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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE UNFPA Executive Director Initiates Fellowship Program at Johns HopkinsBaltimore, Md. (October 25, 2000)—On October 5, 2000, UNFPA Executive Director, Dr. Nafis Sadik, gave the Dean's Lecture entitled "Reproductive Health and Family Planning in the Age of HIV/AIDS: the Future of UNFPA," which launched the Nafis Sadik Leadership Fellows Program. She addressed an attentive, standing-room only crowd in the Becton Dickinson Lecture Hall at the School of Hygiene and Public Health and remarked that "these fellowships show how far we have come in recognizing population and especially reproductive health, including family planning, as a public health concern, and the vital importance of the reproductive health of young people." The Nafis Sadik Leadership Fellows Program was established in February 1999 through the fundraising efforts of Dr. Phyllis Tilson Piotrow of the Center for Communication Programs of the School of Hygiene and Public Health. The program aims to build developing countries' capacity to plan, carry out, and manage innovative reproductive health programs that use modern communication and technologies to encourage behavior change at individual and community levels. The first fellowships were awarded for the 2000-2001 academic year. The fellows include Arzum Ciloglu (Dr. P.H. candidate, Turkey), Dr. Samuel Mills (M.H.S. candidate, Ghana), Haijang Wang (Ph.D. candidate, People's Republic of China), Dr. Irina Zablotska (Ph.D. candidate, Ukraine), and Mona Sharan (Ph.D. candidate, India). During her speech, Dr. Sadik reminded public health students, faculty, and staff of the urgency of addressing HIV/AIDS and the need to form partnerships with men so that they'll support their own reproductive health choices, in addition to supporting women's reproductive health choices. "The HIV/AIDS pandemic throws this imperative into high relief," she stated. "HIV/AIDS poses the greatest threat in the last hundred years to the survival of societies all over the globe, but especially in developing countries that do not have the technological or financial resources to fight it. The only recourse for these countries—the only recourse—is to change individual behavior, and that means challenging a whole range of assumptions." The audience heard possible solutions to the global HIV/AIDS threat that UNFPA may adopt as guidelines during the next decade, including "...more focussed programs, more priority for reproductive health, a willingness to admit that AIDS is a major global threat, not just another disease." Further, she announced that, "We need resources, national and international. We need above all leadership." She concluded her presentation with encouragement: "As public health professionals, you have never been more important. I wish you as much joy in your work as I have had in mine; and I hope that by your efforts, the next 30 years will be as successful in witnessing an increase in quality reproductive health services for all and the eradication of the HIV/AIDS pandemic through the world."
For more information contact: Dana Weckesser at Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs, 111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, Maryland 21202, USA. Tel: 410 659-6300; Fax: 410 659-6266; E-mail press@jhuccp.org |
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