CLAN returned to New York City on 19 and 20 September 2011 to take part in the UN high-Level Meeting on NCDs. CLAN was fortunate enough to have been one of only two Australian NGO’s invited to attend the General Assembly meetings. It was an exciting couple of days with member states, such as Australia, making concrete commitments to addressing the challenges posed by NCDs. Amy Eussen attended the Opening Plenary of the High-Level Meeting in the General Assembly and Dr Armstrong attended Round Table 3 on the “Fostering international cooperation, as well as coordination, to address non-communicable diseases”.

During the time in New York City, CLAN also attended a variety of side-events being held. These included one hosted by the WHO entitled “What gets measured, gets done”; the NCD Alliance NGO Briefing before the Summit, as well as the De-briefing Session "From Advocacy to Action" after the Summit; the Global Health Council event “Tackling NCDs: How Can Existing Platforms Be Leveraged?”; WHO & UNAIDS UN Side-event on HIV and NCDs: "Achieving Health Equity: Uniting around a common agenda to address NCDs and HIV" and an event on “NCDs and the Law”.

A highlight of the time in New York was the attendance of Dr Armstrong at the “Every Woman, Every Child” launch of Commitments which was sponsored by the UN Secretary-General. This included CLAN’s commitment as a partner of the PMNCH (Partnership for Maternal and Newborn Child Health) to continue its grassroots work and lobbying and advocacy efforts on the international stage.

MEDIA ALERT    SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

Australian Not for Profit attends landmark UN Summit

An Australian not for profit attended a landmark summit on Non Communicable
Diseases (NCDs) at the United Nations on September 19 and 20.
Sydney based, Caring and Living As Neighbours (CLAN) was one of only two
Australian organisations invited to attend.

CLAN was represented by its President and Founder, Dr Kate Armstrong and fellow
Australian Amy Eussen (an international Public Lawyer and CLAN’s UN Coordinator).
“CLAN’s role as Chair of the NCD Alliance Child-focused Working Group has allowed
us to network with an amazing group of enthusiastic, dedicated and passionate
people, all equally committed to raising the profile of children and adolescents.”
said Dr Armstrong.

The UN General Assembly decided to hold this landmark summit to focus on four
prominent Non Communicable Diseases – cancers, chronic respiratory diseases,
cardio vascular diseases and diabetes. According to the World Health Organisation,
these conditions account for over sixty per cent of deaths around the world.

Participants discussed how to prevent millions of deaths from NCDs. Measures
included tobacco control, reducing the harmful use of alcohol, reducing salt intake,
and promoting healthy diets and exercise. The UN General Assembly acknowledges
that “The global burden and threat of NCDs constitutes one of the major challenges for development in
the twenty-first century, which undermines social and economic development
throughout the world.”

CLAN’s President and Founder, Dr. Kate Armstrong says despite widespread
adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to enjoy the
highest attainable standard of health, the reality is that enormous global inequities
exist for children living with chronic health conditions in low and middle-income
countries.

“It is not just adults that are affected by NCDs – children and adolescents are
susceptible to diabetes, cancer, asthma and heart disease, and more attention is
urgently required to redress the inequity these children experience.”
Dr Armstrong added “Traditionally these children and families have suffered in silence -
for too long they have had no voice. CLAN is committed to bringing the voices of these
children and families to the attention of the world”. “No child should die unnecessarily without care,”
and certainly “no child should suffer if we have the means to prevent it".

As children are our future, and one of the strongest universal motivators the world
has for changing ingrained behaviours, it is important that they are integrated within
all Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) policies and discussions. Unless actions taken to
prevent NCDs include children and adolescents in a meaningful way, opportunities for
sustainable effective solutions will be missed.

CLAN (Caring and Living as Neighbours) is an Australian based, non-government organisation
dedicated to the dream that all children living with chronic health conditions in resource-poor countries
of the world will enjoy a quality of life on par with that of their neighbours in wealthier countries.

For more information: -    Tracey Hawkins Budge for Furry Pig Media
0414 096 452 or email furrypigmedia@bigpond.com

MEDIA ALERT  -  OCTOBER 10, 2011

Helping children with Chronic Health Conditions 

An enthusiastic group of walkers have once again dusted off their trainers to raise money for CLAN (Caring and Living as Neighbours) by walking 45km around Jervis Bay on October 15 and 16.

The group hopes to build on their 2010 Blue Mountains 6ft track walk success which raised over $20,000. Money raised from the 2011 Jervis Bay endeavour will help to establish family support groups for children living with Nephrotic Syndrome (NS - a chronic kidney disease) and Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI - Brittle Bone Disease) in Vietnam and continue to translate medical texts and information books into the different languages of the countries where CLAN works.

“The money raised from this walk will enable CLAN to sponsor education and training
days in Ho Chi Minh City where hundreds of families of children affected by Chronic
Kidney Disease will come together to learn and support each other for the first time.
Our inaugural ‘Kidney Club’ will be held at two of the largest children’s hospitals in Ho
Chi Minh City in November. We have also been asked to help start a Club for children with Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) at the National Hospital of Pediatrics in Hanoi, and plan to do this in November 2011”, says CLAN’s President Dr Kate Armstrong.

“Without the enthusiastic fundraising efforts of our incredible volunteers and the 80
passionate friends of CLAN who have committed to walk around Jervis Bay we
wouldn’t be able to achieve the money needed to help children with kidney disease and OI
in Vietnam enjoy the highest quality of life possible. I would like to thank everyone for
joining in and caring about their neighbour’s children.”
 

Donations for the walk can be made at: www.gofundraise.com.au/page/JervisBayCLAN
All donations are tax deductible, and receipts will be provided automatically through
GoFundraise when you make your donation.

CLAN (Caring and Living as Neighbours) is an Australian based, non-government organisation dedicated to the dream that all children living with chronic health conditions in resource-poor countries of the world will enjoy a quality of life on par with that of their neighbours in wealthier countries.

If you would like to learn more about CLAN, please visit www.clanchildhealth.org.

For more media information, or for interviews with organisers or participants:
-    Tracey Hawkins Budge for Furry Pig Media on 0414 096 452 or email furrypigmedia@bigpond.com