World Tuberculosis Day

World Tuberculosis Day 

Today March 24th is known as World Tuberculosis Day - World Health Organization . World TB day (United Nations) is hosted by World Health Organization  and has been an annual event since 1982. March 24th was chosen as World TB day (WTBD)  because on March 24th back in 1882 a Doctor by the name of Robert Koch announced his discovery of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis which is the bacteria that causes Tuberculosis (aka TB.) 

Today on World (Stop) TB Day  serves as a day for the world to group together to raise awareness for Tuberculosis and mobilize Political and Social Commitment of continued progress towards fully eliminating TB. Though there has been a lot of progress with TB it remains one of  the worlds top health challenges with dismal statistics. In 2013 there were 9 million new Tuberculosis cases & 1.5 million people have died. 

For World Tuberculosis Day 2015 the theme is Reach. Treat. Cure Everyone. It is a call on all global citizens to continue the commitment to find, treat and cure all people with TB as well as the continual effort to eventually ending Tuberculosis all together by 2035. The 2015 World TB Day will signal the push for a renewed effort to alert Health Ministers to the global, regional and National TB emergency and emphasize the fact that current TB Situation is unacceptable. 

The campaign this year (2015)  also provides the platform needed to highlight the urgent need to fill the funding gap of $2 billion USD needed for TB interventions,  research and development and highlight the need to eliminate barriers to recommended TB Drugs and diagnostics.. 

TB should be everyone's concern and there fore everyone should take an active role in fighting against Tuberculosis. 

How you can help- 

Social media: Members of the public can join the World TB Day awareness-raising campaign hrough social media to bring attention to the Stop TB & World TB Day issues. 

You can take part by using the Suggested  hashtags #WTBD2015 #WorldTBDay2015 and #ReachTreatCureEveryone #Tuberculosis #TB and checking out the Stop TB Partnership Facebook Page or tweeting  @StopTB on Twitter

As of of today 9 million people become sick with Tuberculosis annually and roughly 3 million of those people do not get the care they deserve since they are either undiagnosed, untreated and ultimately uncured. In 2015 WHO wants to improve the quality of existing programmes and access to care and services of those who are impacted by Tuberculosis.  

There is a critical need to address weaknesses in Countries health systems and push the need for sustained and regular funding, political engagement and ultimately support. Countries need to take TB seriously and thus up their investments in Tuberculosis in a way that is cost efficient.TB should be everyone's concern and there fore everyone should take an active role in fighting against Tuberculosis. 

In May of 2014 the WHO passed and approved a New Post 2015 Global Tuberculosis strategy called the WHO End TB Strategy. The idea is to create a  world free of tuberculosis and end TB forever by 2035. The major parts of the Strategy were as follows

• INTEGRATED, PATIENT-CENTRED CARE AND PREVENTION
• BOLD POLICIES AND SUPPORTIVE SYSTEMS
• INTENSIFIED RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

The principles are

1. Government stewardship and accountability, with monitoring and evaluation
2.  Strong coalition with civil society organizations and communities 
3.  Protection and promotion of human rights, ethics and equity
4. Adaptation of the strategy and targets at country level, with global collaboration 

Some of the goals of the strategy are to decrease the rates of Tuberculosis related deaths by certain percents and specific times. By 2020 they want to reduce TB related deaths by 35%, in 2025 they want to reduce the rate by 75%, in 2030 they want to see the rate of TB caused deaths as low as 90% and eventually work towards 95% to total eradication of Tuberculosis and TB Caused deaths to  by 2035. 

The End TB strategy  calls on governments to adapt and implement the strategy with high-level commitment and financing . It reinforces a focus within the strategy on serving populations highly vulnerable to infection and poor health care access, such as migrants. The strategy and resolution highlight the need to engage partners within the health sector and beyond, such as in the fields of social protection, labour, immigration and justice. The resolution requests the WHO Secretariat to help Member States adapt and operationalize the strategy, noting the importance of tackling the problem of multidrug-resistant TB and promoting collaboration across international borders. WHO is also asked to monitor implementation and evaluate progress towards the milestones and the 2035 targets.

#DEARME International Women's Day 2015 & the Dear me initiave Vlog

Welcome to GOAL setting 2.0 & Say Hello to SWOT planning

Welcome to my second series of Goal setting techniques & strategies. These are a bit more advanced than my previous Series Goal Setting 101.
The first in my new series is SWOT Planning, which is a method you apply BEFORE you start setting goals!!!!! 

SWOT stands for Strengths, weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Basically SWOT is to help you map out (a group) or your own strengths; weaknesses, identify threats and figure out how everything all relates to opportunities.  I will show you 3 different ways SWOT can be applied - each one slightly more complicated as we go along. 

 This is an example of how to do a very simple SWOT analysis. See Strengths and weaknesses can be internal (both you as a person or within a group) where as opportunities and threats are external (outside of your control.)

1. What I want you to do is to identify some of your Strengths and some of your weaknesses.
2.  The first part in the External columns are opportunities. These can be defined as the current opportunity you have, or the opportunities that can come from this project; they can also be future things that can happen, all in all they are any advantages you may see from doing this.  
3. Lastly identify any threats that you or the project may face. These can include environmental threats, opposing mentality threats, or even inner threats you may face (Such as in your own head.) 

Now that you have your SWOT analysis you can use it to help you set your current goals & hopefully by taking a good look at yourself & fully assessing the situation you can set much more realistic goals. 

 This is a slightly more complicated SWOT Analysis. See how it creates a grid pattern where your strengths (internal) and opportunities (external) are Helpful & positive things where as the Weaknesses (Internal) & Threats (external) fall under the Harmful & negative category.

Take some time to dwell on this new SWOT analysis as you  name your strengths, identify the opportunities that are to your advantage and take a hard look at your weaknesses and identify the threats you may face that might put you at a disadvantage.

Lastly we have the most complex SWOT analysis chart. Where you have a 9x9 column. This is a bit more tricky. 

1. So why don't you fill out the top row first & identify your Strengths as well as your weaknesses. 
2. Secondly shift your attention to the far Left columns and figure out the opportunities you could benefit from & identify threats you might face. 

This is where it gets tricky

•  Next head to the middle column and fill Center Box. You will see opportunities --> Strengths strategies. Use the strengths you identified to create a plan that would allow you to take the most advantage of your opportunities!! 
• Next look at the bottom middle box where it says Threat --> Strength strategies. Use the strengths you identified to AVOID the THREATS (if you can!) 
• Lastly we will look at the far right box column, center down. 
• Opportunity --> Weaknesses strategies. This is going to become the guide to OVERCOME your weaknesses by taking advantage of your opportunities. 
• Take a look at the bottom Right Box now. 
• Threat --> Weakness Strategies. This will become your guide to how you can minimize your weaknesses to avoid threats! 

 There now you are SWOT certifed PRE- GOAL planning strategy planners :) I hope this makes sense, if not try to google the method or attempt the easiest method first before you try the more difficult ones :)

GID Goal Planning

Get It Done 

Welcome to the last part of Goal Setting 101 - aka the forgotten chapter since I apparently forgot to add this to my goal setting 101 series even though I made a reference to it. 

Once you have your goals set and sorted into primary or secondary & have created an ideal timeline for when you want to achieve these goals, it comes time for the Post GOAL setting planning stage. 

Basically once you have the goals laid out, it's time to prioritize them & GET IT DONE - It's GI(ddy) up time ya'll. So go forth and set some goals my young pad-wan learners and find your inner yoda and achieve the goals. There is not try only do or do not ;) 

ALSO keep your eyes peeled for GOAL Setting for the more advanced which should be coming at yo faces later today :D