Events,News

World Health Day 2010 – The challenge of urbanisation

7 April 2010

Virtually all population growth over the next 30 years will be in urban areas, signaling that urbanisation is here to stay.  It is associated with many health challenges related to water, environment, violence and injury, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and their risk factors like tobacco use, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, harmful use of alcohol as well as the risks associated with disease outbreaks.   Urbanisation is a challenge for several reasons.

• The urban poor suffer disproportionately from a wide range of diseases and other health problems, and include an increased risk for violence, chronic disease, and for some communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
• The major drivers, or social determinants, of health in urban settings are beyond the health sector, including physical infrastructure, access to social and health services, local governance, and the distribution of income and educational opportunities.

World Health Day 2010 will focus on urbanization and health.  With the campaign “1000 cities – 1000 lives“, events will be organized worldwide calling on cities to open up streets for health activities.  Stories of urban health champions will be gathered to illustrate what people are doing to improve health in their cities.

Tshikululu is commemorating World Health Day by profiling South African urban health champions – people and projects making a difference across the spectrum of this sector.

Read about the African Children’s Feeding Scheme here.

Read about the Bigshoes Foundation here.