Although humanitarian agencies have been fighting hunger for many years, over recent times they are
faced with increasing difficulties in their work. Political instability, civil conflict, climate
change and the world food crisis is forcing humanitarian actors such as ACF is forcing them to re-evaluate their programs and find innovative ways to fight this disaster on all fronts. This lecture will introduce students to the present day challenges of an NGO working in this context and explain how its programs have been structured in order to provide direct access to beneficiaries in the most impartial and transparent manner possible.

Bio:
Mira Cuturilo is responsible for managing both the Operations and Human Resource Departments for Action against Hunger, Canada.  Mira graduated from the Elton Mayo School of Management at the University of South Australia with a specialty in Industrial Engineering. She is a Senior Organizational Development and Human Resource expert with almost 15 years experience in leading public organizations and NGO's though reform and change both in a developing and non-developing country context, and this experience has been gained in Australia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sierra Leone and now Canada.  For example, working for the World Health Organization in Cambodia, she developed the pilot template for administrative services reform for the Ministry of Health.  Whilst in Vietnam, Cambodia and Sierra Leone she led several health systems management programmes for local governments in the area of health financing and cost recovery, health surveillance as well as evaluation of public health systems.  Currently she supports Action against Hunger operations in over 40 countries by sourcing funding for emergency assistance as well as recruitment of young Canadian professionals who want to make a difference in the fight against global hunger.

This workshop will be an introduction to cultural safety and how it can facilitate a better understanding of the needs of Aboriginal populations and their health, especially with regards to the importance of environmental integrity. Examples of various Aboriginal traditions will be highlighted to illustrate how aboriginal health is intimately linked with environmental health. Participants will also be challenged with several different scenarios that will test their ability to apply the concept of cultural competency, particularly to different aspects of healthcare.

Bio:
The Global Health Advocacy Program (GHAP) was established by the Canadian Federation of Medical Students' Global Health Program (CFMS-GHP) in 2008 to promote leadership in the advocacy of important global health issues. This year's theme for advocacy is Aboriginal Health. The GHAP consists of Global Health Advocates (GHAs) from all Canadian medical schools, who act as local leaders to raise awareness about Aboriginal Health matters through local advocacy initiatives. For example, GHAs are collaborating across the nation to express the need to increase Aboriginal medical student enrollment.

L’accès à l’eau, la santé et l’éducation : des services clés qui peuvent contribuer concrètement à l’éradication de la pauvreté. Christine Girard (agente de mobilisation universitaire chez Oxfam-Québec) présentera la campagne d’Oxfam-Québec qui exige un accès universel et public à ces services : la campagne pour tous !. Suivra une présentation de Nathalie Turcotte, coopérante volontaire avec Oxfam-Québec de retour du Niger (Conseillère en développement organisationnel, de 2007 à 2009), qui présentera son expérience terrain de divers projets de coopération internationale menés par Oxfam-Québec au Niger, dans des domaines tels que l’accès à l’eau ainsi que la sécurité alimentaire.

Oxfam-Québec
Depuis 35 ans, Oxfam-Québec est au coeur du développement pour un monde sans pauvreté.

Using current research and examples, medical student Samantha Green will review the impact of climate change on health, from changes in malaria distribution to decreased food production to the emergence of environmental refugees.  She will discuss the need for healthcare providers to be engaged in debates for immediate action against climate change, and she will look at the importance of illness prevention and health promotion through advocacy.  She will also outline what we can do about environmental issues as students of global health.

Bio:
Samantha Green is a second year medical student at the University of Ottawa and Global Health Liaison to the Canadian Federation of Medical Students. Samantha has been engaged in environmental and social activism for years, and is currently a board member at the Sierra Youth Coalition, Canada's largest youth environmental organization. Samantha coordinates a medical student advocacy group that looks at issues of the environment and poverty through the lens of health and disease.

Atelier interactif traitant des conditions d'implantation et des défis liés à la mise en place de projets de développement en eau et assainissement au Burkina Faso selon la vision, l'expérience et les objectifs de l'organisation Ingénieurs sans frontières Canada. L'objectif premier sera de discuter de la complexité du développement et des défis liés à l'éducation et aux différences culturelles lors de l'installation de tels projets en eau et assainissement. La nature de l'organisation "Ingénieurs sans frontières Canada", qui regroupe des étudiants de tous les domaines, sera aussi présentée.

Bio:
Catherine Habel est membre de l'ONG canadienne Ingénieurs sans frontières depuis maintenant plus d'un an. Elle a eu la piqûre de l'implication outremer dès sa dernière année du secondaire et a participé à plusieurs projets à l'international depuis ce jour. En 2006, elle travaille à Managua, Nicaragua, dans un projet de valorisation d'un quartier violent et défavorisé. Elle vit alors sa première expérience de lutte pour les services de base: une manifestation est organisée par le projet ou elle travaille afin de contester la fermeture temporaire des services d'eau potable pour les quartiers défavorisés de la capitale. Depuis ce jour, elle s'intéresse énormément à la situation de l'eau et de l'assainissement dans le monde. Elle est en contact permanent avec les volontaires d'Ingénieurs sans frontières qui sont présentement au Burkina Faso et fait le lien entre eux et les membres de la section de l'Université de Sherbrooke. Aujourd'hui, elle continue de s'impliquer dans plusieurs projets de sensibilisation de la population de Sherbrooke tout en combinant ses études de médecine et son intérêt grandissant pour le développement international.

