St. Aloysius parish in Cincinnati is twinned with a parish in Ghana. One fortuitous turn of events was that two Ghanaians from the twinning parish happened to be in Cincinnati and were able to accompany the delegation on its visits to the congressional offices. Fr. Vincent Anti and Sr. Philippine added credence and personal witness to the Americans' efforts.

This is what Dr. Gable wrote to AFJN in a recent email about his parish's activity:

"Parishioners that have been to Ghana with me took these letters personally to Chabot and to Voinovich’s aide yesterday along with a visiting Ghanaian nun and a Ghanaian priest currently studying at our parish. It was a great way for them to participate in our efforts of solidarity with them. They shared some powerful stories about the severe lack of health workers in Ghana. In our discussions, Chabot and Voinovich’s aides (both Republicans) seemed impressed that Senator Coleman (R-MN) was supporting this bill as he pointed out that without more health workers, all our health programs would eventually fail. They were impressed that this bill addresses health care management, coordinated strategies, monitoring and evaluation as they both claim to be “budget hawks.” I took photos as well.

We had a reporter, Dennis O’Connor, from our Catholic newspaper interview us after our meetings and he was impressed with these maturing efforts of solidarity by churches….and so a story will be coming out soon. He’s been to Central America with me to visit our twinning partners there and just publish a book on that. Dennis will be covering our Africa Summit in September and our Africa World Mission Sunday Mass in October. He also took the Ghanaians’ invitation to visit Ghana in the near future.

I have also asked other parishes in our Archdiocese of Cincinnati that twin with Africa to follow our lead on this bill as I’ve e-mail them our sample letters and bulletin announcement. Sr. Demetria of the mission office in Indianapolis, a nurse with African experience and who has been on the AFJN board, has asked me to send her copies as well to promote this bill."

WHAT IS THE HEALTH CARE WORKERS BILL?

The bill that is being supported by these Ohioans is called S805, "African Health Capacity Investment Act of 2007." According to a press realease from Physicians for Human Rights, it's "a comprehensive bill to help sub-Saharan African nations confront the alarming shortage of health workers; thirteen countries on the continent have fewer than 5 physicians per 100,000 people. The United States has 549 physicians per 100,000 people.

"Increased funding from governments and private donors to expand health services holds the promise of saving millions of lives in Africa. But, a severe shortage of health workers on the ground represents a tight bottleneck slowing the flow of resources to patients who need them," said Dr. Paul Farmer, medical anthropologist and a founder of Partners In Health. "Sub-Saharan Africa faces a shortage of more than 800,000 doctors, nurses, and midwives and an overall shortage of 1.5 million healthcare workers. The bill introduced today, particularly with its focus on harnessing the power of paid community health workers, is a much needed step toward closing this gap."

Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Russ Feingold (D-WI) called the lack of health care workers and capacity in many African nations a "critical obstacle" in the world's fight against HIV/AIDS and a potential outbreak of Avian Flu and in promoting economic development and growth.

"With 11 percent of the world's population, 25 percent of the global disease burden and nearly half of the world's deaths from infectious diseases, sub-Saharan Africa has only 3 percent of the world's health workers." Senator Durbin said. "Personnel shortages are a global problem, but nowhere are these shortages more extreme, the infrastructure more limited and the health challenges graver than in sub-Saharan Africa, the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. We will not win the war against AIDS or any other African health challenge without finding solutions to this crisis."

"I am very proud to join my colleagues in introducing this bill as it is critical for bolstering our efforts to combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases in Africa," said Senator Coleman. "The lack of health care capacity in Africa imposes major constraints on the long term effectiveness of programs fighting HIV/AIDS and other diseases. For this reason, any forward-looking, comprehensive strategy to fight these terrible diseases must include elements that build African health care capacity."

"One of the most critical issues facing Africans today is the massive shortage of health care workers," Senator Feingold said. "The United States has been a leader in addressing HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and other global health crises, but this assistance will only be sustainable with the establishment of a strong medical infrastructure. Bolstering health care capacity in Africa is essential for preventing millions of deaths each year and ensuring our efforts to fight these diseases succeed."

The African Health Capacity Investment Act of 2007 seeks to help sub-Saharan African countries strengthen the capabilities of their health systems by:

· Improving dangerous and sub-standard working conditions;

· Addressing training, recruiting and retention concerns, especially in rural areas, for doctors, nurses, and paraprofessionals;

· Developing better institutional management; and

· Increasing productivity, reducing corruption and building public health infrastructure.

The bill also requires the President to develop a coordinated strategy to promote health care capacity in Africa. The bill has been referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee."

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

You can contact your Senators find out if they are supporting this bill, letting them know how important you feel this bill will be for Africa. You can also contact your representative in the House to encourage them to support this effort when it is introduced in the House. A sample letter can be found here. Please feel free to contact the AFJN office if you have any questions.