We invited the children who participated in our Shine A Light Poster Competition earlier this season to use their creativity to express their views on health.
Sahara, a winner of the competition, created this drawing.
Poor health can take away dreams from children because it makes them incapable of pursuing their dreams and limits their ability to hold onto them. Sahara said that the way they view the world would also change.
Holly, whose poster made the shortlist for the competition, shared her thoughts on this drawing.
Holly said, “I drew the picture with hands on each other because many people are working to stop parasitic diseases”. Holly Jones believes that illness is what prevents children from fulfilling their dreams.
Holly said, “Because of their illness, they’re not able to do things and are excluded from them. They are sometimes unable to attend school. They are not educated for the jobs they want to do, such as being a nurse.
Sahara and Holly, thank you for sharing with us what health means to you and for your inspiring drawings. They really reflect the core of our new brand.
It may seem obvious, but these steps represent a major departure from how we have been operating up to now. We must be careful that as a partner organization based outside the countries we support, the way we work does not create structures, power dynamics, or systems that are detrimental to the goals we all share.
Our organization has always been committed to not having offices in any country, mainly because it wanted to avoid the possibility of parallel structures being set up. We need to modify our processes and work methods to challenge and transform the remaining barriers that prevent health systems from being resilient, country ownership, and equity. How we work is just as important as What.
In order to achieve this, we will not only need to engage new funders but also support our country partners in mobilizing their resources. This is a totally different way of working, but it’s essential for the change we are trying to achieve.
Zooming in – Why We Do what
In 2002, we were established as the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative. At that time, our name reflected exactly what we did. The disease control field has changed from Control to Elimination. And global health, in general, has also evolved from programme-driven assistance to strengthening health systems. I believe that our work and the work of the wider NTD community should also support the broader agenda of equity in health and resilience of health systems by responding to the needs of our Ministry of Health client, who are ultimately responsible for the health of all their citizens.
Our new name, Unlimited health, is based on this new Why of Health without Limits for All. In our new slogan, we aim to eliminate parasitic diseases as a team.
With our new strategy, we are confident that this new brand will enable us to support the country-owned solutions that eliminate parasitic infection for good.