Brahma Kumaris at United Nations

The Committee of Religious Non-governmental Organizations at the United Nations

A presentation on Exploring the Practice of Reconciliation was offered by the RNGO Committee, Tuesday, November 25, 2008 in recognition of 2009 as the Year of Reconciliation.

Professor Paul F. Knitter, of the Union Theological Seminary offered his personal experience as a Buddhist Christian. His practices are how to engage in peace work according to the principles of the Gospels. For Prof. Knitter, peace is reconciliation.

In a situation in Latin America it was his Christian thought to “announce to denounce”, blaming the oppressors and pinting out their failings. The Buddhists he was working with indicated that “they do not denounce”. The Buddhist perspective of us all being “an interbeing”, then results in not taking sides because taking sides and denouncing one, is denouncing the whole.

Professor Knitter indicated in Christianity “If you want peace, work for Justice.” For the Buddhist he indicated it is “If you want justice, work for peace.” Reconciliation precedes justice and “that the only way to be safe from your enemies is to love them.”

Professor Ziad Fahed at Auburn Theological Seminary and from Notre Dame University in Lebanon spoke about reconciliation in Lebanon. There are three phases in reconciliation.

1. Negative – to fight
2. Passive – to have no interaction
3. positive – working together as a duty

He stated. “The Supreme challenge for reconciliation is to see God in the image which is different that our self.” In order for reconciliation there needs to be truth for “truth telling is a condition for peace. When you lie, you die.”
Erik

The NGO DPI briefing on 13 November was held to commemorate the second World Diabetes Day the next day with a focus on spreading awareness for helping children around the world with diabetes.

Pictured:  Werner Obermeyer, Maria-Luisa Chavez, Professor Martin Silink, Dr. Larry Deeb

A couple of children and their parents shared some touching stories about growing up with diabetes and caring for a child with diabetes.  The challenges of having to constantly monitor blood sugar levels a 24/7 job, the maturity of the 12 year old children (both  having been diagnosed at 7 years of age) to help maintain their health and the hope they all have for a cure.  The commitment and support they have from family members, friends and teachers.  Jake and his family help fund raise for diabetes research through a nonprofit organization they founded teambrotherlylove.org.  Both Kayla and Jake appreciate the technology of the pump for diabetes which cuts back on all of the insulin injections they previously had to endure.  Both children live active and productive lives but must always be careful to stay healthy and despite the challenges want to help others as much as possible to manage this disease.

Ms. Sonia Davis and her daughter Kayla Thomas, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Volunteers, Jake Fine and his mother Mrs. Deborah Fine his father Dr. Richard Fine (not pictured was there filming their presentation),   Maria-Luisa Chavez introduced the young speakers and their families.

Speakers:

• Werner Obermeyer; Deputy to the Executive Director and Senior External Relations Officer, World Health Organization (WHO) Office at United Nations, New York gave a presentation showing statistics from WHO on the fact that both types of diabetes 1 and 2 are on the rise.  While the cause of type 1 diabetes is not known, type 2 can be prevented by lifestyle choices.  If diabetes is left unchecked the cost of caring for these individuals medically will continue to increase greatly.  So where they can WHO’s mission is to prevent diabetes and when this is not possible they will lower complication issues and make quality of life better.  One program which compliments WHO’s diabetes program is the WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health which promotes healthy eating and physical exercise on a broad scale.

• Professor Martin Silink, President, International Diabetes Federation (IDF), said that this organization headquartered in Brussels had been associated with WHO for 57 years and that it is also an NGO affiliated with the Department of Public Information.  The 192 Member States all ratified the resolution (which was entered under the agenda item Millennium Development Goals Outcomes, due to it’s impact on development) for World UN Day on 20 December 2006.  And so last year diabetes got an official UN World Day as the first non-communicable disease recognized by the international community as a risk to the whole world.  He showed before and after pictures of people treated with the hormone insulin which was discovered in 1921.  The greatest challenge lies in getting treatment to children around the world because insulin has to be kept cool.  This is due both to accessibility and affordability issues in developing countries.  The focus of the day this year was to spread awareness about children with diabetes and how to help them.

A Discovery Health Film featuring the challenges for children with diabetes in South Africa and the developing world.  Watch film online: Diabetes: A Global Epidemic

lifeforachild.org

• Dr. Larry Deeb, Immediate Past President, American Diabetes Association, presented the idea that no child should die from diabetes.  Children with type 1 diabetes need insulin to live.  A big focus of the International Diabetes Foundation (IDF) this year was especially to prevent diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) a life threatening progression of diabetes, if untreated death follows in about a week.  For the management of diabetes the IDF recommends three levels of care minimal care, standard care, and comprehensive care.  He gave an example of children in Tanzania under minimal care which kept them healthy enough to stay out of the hospital.  A challenge in treating children with diabetes is that it is different treating them in their different stages of life and that all three kinds of care and the technology for them to be available would help to treat them.  He reiterated that it really costs very little to keep a child with diabetes alive.  In his conclusion he shared the work of The Life for a Child Campaign and Rotary International’s leadership role in helping the IDF to get insulin to where it is needed.