The struggle for water between South Asian powers may lead to cross-border insecurity, while ecological degradation, impending Climate Change challenges, the global food pricing crisis and the world's ongoing credit crisis pose significant challenges to the poor, hungry and dispossessed peoples of this region.

Bio: Dr. Raywat Deonandan is an epidemiologist, author and journalist. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine at the University of Ottawa (specializing in Global Health), and recently completed a one year tenure as the Chief Scientific Advisor to the Canadian federal government on the topic of Assisted Human Reproduction. He is a co-founder of Vak International, a consulting firm specializing in the evaluation of international health, development and human rights projects. The author of two acclaimed books of fiction, he is a recipient of the national book award of the nation of Guyana, and a freelance columnist for the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen and California's India Currents Magazine, as well as a regular columnist for the MicroSoft Canada website. The minor recurring character of Dr. Atul Deonandan on the Canadian science fiction TV show, "Re-Genesis", is based in large part on Dr. Raywat Deonandan.

Bio:
Maude Barlow is the National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians and Senior Advisor on Water to the President of the United Nations General Assembly. She also chairs the board of Washington-based Food and Water Watch and is a Councillor with the Hamburg-based World Future Council. Maude is the recipient of seven honorary doctorates as well as many awards, including the 2005 Right Livelihood Award (known as the “Alternative Nobel”), and the 2008 Canadian Environment Award. She is also the best selling author or co-author of 16 books, including the recently released Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and The Coming Battle for the Right to Water.

Modern agriculture has the makings of an increasingly high tech endeavor. With genetically modified crops, sophisticated machinery, and satellite monitoring of fields, technology has transformed how farmers produce food. These technological advances, while enormously important to the successes of modern agriculture, can obscure the underlying reality that growing food is still inherently a process governed by nature. Even in the most apparently bland farm landscapes, a remarkable diversity of organisms are present and essential to crop yields, and, although in many cases the crops themselves may be highly bred varieties, their specific attributes - be they resistance to pests, drought, or other stresses - exist only because a diverse pool of related varieties were available for them to be selected from. The diversity of crop varieties is, in short, an insurance policy to protect against future uncertainty in agriculture. These forms of biodiversity, both among and within species, are vital to growing food and ensuring the security of the food supply.

Bio:
Dr. Aaron Bernstein is a pediatric hospitalist at Children's Hospital Boston and has been a researcher at the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School since 2003. He is co-editor of Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity published by Oxford University Press. With a Foreword by Edward O. Wilson, this book explores the ways in which our health depends on nature, from the medicines we take, to the reliance of biomedical science on model organisms. He has also authored several pieces and spoken on topics related to sustainable agriculture, including serving as a panelist at the 2008 Slow Food Nation conference in San Francisco on climate change and agriculture. He has been named a Harvard University Zuckerman Fellow for 2008-2009. 

Dr. Garry Aslanyan joined the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) in December 2007 as Principal Advisor/Manager at the International Public Health Division and is mainly responsible for the PHAC’s multilateral relations with the key organizations/initiatives such as WHO and PAHO.  Prior to this current position, Dr. Aslanyan worked for six years as the Senior Health Advisor and later Team Leader of the Health Systems, Research and Analysis group at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) where he was responsible for development of CIDA’s policies in the health sector programming, including immunization, communicable and non-communicable disease prevention and control, health research and other international development issues.  Prior to joining CIDA, Dr. Aslanyan taught and researched at the University of Toronto and George Brown College and worked on international assignments for the World Bank and the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Europe.  Dr. Aslanyan is an Adjunct Professor in international health at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine.  From 2004 to 2007 Dr. Aslanyan was the President of the Ontario Public Health Association (OPHA).  He is trained in dentistry, public health and health policy and systems.  Dr. Aslanyan is a full Fellow of and currently the Examiner for the specialty of Dental Public Health with the Royal College of Dentists of Canada.

Hélène Delisle est professeur au Département de nutrition de la Faculté de médecine depuis 1985 et elle y est professeur titulaire depuis 1997. Auparavant, elle a oeuvré comme consultant en nutrition internationale pendant plusieurs années. Prof. Delisle détient un Master de nutrition de l’Université McGill au Canada et un Ph.D. en sciences cliniques de l’Université de Montréal. Sa formation complémentaire inclut le droit et l’économie rurale en France, ainsi que le management international en Californie. Ses travaux de recherche en cours portent sur le phénomène de transition nutritionnelle dans des populations urbaines de divers pays. Elle a créé au Département de nutrition une équipe de recherche TRANSNUT (pour transition nutritionnelle), ce qui a valu au Département de devenir Centre Collaborateur OMS sur la transition nutritionnelle et le développement en 2003. Une étude multicentrique sur les changements dans l’alimentation et le mode de vie en lien avec l’obésité et d’autres marqueurs de risque cardiovasculaire est en cours au Bénin, en Haïti et dans la communauté haïtienne de Montréal. Elle dirige en outre un projet de partenariat universitaire sur le double fardeau de la malnutrition avec le Bénin et le Burkina Faso, projet financé par l’ACDI (2008-2014).