January 2008 Newsletter

Welcome to the January 2008 edition of the EPHA Newsletter.

As public health advocates, we work towards building a society where all individuals enjoy the greatest possible physical and mental health and everyone has the opportunity to participate fully and equally in society.

We are from this ideal today. Health inequalities have grown within EU countries and across the European region. Further afield, without major global efforts it is unlikely that the Millennium Development Goals will be achieved - particularly in health. Global warming, political and economic instability, and conflict add further challenges which also have unequal impact on different parts of the world.

The status quo is inequitable and unacceptable.

Change is needed, but change is not easy to achieve. Building the momentum of individuals, organisations and institutions committed to change takes time and patience. The key tool in bringing together the people and resources to create this momentum is communication.

Communication breaks down barriers, makes it possible to share values and collaborate towards common goals. At EPHA, communication is central to our work. It is how we work with our members and build relationships with stakeholders and policy-makers. Our ability to reach out to people has made EPHA a key source of information. There are more than 50,000 visitors a month to the EPHA website and this newsletter is sent to almost 5,000 addresses in Europe and around the world.

But the real strength of EPHA is the diversity of its membership and its wealth of specialist knowledge. In subsequent newsletters, we will have a new section called ’Spotlight on EPHA members’ which will feature more in-depth information about 5 different members per issue.

EPHA members can find out more about this initiative in the Members Only section. For our other newsletter readers, you will find out more about the different NGOs and not-for-profit organisations working on health at European, national or local level as the year goes on.

This new initiative will enable greater communication to achieve healthy public policies in the EU.

As the new Secretary-General of EPHA, I hope that this emphasis on communication will be useful for all of our efforts for health. Communication is not a one way street and I look forward to the opportunity of dialogue with you in the future.

Monika Kosinska.

Read all the online articles of our Newsletter for January 2008

EPHA members can find the following new information in the Members Only section:

 IDUs’ access to HIV/AIDS care in Central and Eastern Europe
 EUREGHA Conference on health inequalities in the regions of Europe
 Report on the Parliament Interest Group on Carers

Please note that if an EPHA member would like to highlight their activities in the EPHA Newsletter, the deadline to submit a news item is Friday 22 February 2008. The staff member responsible for the newsletter is Daniela Negri.