Dear Neal
Thank you for sharing the call to action - and more importantly for sharing the following questions that help make it personal and encourage us all to take action to ensure children are placed at the centre of our response and recovery plans:
* What is happening to child health where you work ?
* What is being done to raise awareness?
* What position or actions are being taken by professional organisations across medicine, nursing, midwifery and others?
* Is anybody listening?
It reminded me of a war cry from childhood swimming galas which ended: "And if you cannot hear us, then we will speak a little louder."
So how can we use all the resources we have at our disposal to build the most persuasive, non-negotiable case for the prioritisation of children and child health - from medical science, survey data, case studies, personal testimonies, children's voices, rights, ethics, law and international or national core standards to craft sharp, hard-hitting, powerful messages - and how can we step outside our comfort zones and reach out to colleagues in other sectors, build alliances and use our networks to speak out and influence national debates and decision making through mainstream media, parliamentary portfolio committees and national command centres.
Lori
CHIFA Profile: Lori Lake is commissioning editor at the Children's Institute, University of Cape Town in South Africa. Professional interests: I convene our child rights and advocacy courses for Health and allied professionals, and co-chair the advocacy committee in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health. I am interested in how children's rights can serve as a "language of critique" and a "language of possibility" that enables paediatricians to listen more deeply to children in their care, to consider the contexts in which they live, and to take action to improve the quality of care and to address the broader social determinants of health. lori.lake AT uct.ac.za
