Publications Netlink Netlink - November 2008
| Netlink - November 2008 |
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Netlink is a bi- monthly email newsletter of the Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network (EPN). Its purpose is to keep EPN members in touch and updated on what is going on within the Network. If you would like to contribute or comments on the content, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . This and previous editions of Netlink are available at http://www.epnetwork.org/ For thought …“You are the guardians of the dream of "Health for "All". You have the opportunity and responsibility to lead the world into a healthy place. You are the enactors of justice: justice in the distribution of a country's wealth for health…justice to save the lives of your people and enable them to prosper and build healthy nations! God is watching. The people are waiting. You are commissioned to go wipe the tears away from all faces and bring forth lives filled with strength, and purpose which will make for peace.” Archbishop Desmond Tutu Ecumenical Pre Conference (XVII International AIDS Conference)The Ecumenical preconference was held in Mexico City on 31st July- 2nd August 2008, a few days prior to the main International AIDS Society Conference. The conference was aimed at bringing together ecumenical participants involved in addressing HIV and AIDS issue. The conference was attended by Jonathan Mwiindi on behalf of EPN. About 500 Christians from all over the world participated in plenary sessions, skill building workshops, and daily worship during the Pre-conference. It engaged participants in: exploring the challenges posed by the HIV and AIDS pandemic to people of faith, an evaluation of action taken, and planning of strategies still required to put the Gospel into action in the Christian response to HIV and AIDS. EPN holds its biennial forumEPN held its biennial forum 15th - 20th June 2008 in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The Forum which was hosted by the Council of Protestant Churches of Cameroon (CEPCA) in collaboration with Catholic Health Service of Cameroon (OCASC) brought together EPN members from 22 countries. The theme of this Forum was Pharmaceutical Standards. Key discussions during the Forum were on the EPN guidelines and standards, sustainability of Drug Supply Organizations, (DSO’s), Pharmacovigilance and Antimicrobial Resistance. A full report will soon be available from the secretariat. Francophone workshop on Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)The first EPN francophone workshop on Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for DSOs and CHIs was held in Yaoundé, Cameroon on 9th -12th June 2008. The workshop was attended by 32 participants from a cross section of francophone countries in Africa. The workshop was funded by Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). It was organized by EPN in collaboration with CEPCA and OCASC. The specific objective for this workshop was to strengthen the capacity of participants on how to develop effective SOPs at the DSOs and CHIs. Participants were expected to identify an area in their work or organization where they would develop and implement an SOP and subsequently provide feedback and exchange experiences on the process to the other participants. EPN organizes Francophone members’ dayEPN francophone members met in Yaoundé on 13th of June in a meeting aimed at strengthening networks and to plan the steps of action. Ms Anke Meiburg, the EPN Francophone programme officer organized the activity. The activity was a platform for francophone EPN members to get to know more about EPN and to discuss and express their expectations of EPN. It was also an opportunity to develop an action plan on how to promote the active participation of francophone members in the network and how to facilitate effective communications between members and with the secretariat. EPN’s New Deputy Coordinator participates in WHO/Community Health Global Network consultative meeting The meeting was attended by representatives of various NGOs from across the world working in health particularly at grass root level. Donna Kusemererwa, EPN’s Deputy Coordinator represented EPN in the meeting. Also present was Sara Bhattacharji an EPN Board member, who works with CMC Vellore, which is a member organisation of EPN. FIP Global conference on the future of hospital pharmacyHospital pharmacists from around the world met on 28th August -4th September 2008 in Basel, Switzerland and successfully developed 74 consensus statements on 6 key areas reflecting the profession’s preferred vision of practice in the hospital setting. The Global Conference on the Future of Hospital Pharmacy was hosted by the FIP Hospital Pharmacy Section as part of the 68th Annual Congress of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP). The outcome of the hospital pharmacy is relevant to EPN as a number of the members are either hospitals or drug supply organizations therefore dealing with procurement. It is important for each EPN member organization and the church institutions to have a copy of the agreed consensus statements and to identify what they can implement within their own context. A copy is on the EPN website. MEMS conducts training on Standard Operating ProceduresMission for Essential Medicine and Supply (MEMS) in collaboration with EPN, on 4th - 6th June 2008, organized a workshop for member hospitals. The workshop was held at the Centre for Educational Development in Health (CEDHA) in Arusha-Tanzania. Participants were selected from twenty faith based hospitals participating in MEMS projects, specifically managers of pharmacies in their respective hospitals. The training covered elements of pharmaceutical management especially on how Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) can help to maintain service and professional standards. Key message was that SOP development and its implementation needs to be participative, i.e. Managers who develop SOP must involve their staff so as to increase acceptance during implementation. Participants promised to raise awareness on the importance of SOPs at their working places, participate on SOPs development and implementation including training other pharmacy workers and getting feedback for monitoring purposes. MEMS mandate will be to follow up and assess status of implementation of the hospital plans during support supervision visits to the hospitals. Visit to partnersEva Ombaka, EPN Coordinator and Albert Petersen EPN Board Chairman on 15th-17th September visited partners in order to find new ways of collaborations. DFID was among the partner visited where the coordinator met with Dr Saul Walker; Charles Clift and Richard Gregory. She also met with Dr W Bannenberg (Hera) and Shawn Conway (Re-Action) and deliberated on the idea of a consortium to bid for some expected SADC work. The two visited and made a presentation about EPN to Community Health Global Network (CHGN) staff Zannah Jeffreys, Operations Manager. They discussed the possibility of developing tools and activities that could support community health workers and pharmaceutical provision in under-resourced areas through churches and primary healthcare. They also held a meeting with the staff in the drugs and medicines supply section where the issue of drug donations was discussed. The proposal to buy medical supplies for the missionary institutions through the church DSO such as MEDS and JMS was also discussed. They also visited Dr. Rachel Baggaley of Christian Aid, and discussed greater collaboration between EPN and the Christian Aid office in a Nairobi. EPN Coordinator attends the World Health AssemblyEPN Coordinator, Dr. Eva Ombaka attended this year’s World Health Assembly that took place on 19th -24th May 2008 in Geneva. The major focus was removing intellectual property barriers to essential research and development for public health. The resolution includes a Global strategy on public health, innovation and intellectual property. The second edition of the HAI/WHO pricing survey manual: Measuring medicine prices, availability, and affordability and price components was also launched. CHAK opens its guest house to publicChristian Health Association of Kenya (CHAK), one of the member organisations of EPN on 25th of September 2008 officially opened its guest house to the public. On this day the main contractors handed over CHAK offices, guest house and training centre to the board and management team of CHAK. Guests were given a tour to the facility by Mr. Patrick Kundu the chief architect and later gathered in one of the conference rooms to listen to various addresses led by Dr. Samuel Mwenda, CHAK’s General Secretary. EPN gets new staff membersEPN secretariat in July and September this year hired two new staff members. Among the new staff is the Deputy Coordinator, Ms. Donna Kusemererwa (a former EPN Board member and General Manager of Joint Medical Store (JMS) in Uganda, which is a member of EPN). In July Ms. Angela Mutegi joined EPN as the Communications Officer. Useful resources from e-drugThe following booklets from e-Drug discussion are useful for those involved in drug procurement storage and distribution. We are still following up on having French booklets
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