HealthRight International

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton signing the U.S. – Vietnam Partnership Framework at HealthRight’s Smile of the Sun Center in Hanoi, Vietnam. HealthRight Executive Director Mila Rosenthal stands third from left. Photo by Ehrin Macksey.

Yesterday afternoon, here in Hanoi, Vietnam, I was part of an exciting meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, at HealthRight’s Smile of the Sun Center. Secretary Clinton came to our Center for the signing of a five year agreement with the Vietnamese government to fight HIV/AIDS. Commenting on HealthRight’s US government-supported program in Vietnam, Secretary Clinton said, “What we see here is the kind of comprehensive response that this disease demands.”

At the Center, Secretary Clinton met with several children and adults living with HIV, including two orphans – twin 8-year-old boys – who are among the hundreds of children who access comprehensive care and support through the Smile of the Sun Center and HealthRight’s other initiatives in Vietnam. Children and families living with HIV in Vietnam face intense discrimination and are often denied access to basic health, education and employment. HealthRight’s programs give children a welcoming space to play, connect their caregivers to services and support, and educate communities about HIV prevention to dispel myths about how the virus is transmitted. With our local partners, we’re working to reduce discrimination and ensure that children and families living with HIV can build a healthy and happy life.

Click here to see additional photos from Secretary Clinton’s visit and to learn more.

This past Sunday, HealthRight International held a satellite session at the XVII International AIDS conference entitled The Hidden Crisis of HIV Among Street Youth:  Research and Rights-Based Approaches from Russia and Ukraine.  The session was sponsored by Johnson & Johnson, and speakers included:

• Tatiana Smolskaya, Head of the Northwest Regional AIDS Center in Russia
• Roman Yorick, HealthRight’s Regional Director for Russia and NIS
• Natalia Nizova, Director of the Ukrainian Center for AIDS Prevention and Control of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine
• Halyna Skipalska, HealthRight’s Ukraine Director
• Sharon D’Agostino, Vice President of Worldwide Corporate Contributions and Community Relations and Johnson and Johnson

In Russia and Ukraine, as in many countries, street youth face abandonment, abuse and neglect by their own families and by society. They are often on the streets because of poverty, drug use, sexual orientation or having lost one or both parents, among other reasons. Not only do we find staggering rates of HIV in this population (37.4% in St. Petersburg in 2006 and 10-28% in Ukraine in 2008), but once on the streets, these youth are also vulnerable to violence, sexual exploitation and other forms of abuse; drug use; and a range of related heath issues. They face severe stigma and discrimination by society and the health care system, and barriers to accessing even basic health care and social services, let alone HIV prevention and care. Even with the best intentions, programs may find it very difficult to reach these young people because they’re hidden, they’re mobile, they’re stigmatized and they’re criminalized.

In addition to presenting the results of HIV prevalence studies conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and HealthRight, panelists discussed the holistic models and innovative partnerships that HealthRight is using to reach these young people and retain them in programs effectively.  They discussed the nexus of several risk behaviors including transactional sex and drug use that put street involved youth at risk, and the fact that most services are not oriented toward young people or mobile populations, which is why it is very difficult to reach them with prevention and support services. HealthRight presented the continuum of care model used to reach street youth where they are, and help them transition off the street on their own terms, rather than forcing them into institutional care. Panelists also called for expanding the reach of effective interventions, the need to adapt policies to facilitate rather than hinder access to services, and the need to adjust programs to their realities by decentralizing services, making them mobile and making them youth-friendly. Audience members raised important points about the need for legislation regarding testing and treatment for minors without parental consent, and the growing population of youth who are over 18 and therefore may be excluded from services.

- Julie Becker, Vice President, Programs, HealthRight International

ARGHAKHANCHI, NEPAL – Maya never really gave a second thought to where she would deliver her baby. At 26, she already had 2 children; the third would follow suit and be born at home, the norm in this rural region. In her eighth month of pregnancy, Maya noticed a foul smelling discharge, and the baby wasn’t moving as much as it had. In the tenth month, she went with fear for her first antenatal check-up. The baby was large and the doctor recommended that the family prepare for a facility-based delivery. However, a month later, Maya started having labor pains at home and with the help of her mother-in-law, an untrained traditional birth attendant, her husband and her sister-in-law, she delivered a beautiful baby at 3 am.

Though her baby was safely delivered, Maya’s placenta was retained with continued excessive vaginal bleeding. Her family called a facility-based health assistant – but Maya’s hemorrhaging persisted and the assistant referred her to a local hospital. It took her family 2 hours to secure money and arrange for a vehicle. Maya died around 11:00 am, on the way to the hospital.

