that was started as a ‘pain clinic’ fifteen years ago in an anesthetist's dressing room in Kozhikode Medical College for bringing in relief to terminally ill patients has now grown into a movement comprising more than 25000 trained volunteers. Self-sustainable 300 palliative centres in Kerala is now spear-heading a social movement, not just restricted to palliative care. No wonder that such a movement is approached by various stake holders to take larger roles in the society.



Follow this space for more on ‘compassionate city project’.