Education for Change

Days in the quarter

World Health Day, 7th April
Theme: Save lives. Make hospitals safe in emergencies World Health Day 2009 focuses on the safety of health facilities and the readiness of health workers to treat emergencies. Health centres and staff are critical lifelines for vulnerable people in disasters - treating injuries, preventing illnesses and caring for people’s health needs. Often, already fragile health systems are unable to keep functioning through a disaster, with immediate and future public health consequences.
This year, WHO and international partners are underscoring the importance of investing in health infrastructure that can withstand hazards and serve people in immediate need. They are also urging health facilities to implement systems to respond to internal emergencies, such as fires,
and ensure the continuity of care.

International Day of Families, 14 May
Theme: Mothers and Families: Challenges in a Changing World

The day focuses on the important role of mothers for families and communities around the world. It aims to highlight the critical role of mothers in a family towards social cohesion, as a care giver and bread winner, and their plight in the society and continuity to face major – and even life threatening – challenges in motherhood. The year aims to focus on:
Childbirth: aim to provide safer pregnancy and childbirth, enabling health systems to provide family planning, skilled attendance at birth and emergency obstetric care.
Violence against women: ending and preventing violence against women as a key priority for all countries.
Universal access to education: The benefits of educating women and girls accrue not only to individual families but to whole countries, unlocking the potential of women to contribute to broader development efforts.

Besides these measures the day also focuses on the need to expand family-friendly policies and services, such as child care centres, that would reduce some of the workload placed on women. Women and men alike need stronger public support to share equally in work and family responsibilities. Families built on the recognition of equality between women and men will contribute to more stable and productive societies.

For more information visit:
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/family/idf09.html

World Environment Day, 5 June
Theme: Your Planet Needs You-UNite to Combat Climate Change’

Established by the UN General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, the world environment day (WED) is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action.

The day’s agenda is to:

• Give a human face to environmental issues;
• Empower people to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development
• Promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues
• Advocate partnership which will ensure all nations and peoples enjoy a safer and more prosperous future. The theme for WED 2009 reflects the urgency for nations to agree on a new deal at the crucial climate convention meeting in Copenhagen some 180 days later in the year, and the links with overcoming poverty and improved management of forests.

For more information visit:
http://www.unep.org/wed/2009

World Ocean Day, 8 June
Theme: Our Oceans, Our Responsibility
The oceans are essential to food security and the health and survival of all life, power our climate and are a critical part of the biosphere. The official designation of World Oceans Day is an opportunity to raise global awareness of the current challenges faced by the international
community in connection with the oceans.

For more information visit:
http://www.un.org/Depts/los/reference_files/
worldoceansday.htm