Maya’s experience is not unique, especially in the rural regions of southern Nepal where HealthRight International works. Maternal mortality rates in Nepal are among the highest in the world. According to UNICEF, 1 in 31 women in Nepal were at risk of dying during childbirth in 2005[1] and the reported maternal mortality rate from 2000 to 2006 is estimated to be 3 maternal deaths for every 1,000 births.[2] Nepal’s 2006 Demographic and Health Survey confirms some startling statistics: only 38% of women in rural areas receive antenatal care from a trained attendant and 81% of births in Nepal take place in the home, while 18% are in a health facility. Even more troubling, 19% of births were delivered by a traditional birth attendant, 50% were delivered by a relative or another untrained person, and 7% were delivered without any assistance at all.[3]

A safe pregnancy and delivery is a right that is sadly not afforded to all women. Maya’s story is one example of the inequality HealthRight’s Partnership for Maternal and Neonatal Health project in Nepal is combating by providing women with access to skilled care before, during and after delivery. Building upon previous experience working in Nepal with survivors of trafficking, HealthRight is partnering directly with local community government counterparts to ensure lasting access to care for mothers in remote regions of Nepal by strengthening health systems, advocating for rights and building the capacity of community members. The challenges are many, but HealthRight continues to bring change – one delivery at a time.

- Lindsay Martinez

[2] Ministry of Health and Population [Nepal], New ERA [Nepal] and Macro International Inc. 2007. Nepal Demographic and Health Survey 2006: Key Findings. Kathmandu, Nepal, and Calverton, Maryland, USA: Ministry of Health and Populatoin, New ERA and Macro International Inc.

[3] Ministry of Health and Population [Nepal], New ERA [Nepal] and Macro International Inc. 2007. Nepal Demographic and Health Survey 2006: Key Findings. Kathmandu, Nepal, and Calverton, Maryland, USA: Ministry of Health and Populatoin, New ERA and Macro International Inc.

SEATTLE, WA – It was an unusually warm and sunny day as more than forty doctors and mental health professionals gathered at the Swedish Medical Center to attend the first ever Human Rights Clinic training in the Seattle-Tacoma area, on June 11, 2010. The training was organized in collaboration with Dr. Richard Kovar, Medical Director of Country Doctor Community Health Centers, and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP).

The training provided participants with an in-depth understanding of the asylum process in the United States, how to evaluate the physical and psychological effects of torture on survivors and how to write effective affidavits. Presenters included Christopher Strawn, Asylum Unit Director and Staff Attorney at NWIRP; Dr. Stuart Lustig, HRC volunteer and Director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Training Program at the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute at UCSF; and Dr. Kovar.

NWIRP and Dr. Kovar worked closely with HRC for over a year before this month’s training, which begins the transition of their existing group of evaluators to the HRC network. HealthRight is excited to inherit a group of highly capable and dedicated health professionals into the HRC volunteer network. We look forward to impacting the lives of many survivors of torture and other human rights abuses in Seattle who need the help and expertise of trained health professionals.

Welcome, new volunteers, to the HRC and thank you for offering a warm welcome to the HRC in Seattle, WA!

This past Monday, HealthRight International and over 300 friends and supporters gathered in New York at the 2010 Health and Human Rights Awards. We were thrilled to recognize to the incredible work of this year’s awardees: Levi Strauss & Co. and the Ha Noi Women’s Union. We were also proud to host an all star line up including our event chair Dr. Paul Stoffels, host Jon Meacham, award presenters Anand Grover and Bill Roedy, and special guests Naomi Mann, Her Royal Highness Princess Madeleine of Sweden and His Excellency Ambassador Le Luong Minh of Viet Nam.

As many of you know, this year the Levi Strauss Foundation presented HealthRight with an incredible challenge grant, doubling all donations up to $25,000 in the lead up to and at the event. I’m proud to say that we not only reached the challenge grant amount, but  more than doubled it, breaking our fundraising record for the Health and Human Rights Awards.

Thanks to all of our incredible supporters who enabled us to reach this impressive goal. Your support makes you a crucial partner not only to HealthRight, but to community health workers in rural Kenya, families in Viet Nam, young people in Russia and thousands of others around the world.

We were also excited to premier a new animated short film, “Two Worlds”, produced by Academy Award winning filmmaker Rob Fried. Click here to see it now!

Thank you once more to our incredible supporters, awardees and participants, and to all of those who made this year’s event such a success. Stay tuned for updates on how your partnership is saving lives and realizing the right to health for communities around the world!