In 2007 at UN Headquarters a group dressed in blue to form the logo:

The World Diabetes Day logo is the blue circle - the global symbol for diabetes which was developed as part of the Unite for Diabetes awareness campaign.  The logo was adopted in 2007 to mark the passage of the United Nations World Diabetes Day Resolution.  The significance of the blue circle symbol is overwhelmingly positive.  Across cultures, the circle symbolizes life and health.  The colour blue reflects the sky that unites all nations and is the colour of the United Nations flag.  The blue circle signifies the unity of the global diabetes community in response to the diabetes pandemic.

(significance of the logo taken from website below)

worlddiabetesday.org

 UN Headquarters on 14 November 2008 joined other buildings around the world by lighting up in blue to spread awareness for World Diabetes Day.  The Secretary General’s statement and another photo of UN Headquarters in commemoration of the day can be seen at the following links.

un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=3539
unmultimedia.org/photo/detail/206/0206052.html

It is good to raise awareness of how with a bit of organization and cooperation diabetes can be treated around the world and lives can be saved.  Much is being done but until there is a cure for diabetes more can be done to help distribute insulin and get it to those who need it.

Kymberly Fayth

millenniumvillages.org

Moderator:

• Gail Bindley-Taylor Sainte, Information Officer at the NGO Relations Cluster, in the Department of Public Information, started off the briefing highlighting the concept of Millennium Villages as a model for getting extremely poverty stricken areas in Africa lifted out of these situations.

Speakers:

• Eric Kashambuzi, Liaison for Millennium Promise and Principal Advisor to the CEO of Millennium Promise, shared the history of Millenium Villages which provide a way from the ground up to form a more stable situation.  This came out of wanting to reach the MDG goals in time.  Secretary General Kofi Annan reviewed the progress of the MDG’s as proposed by the General Assembly with  Professor Jeffrey Sachs whom he comissioned as head of the task force.  Mr. Sachs came up with the Millennium Villages through consulting with Member States, NGO’s and members of the UN System.  The concept was to actually get things in motion called Quick Impact Initiatives, with water, agriculture, school feeding programs, communication and transportation.   Member States selected 10 African countries in 2005 to participate Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda have programs going on now.  An assessment was turned into the General Assembly in 2008 with positive results and more support for new Millenium Village programs are being requested.  Mr. Kashambuzi asked the NGO’s to provide any new ideas to further the progress of these villages especially to help meet the MDG goals by 2015.

• Patrick Haverman, Project Manager, Millennium Village, Regional Bureau for Africa, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), further explained how the Millennium Villages work.  They provide resources, and necessities for empowering rural villages which enables them to get out of poverty.  The programs have been set up in ecologically diverse areas and focus on four main areas, health, water and environment, infrastructure and agriculture.  Mr. Haverman also noted that the programs require cooperation from different areas, and key sponsors the approach is integrated and uses the community itself to make things work and to transform the economic structure so that this can continue in the future.  Sponsors of the program include UNDP, Millennium Promise, and Earth Institute with other donors to funds approximately $110 USD per villager per year which is fairly inexpensive.  Successes on different levels have been achieved with the help of many partnerships and with the help of NGOs  with simple affordable methods to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

• Rebbie Harawa, Coordinator, the Millennium Village, joined us from Melawi via video conference call.  School attendance has increased since children are being  fed there and agricultural production has increased due to fertilizers and new farming tecniques, to beyond just the needs of the family so extra crops can be sold.  This is allowing for families to buy household goods and also enabling them to be able to save money in the bank.  Some health challenges are being dealt with and this is helping to restore a hopeful attitude.  Also family planning clinics are educating the population to keep the population from rapidly increasing.

• Philippe Poinsot, Deputy Programme, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Mali, presented the Millennium Village programs in Mali.  The government and UNDP are working in cooperation for two projects there and the government is very supportive to increase the food security and would like to increase the scope of the programs.

• George Ayittey, Professor of Economics, American University, cautioned that the village projects not employ too many western methods but rather focus on traditional leadership for decision making. He works with Free Africa Foundation freeafrica.org and they were able to create malaria free zones for about 50,000 farmers as well as utilize traditional palm agriculture and help augment the oil production.  He stressed that development programs implemented in African countries need to be sustainable. Dr. Ayittey also pointed out that Africa is rich in natural resources but that constant political conflict struggles have undermined the ability to feed its peoples.

Millennium Villages and Free Africa Foundation are helping to renew some villages in African countries.  Much more needs to be done on a widespread scale to really make an impact.  Cooperation from many groups is needed for ongoing success and corruption and misuse of resources needs to be addressed in order to promote good projects like these to multiply and help so many that have such daily struggles to just survive.  May the people of the world recognize the need to help one another so poverty can be eradicated from Africa and many other corners of the planet as well.

Kymberly Schneider