Week 2, An Initial List of Resources

As a member of the class group looking at Global Health Concerns, I thought that my first round of resources should look at health concerns on the macro scale. As the quarter progresses, it is my intention to become more and more specific about what specific health issues we should direct our focus. As one can see by looking at the links provided, the number of health concerns facing our world -- and thus our churches -- are myriad. How does one begin to think missionally or Christianly about issues that are so prevalent and for which solutions seem to be so impossible? The difficulties of solutions are why I decided this week to simply link to sites that are primarily research oriented. We need to have some basic understanding of the problems. Also, in a confessional moment, it is my tendency to want to race to a solution whenever I encounter a problem. Hideyo and Jon, the other members of the group, are intelligent gentlemen, but I sincerely doubt that within one quarter the three of us will be able to solve any of these issues. Rather, we (and myself especially) must focus on our goal to equip churches and communities with resources so that we can all prayerfully address the issues at hand.

HIV/AIDS has dominated our conversations so far and rightly so. It is devastating so much of the world right now. Whether we choose to focus on HIV/AIDS or branch out to discuss other health issues remains to be seen.

NationMaster.com
This site is a dream for people who love USA Today's pie charts and graphs. There are stats on just about any topic. NationMaster will take a subject such as children living with AIDS and rank countries around the world. It is high on the interesting scale, a good place to see where certain issues affect people the most, and helps one see the discrepencies that exist between different nations. It does not provide much analysis of the issues, however. That is, the web site does not argue for what the statistics mean or how to solve problems. One best be careful not to draw too much in the way of conclusions when using this helpful site.

AIDSinfo
A website created by the US Department of Health and Human Services. AIDSinfo has information on the disease, treatment, and research. It is primarily educational in intent and includes discussions not only on the progress in search of an HIV vaccine, but also a discussion on what a vaccine is in the first place. The drawback of this site is that it seems to be primarily focused on the disease as it affects citizens of the US. (That isn't a knock against the website per se since it is a creation of the US government, but just a note so that people know its scope.)

The Body
Another educational website dedicated to describing HIV/AIDS, its effects on the body, its treatment, etc. The site also includes up to date articles about topics that may deal with HIV/AIDS, even if the disease is not the main focus. For example, right now, there are a series of articles discussing HIV/AIDS and the recent hurricanes in the US. This site is global in that it discusses HIV/AIDS and how it interacts with any human body, but the main focus of the content seems to be directed towards Americans.

UNAIDS
The UN's website on the global AIDS crisis. This site also contains a lot of information, but more on the societal levels. One can look at how the disease is affecting different areas of the world. The website also has UN publications on the epidemic. It has up to date news stories as well as programs to which people can donate money. This is a site that moves people towards specific action. I could not find anything on my first browse of the site on materials that would help smaller communities such as churches become involved. The main focus seems to be on getting indiviudals to put pressure on their governmental officials to do something.

World Vision's HIV/AIDS Hope Initiative
It looks like the only specific health concern listed on World Vision's website, although there are pages for food crises. The site also tries to look at the systemic problems that affect AIDS like poverty and war. Like the UNAIDS site, World Vision's site breaks up the world by regions (i.e., continents) and focuses primarily on undeveloped or developing nations -- there are no sites for AIDS in North America or Western Europe. The three-fold focus of World Vision is prevention, care, and advocacy. I couldn't find many resources for churches or communities to participate other than some educational materials. The action on this site remains rather individual -- to help, individuals donate money to sponsor a specific child.

World Health Organization (WHO)
This site is the motherlode of information on health crises around the world. So much information, in fact, that it is rather daunting to navigate. The faint of heart or short of time should probably avoid this site. It covers almost any health topic one can think of and has information on health issues in viritually every nation around the world. Thankfully, the website does have some tools and guides for people so that they can conduct their own research using the oceans of information provided by the WHO. The site is not static, but seems to be updated regularly. On the front page, there is a story from October 5 that says the WHO is predicting a global epidemic of chronic disease, but that such an event is preventable.

Global Health Crisis Lecture
This is a lecture given by Dr. W. Thomas London at The University of Pittsburgh. It is a series of slides that primarily contain graphs and charts concerning life expectancy and infectious diseases. It is interesting, but takes a lot of sifting through in order to get to some important meat. In the end, it is not a very helpful site, but it does contain a few nuggets.

RAND Corporation's Health and Healthcare Site
Another comprehensive site covering all sorts of issues on health and healthcare. This site appears to be a helpful one that we might use more in the future since it covers so much and to a large amount of depth. (The front page has a story that says a study has found that children are more likely to gain excessive amounts of weight in parts of the country where fruits and vegetables are more expensive.) This site seems to be mostly informational, but our group is currently in an information-gathering stage. A lot of the struggle I have found is that people would care more about these issues if they simply had the information. This site could help.

Oxfam America Global Health Crisis Page
This page succinctly outlines some of the major problems and issues that contribute to a global health crisis including prices of medications, infection rates, etc. This is a short page from a respected group and could be used as a helpful introduction to the topic before throwing statistics at people.

Sojourners, "Confronting AIDS in Uganda"
The article written by Ryan Beiler is a bit dated since it was written in 2000, but its emphasis on communal development is helpful. There have been some good stories coming out of Uganda, which is a nation that is confronting the HIV/AIDS crisis head-on.