IHACC-Peru team presents work to Ministry of Health officials for National Commission on Climate Change

On August 27th-28th, members of the IHACC-Peru team participated in a two day meeting with members of the Peruvian Ministry of Health in the context of the National Commission on Climate Change in Lima, Peru. The Commission was created in 2014 in the wake of COP20 with the objective of working towards the establishment of a national strategy on climate change for the country.

The event was a great opportunity for IHACC researchers to discuss topics related to health and climate change with decision makers at the national level and to make connections with key informants that will help further research in the area. In attendance (both in person and virtual) were Carol Zavaleta (McGill), Jahir Anicama (UPCH), Margot Charette (McGill), Rosa Silvera (UPCH) and Paola Torres-Slimming (UofGuelph/UPCH).

During the first day of the meetings, IHACC researchers presented results from the project from IHACC communities in Ucayali and Loreto. The presentations were well received and the team was invited to a workshop the following day, that focused on identifying key diseases affected by climate change in Peru for monitoring and evaluation in the future.

As Carol Zavaleta states,

"It was my first presentation for Peruvian people about my thesis. I was very glad to hear a notorious concern about the gap of knowledge related with climate change and impacts on health. I received questions about my methods, but mostly about how to link climate change with the food security in a context where multiple factors are concurrent such as the Amazon region. One of the participants have indicated that the ministry of health did not have many investigations about climate change and that this thesis will help them to establish further additional research considering new variables (e.g. seasons) in order to prioritize interventions."

Similarly, Margot Charette noted that this event was a key opportunity for the IHACC group in Peru to show its interest in being involved in the climate change discussion at the national level, and to stay involved in the future. And as Jahir Animaca pointed out in his report, IHACC has been invited to continue to participate in the consultation process for the public health sector of the National Commission on Climate Change in Peru, so keep an eye out for more!

Dr. Shuaib Lwasa to present at McGill University Dept. of Geography GeoSpectives lecture series in September

IHACC-Peru PhD student Paola Torres-Slimming awarded UNESCO/Keizo Obuchi Research Fellowship

 

The IHACC team would like to congratulate Ms. Paola Alejandra Torres Slimming for being awarded a UNESCO/Keizo Obuchi Research Fellowship (also known as the UNESCO/Japan Young Researchers' fellowship).

The funds will enable Paola to undertake research on Adaptation to climate change: Water security in vulnerable populations for seven months at the University of Guelph in Canada with Dr. Sherilee Harper and the IHACC team, and the Instituto Nacional de Salud de Cuernavaca in Mexico with collaborators there.

From the entire IHACC team, congratulations Paola!

IHACC project leads in Bwindi and Kampala to discuss next steps for IHACC in Uganda

  IHACC project leads Dr. James Ford, Dr. Lea Berrang-Ford, and Dr. Sherilee Harper were in Uganda this week with Dr. Shuaib Lwasa and Didacus Namanya for a series of project meetings in Buhoma and Kampala, and partner community visits in and around Bwindi.   The team first met with partners and collaborators in Buhoma last week to discuss and plan for future IHACC project work in Uganda. After successful and productive meetings there and visits to partnering Batwa communities and Bwindi Community Hospital (BCH), the team returned to Kampala for additional meetings before they head back to Canada.   In Kampala, the team was invited to speak on it experience with team building and mentorship through the IHACC project at the departmental meeting of Makerere University's Department of Geography. This was a great opportunity for the team to share experiences from the last 4 years of the project, and create new relationships for future research and collaboration.

A noteworthy output of these meetings is an invitation for Dr. Lwasa to come to Montreal for additional collaborative work at McGill University in the Fall with the Canadian IHACC team from Dr. Ford.

More to come from IHACC-Uganda as the project enters its final year!

IHACC Researchers present at the 16th International Medical Geography Symposium in Vancouver

    IHACC project researcher and head of the Geographic and Environmental Epidemiology Lab (GEEL) at McGill, Dr. Lea Berrang-Ford attended the 16th International Medical Geography Symposium hosted by Simon Fraser University in early July. She was accompanied by finishing IHACC students Kaitlin Paterson and Sierra Clark, as well as GEEL Research Assistant Isha Berry. All four presented at the event, put on every two-years, attracting medical/health geographers from around the globe, specializing in a range of topics, including infectious and chronic disease, landscapes of health and wellness, politics of geographical research, multi-level modelling, neighborhood effects on health, climate change, and many many more.   Kaitlin and Isha presented posters on the first day of the conference (Monday, July 6th). Isha presented on leishmaniasis and political terror while Kaitlin presented on the lived experience of food insecurity among Indigenous Batwa in Uganda. On the second day (July 7th), Dr. Berrang Ford presented in the Climate Change session on the need to address socioeconomic factors as mediators or effect modifiers when looking at the potential impact of climate/weather on health. Kaitlin presented in the Lived Experience of Health Session 2. She presented part of her Masters thesis which took a longitudinal and mixed methods approach to understanding food insecurity among Indigenous Batwa in Uganda. Then Sierra presented at the end of the day in the Infectious Disease Session, on inequalities in bed net ownership after an equitable distribution among Batwa in Uganda and the socioeconomic determinants of retention.  

On the fourth day of the confernece (Thursday, July 9th) Sierra presented her poster on the Lived Experience of AGI among Batwa in Uganda which took a mixed methods approach to understanding the perceived severity of illness, the multiple consequences of illness, and the perceived barriers and benefits to taking preventative actions. The rest of the conference, which went on until the 10th, was spent networking, enjoying amazing presentations by fellow colleagues, and taking in all that Vancouver has to offer.  

   For more information on the team's activities at IMGS2015, click here.