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Campaign Focus:
SIGN-ON TO HELP PROTECT ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE MEDICINES!!
Pharmaceutical company Novartis is taking the Indian government to court. If the company wins, millions of people across the globe could have their sources of affordable medicines dry up.
Novartis was one of the 39 companies that took the South African government to court five years ago, in an effort to overturn the country's medicines act that was designed to bring drug prices down. Now Novartis is up to it again and is targeting India.
India produces affordable medicines that are vital to many people living in developing countries. Over half the medicines currently used for AIDS treatment in developing countries come from India and such medicines are used to treat over 80% of the 80,000 AIDS patients in Médecins Sans Frontières projects.

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Campaign Focus:
Cluster munitions are made up of a single canister containing between a dozen and a few hundred bomblets the size of a drink can.
Cluster bombs’ impact cannot be contained to specific targets. They spread their contents over a perimeter ranging from the equivalent of several football pitches to several hundred hectares, indiscriminately killing or maiming civilians.
Accidents occur when people attempt to move unexploded munitions due to economic necessity, curiosity or social responsibility. Civilians have to clear land for farming or to prevent children from playing with them. For example shepherds, farmers and children collecting firewood are common victims in Afghanistan. In poor communities it is also common for civilians to salvage military debris for their saleable scrap metal.

Organisation:
The stop cluster bombs campaign is run by Handicap International

You might find yourself wanting to get involved with organisations like Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Merlin, Red Cross/Red Crescent or Medicins Du Monde, but being nothing but a student, you might only find closed doors: ‘Experience needed’, ‘no electives offered’ and ‘qualified personnel only’.

Does that mean you have to wait till you qualify? Well, MSF for one specifies you need to have completed 2 years at senior house officer level before considering going out as a volunteer with them [1]. With the introduction of the Foundation Programme in August 2005, medical doctors completing the training will be required to have successfully completed F2 plus at least 1 year post F2 professional experience before you are ready to work for MSF. Nevertheless, getting involved with MSF is more than going out into the world, and as a student there is a wonderful variety of ways to support MSF, some of which are listed below. Personally, I have had an amazing time last year setting up the Sheffield ‘Friends of MSF’ (FoMSF) group, and the support from MSF head-office has been second to none. Furthermore, the speakers who came to speak were extremely supportive and had great patience in answering the multitude of questions which an excited student audience have to offer.

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Campaign Focus:
Every day over 4000 men, women and children in the world's poorest countries die as a result of lethal levels of smoke from indoor cooking fires. Poverty condemns half of the world's population to use wood, dung, charcoal and coal for cooking and heating their homes. The smoke produced from cooking fires causes the deaths of 1.5 million people every year; a life lost every 20 seconds, and a greater killer than malaria. Women and children are particularly vulnerable, as they spend between 3 and 7 hours by the fire, often inhaling smoke over 100 times above the accept safety levels.
Illnesses caused by smoke include chronic bronchitis, acute lower respiratory infections such as pneumonia and lung cancer. There is also increasing evidence linking it to asthma, TB and low birth weight. The international community has acted to combat other major threats to health in poor countries such as unsafe water and sanitation or unsafe sex. Yet smoke, the killer in the kitchen, has been largely ignored.

Sudden changes in UK immigration law, already in the news for their impact on overseas doctors, have also forced hundreds of students at UK medical schools to reevaluate their career plans. With immediate effect from April 3rd 2006 all doctors who are not residents of EEA countries have only been able to apply for training posts if their potential employer can prove that there are no EEA doctors available for that post. Importantly, this ruling also affects doctors from overseas who graduated from one of the UK's 31 medical schools and completed the 2 year foundation programme.

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Campaign Focus:
By 2020, the number of deaths and injuries from war and violence will overtake the number of deaths caused by killer diseases such as malaria and measles.
Lack of controls on the arms trade is fuelling conflict, poverty and human rights abuses worldwide. Every government is responsible. The Control Arms campaign is asking governments to toughen up controls on the arms trade.
The 'Million Faces' petition is collecting photos and self portraits from around the world to reach our goal of one million faces by June 2006. These faces will be used these to send a powerful, global message of support to the world's governments for an International Arms Trade Treaty.

Yesterday, over 1,500 people participated in the MSF/TAC meeting at the 2nd South African AIDS Conference. It was followed by a march to hand over a memorandum to the head of the AIDS Conference, Professor Lynn Morris.

At the MSF/TAC meeting the following important documents were released:
-Latest ">report of the Joint Civil Society Monitoring Forum on the state of the rollout of the treatment plan
-TB and HIV: A policy paper of the Treatment Action Campaign

Sir Bob unveiled plans yesterday for five free Live 8 concerts in London, Philadelphia, Rome, Paris and Berlin.

Find out all the details at http://www.live8live.com/

The line-up (shown below) including the almost ubiquitous Coldplay, Sir Elton, Lauryn Hill, Madonna and more, is impressive. You can't argue Bob Geldof knows how to attract the attention poverty in Africa certainly needs. This time the campaign wants 'your voice, not your money.'

"Still 20 years on, it strikes me as morally repulsive and intellectually absurd that people die of want in a world of surplus" Bob Geldof

The concerts, on the 2nd July, coincide with the G8 summit in Gleneagles, where the world's richest countries will meet. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are bringing to the table a package of change for Africa, as outlined by the Africa Commission, including debt cancellation and an increase in the aid given by the West.

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Name of Organisation:
The Burma Campaign UK