India's 1st Online 'Open' Press Conference

Press Release | The Institute of Palliative Medicine | May 15, 2011

India's 1st Online 'Open' Press Conference
11h30-12h00 IST, 16th May  (08h00 CET -Geneva)
The Million Message March to UN: On the March from India for the #Right2Health

The Institute of Palliative Medicine in Calicut invites you to a 'global' press conference to mark the launch of the Million Message March to the UN, and the 2nd World OPEN Health Assembly (WOHA) being held in tandem with the 64th World Health Assembly in Geneva. Social mobilisation via social media, from the bottom-up, to the top.

The press conference will be guided by three public health experts from Kerala: Dr. Suresh Kumar, Director of the Institute of Palliative Medicine WHO Collaborating Centre; Prof. Dr. Joe Thomas, Director of TSF Asia, UNAIDS; Saif Mohammed, Project Manager Palliative Care National Rural Health Mission Kerala; and global health activist Celina DCosta Menezes, Coordinator of IMAXI Cooperative, Kannur, and President of the World Care Council.

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. Journalists will also have instant open access to many frontline care givers and patients participating in the 'March' to the UN.

Join the Conference at the Institute of Palliative Medicine, or by:
Twitter: @MMM2UN   #WOHA
Skype: MMM2UN
Blogs: http://www.imaxi.org
FB: http://facebook.com/MillionMessageMarch

Media contacts:
Malayalam / English:  [email protected]  +91 9846690490
English/ French: [email protected]  +91 8129094433  / +41 787597991
Hindi / Konkanni:  [email protected]  +919673205044

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, 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, open-drafted into recommendations, can ‘Speak-Up’ and be heard at the top of the UN and its Member States.

Open Minds —> Open Source —> Open Health (Opening move:  An Open Press Conference!)