Rafael’s meaningful involvement in the fight against addictions cost him his job at the Mexico City Secretariat of Health, but opened a new, more fulfilling path. His 12 years living with emphysema, which resulted from 30 years of smoking, have brought many physical challenges. But Rafa’s determination to blow the whistle on the true culprits of unhealthy diets and smoking, has never been stronger. He dedicates his life to campaigning against tobacco corporations and junk food manufacturers, and for the greater good of his family, community and everyone he meets.
Rafael’s meaningful involvement in the fight against addictions cost him his job at the Mexico City Secretariat of Health, but opened a new, more fulfilling path. His 12 years living with emphysema, which resulted from 30 years of smoking, have brought many physical challenges. But Rafa’s determination to blow the whistle on the true culprits of unhealthy diets and smoking, has never been stronger. He dedicates his life to campaigning against tobacco corporations and junk food manufacturers, and for the greater good of his family, community and everyone he meets.
Wesly loves playing football and riding a bike. A few years ago, he never thought he would do either again. A childhood infection left him with rheumatic heart disease and in need of a life-saving operation, which was impossible to perform in his native Haiti. With the help of the Haiti Cardiac Alliance, Wesly was flown to the Cayman Islands. Today, he has new heart valves and renewed hope. Between his high school studies, he campaigns to improve infrastructure, and access to medicine and treatment for all Haitians with, or at risk of cardiac disorders.
Each week we will be highlighting a story from the NCD Alliance’s Our Views Our Voices campaign. This week is the story of Rakiya from Nigeria, a woman living with Type 2 Diabetes and Arthritis this is her story.
Our Views, Our Voices
Our Views, Our Voices is an initiative that seeks to meaningfully involve people living with NCDs in the NCD response, supporting and enabling individuals to share their views to take action and drive change.
Our Views, Our Voices is a five-year initiative (2016-2020) built around four main pillars of work: consultation, campaigns, communications, and capacity development.
NCDs Atlas of the NCD Alliance has recently been published. This showcases advocacy by civil society groups from around the globe. Four of the reports published in the Atlas became award winners at the Sharjah NCD conference in the areas of:
ADVOCACY
Coalición Latinoamérica Saludable – Rapid Regional Response to Strengthen and Defend National NCD Policies in Latin America
ACCOUNTABILITY
East African NCD Alliance – Benchmarking to Track and Advance Regional NCD Action
ACCESS
Healthy Caribbean Coalition – Building Civil Society Capacity to Improve Access to Cancer Services for Underserved Populations
AWARENESS
Tanzanian NCD Alliance – Creating a Journalists’ Forum to Raise Awareness on NCDs
The SANCDA report titled “Crafting a Collective Advocacy Agenda in Support of a Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Tax in South Africa”, is contained in the document.
This goes to highlight the journey, problems and lessons learnt in the collective creation of a sugar tax in South Africa.
The journey to getting the tax to work for South African’s has barely begun. The areas of work coming from its implementation in April will be to ring-fence money from the tax collected to help fund civil society in prevention, awareness and care.
The SANCDA is honoured to have been published in the NCDs Atlas and look forward to the next publication and furthering the movement to a sugar-free South Africa.