Civil society representing twenty four NGOs from across eleven CARICOM territories came together to reflect, celebrate and plan the way forward for HCC’s 2017-2021 Strategic Plan. Some forty participants engaged in intense deliberations aimed at developing a draft framework for HCC’s upcoming strategic plan. This is the first in a series of consultations. The current 2012-2016 strategic plan expires at the end of this year; and was developed in 2011/2012 through a similar series of participatory processes. The packed one-day programme featured Dr. Karen Sealey, Dr. Beverley Barnett, Ms. Emma Hughes, Sir Trevor Hassell, Laura Tucker-Longsworth and Maisha Hutton, providing background and context as it related to HCC’s challenges and achievements to date; the national, regional and global reporting frameworks; and sharing of preliminary findings from the recently completed HCC CSO member capacity and information needs assessment.

Delegates agreed on the five strategic areas which will underpin the upcoming strategic framework: accountability, advocacy, capacity building, communication and sustainability. Draft goals, strategic objectives, expected outcomes, activities and partners were also developed for each of the five priority focus areas. Next steps will be to further develop and finalise the plan through a series of consultations with stakeholders at the national, regional and global levels. A major outcome of the meeting was a collective agreement to support the advancement of the childhood obesity interventions in the Caribbean from the civil society perspective. Participants felt passionate that this was a common area unifying their traditionally disparate disease-specific organisations; and they committed to work together to define a CSO agenda for action. With funding from the NCD Alliance, the HCC is currently developing a civil society action plan for childhood obesity which will form the basis of this regional agenda. More on this in the coming weeks and months.  
 
This meeting was supported by the NCD Alliance as part of the Expanding Access to Care, Supporting Global, regional and Country level NCD Action Programme in partnership with Medtronic Philanthropy.
 
Stay tuned to the roundup to see the meeting webpage with links to meeting materials including presentations, photos and the meeting report.

Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands, April 20, 2016: Child health, Zika, Healthy ageing and HIV AIDS are just some of the family health issues that will be addressed at the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) Health Research Conference this year. The Conference, which will be held at Beaches Resort in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), has received the full support of the Turks and Caicos Government. At a media conference held at the Office of the Premier, TCI, this morning, Premier, Dr Rufus Ewing expressed his delight at hosting the Conference. He said "TCI will gain tremendous exposure from this Conference. It is an opportunity for local health professionals, to share their experiences and challenges, to be educated and informed and for delegates to enjoy activities in the 'beautiful by nature' Turks and Caicos Islands." Read more

Cancer Support Services celebrated its 20th Anniversary on Sunday April 17, 2016 with a Thanksgiving Celebration at First Baptist Church on Constitution Road. The Charity journeyed through its 20 year existence with persons giving congratulatory tributes as well as a with a dramatic piece depicting the valleys and mountaintops experience.
 
Pastor Edwin Bullen was the special guest speaker, who shared his testimony of the service Cancer Support Services rendered to him when he was first diagnosed with leukemia and travelled to Canada for treatment. 

Visit the Cancer Support Services Facebook page for more videos and pictures from the event.

The University of the West Indies (UWI), University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech), Northern Caribbean University (NCU), Diabetes Association of Jamaica (DAJ) present DIABETES and the NERVOUS SYSTEM: Is there a role for cannabis compounds? April 28 - 30, 2016, at The Hyatt Ziva & Zilara Resort, Rose Hall, Montego Bay, Jamaica. Read more

Related articles:
Jamaica Gleaner - Is Ganja The Cure For Diabetes?
Jamaica Observer - Ganja takes centre stage at International Diabetes Conference.

CSOB Annual Church Service, Sunday, May 1st, 2016, 12th Annual Stride for Life ,Fun, Run, Walk 2016, Life, Hope, Love, Caring and Unity!. Saturday, May 7th 2016 and the Cancer Society 15th Annual Ball, Hold My Hand, Touch My Life!, Saturday May 28th, 2016. Read more

Rudolph Brown Jamaica Gleaner - As part of their last set of activities before final examinations, Nutribuddies, a group of University of the West Indies (UWI) students from the department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work, hosted a health fair at the UWI Undercroft building on Friday. Hosted under the theme 'Eat Smart for a Healthy Start', a number of health issues were discussed and several presentations made by nutrition specialists. Read more

Cancer Support Services held its second PSA Screening on Saturday April 16, 2016. Eighty Seven (87) men came out to be screened. It is evident that there is a new trend where younger males are being proactive by attending the screening programme hosted by the Charity. Dr. Jeetu Nebhnani was on hand to have an interactive session with the men.
 
