URGENT PRESS RELEASE

Hyderabad (India), Savar (Bangladesh), Managua (Nicaragua), 5th January 2003:

PEOPLE'S HEALTH MOVEMENT and INTERNATIONAL PEOPLE'S HEALTH COUNCIL launches:

The Million Signature Campaign:

A march on the Internet demanding HEALTH FOR ALL NOW!

"In the next 24 hours, over 30,000 children will die from preventable diseases on our planet earth. Today, while the world is writing a collective obituary of the future generation, we know why they are dying; we know who are responsible for these deaths. We know how these deaths can be stopped... Join 'The Million Signature Campaign', - a march demanding health for all."

These are not just statistics, but precious lives that the World Health Organisation promised to save 25 years ago. In 1978, World Health Organisation, the apex UN body dealing with health, promised Health for all by 2000 through a historic moment, the Alma Ata declaration.

"Since the Alma Ata declaration in 1978, responses were promising. However, the spirit of Alma Ata and the idea of Health For All has been under attack by anti-health, anti-poor policies, reemerging and new diseases, new challenges and above all by efforts to put private profit over public health. In the current international health crisis, it is more essential to reaffirm and implement the principles and strategies of Alma Ata" says www.themillionsignaturecampaign.org [1], the home page for this-web based campaign.

The Million Signature campaign was officially launched today simultaneously from Bangladesh, Nicaragua and India. Thousands of people participating in the Asian Social Forum at Hyderabad, India, are expected to extend their solidarity on the opening day of this web campaign. People's Health Movement is at Asian Social Forum to extend the solidarity of the global health movement.

25 years since the Alma Ata declaration, health for all by 2000 is not a reality. This signature campaign, initiated by the People's Health Movement and the International People's Health Council, is being endorsed by ordinary people from various walks of life and organisations, institutions, people's associations and others working for a just world.

Ms. Parven Akhter,