The next PSA Screening will be on Saturday July 16, 2016 at Cancer Support Services on Belmont Road, St. Michael.

Find out more about Cancer Support Services on their website www.css.org.bb.

The Barbados Drug Service in collaboration with the Ministry of Education will be hosting a Panel Discussion on Thursday May 5th at the LLoyd Erskine Sandiford Conference Centre entitled  "Childhood Obesity - Prevention and Invention"

The lecture commences at 7pm, with pre-lecture displays from 6.30pm.

Alcohol is the common term for ethanol or ethyl alcohol, a chemical substance found in beer, wine, and liquor, as well as in some medicines, mouthwashes, household products, and essential oils, which are scented liquids taken from plants. Alcohol is produced through the fermentation of sugars and starches by yeast.Based on extensive reviews of research studies, there is a strong scientific consensus of an association between alcohol drinking and several types of cancer. Alcohol abuse, which is defined as more than 21 standard drinks in one week, is the second-largest risk factor for the development of oral cancer. Oral and pharyngeal cancer risk is almost tripled in alcohol drinkers who currently smoke tobacco, while it is 32 per cent higher in alcohol drinkers who do not currently smoke. Read more

The latest Innocenti Report Card raises concerns about the impact of inequality on the most disadvantaged children in high income countries. In 19 out of 41 countries studied, the poorest 10 per cent of children live in households that have less than half the income of the median. 

The report measures bottom-end inequality of income, educational achievement, children’s self-reported health and life satisfaction, to create a full portrait of how far children at the bottom are being allowed to fall behind their peers. Watch the video here.

Restaurants should routinely offer tap water to families to help fight child obesity, councils have said. Many restaurants only give tap water on request, despite a legal requirement for licensed premises to provide it, and most diners do not ask for tap water, a survey for the Local Government Association (LGA) found. Read more

Timing of Mars Food’s announcement of new labels on its ready-made pasta sauces raises suspicions Food campaigners have cautiously welcomed an announcement by the food giant that makes Dolmio pasta sauces that it will be advising consumers to eat the products only occasionally amid suspicions that the headline-grabbing move pre-empts the government’s childhood obesity strategy. The announcement by Mars Food was met with scepticism from the food and farming alliance Sustain, which warned that there was a danger that labelling foods as for “everyday” or “occasional” use would just further confuse shoppers. Read more

Related article from the BBC 'Why is there so much sugar in some savoury foods?'

Geneva 21 April (K M Gopakumar) – Developed countries are turning against the World Health Organization’s framework of engagement with non-State actors (FENSA). Many European countries are putting conditions for the adoption of FENSA, as negotiations enter into the last stage when the Open-Ended Intergovernmental Meeting on the draft FENSA meets on 25-27 April at the WHO headquarters in Geneva. Member States from the European Region are citing three issues to block the adoption of FENSA. First, the adoption of FENSA is possible only when there is a clear understanding on the implications of its implementation, especially financial and human resource implications. Read more

I'm not surprised - what I saw there horrified me. To my utter dismay, I spotted a young boy, probably no older than fourteen. Fourteen years old, and about fourteen stone. Dressed in his repulsive fluorescent school uniform, his face was flushed red from the almost impossible task of standing upright. In his hand? A two litre bottle of Sprite. Like an over-shaken can, outrage is spilling everywhere today. An investigation by The Times has outlined how Coca-Cola spends millions of dollars every year trying to disprove the undisprovable. Read more

Just over four years ago, my GP gave me unwelcome news: I had type 2 diabetes. I was shocked. I didn’t match the stereotypical patient profile of an overweight couch potato. Aged 59, I was thin, fit and 5ft 7in tall, drank frugally, went running every week and weighed just 10st 7lb. The outlook was not good, with the risk of heart attacks, strokes, blindness, amputations and a 36% greater chance of dying early. I thought, this can’t be happening to me; there has to be a way through. I started trawling the web for information and unearthed a report about a research trial at Newcastle University, led by Professor Roy Taylor. The results suggested you could reverse type 2 with a daily 800-calorie diet for eight weeks, depending on how quickly and how much weight you need to lose. Read more

The HCC is a regional network of Caribbean health NGOs and civil society organizations with the remit to combat chronic diseases (NCDs) and their associated risk factors and conditions. Our membership presently consists of more than 50 Caribbean-based health NGOs and over 55 not-for-profit organisations and, in excess of 200 individual members based in the Caribbean and across the globe.

To join the HCC email us at hcc@healthycaribbean.org