healthcare – Page 19 – Kiyoshi Kurokawa.com

From Seoul

Posted on 2007/10/282014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

I went to Seoul from October 13th to 17tth.

Departing early morning from Tokyo on the 13th, this is to join the reunion I organized of Mr. Sadamu Sasaki, the first grandson of Dr. Gozo Sato who devoted his life to the modern time Korean medical education and Dr. Sato’s 3 students (ages 83-86), which took place in the evening of 13th. Exactly one century has passed since Dr. Sato went to the Korean Peninsula as a staff doctor of a hospital. It also marks the 100th anniversary of the Korean Medical Institution (now the Seoul National University College of Medicine). Mr. Sasaki was born and lived in Seoul with Dr. Sato for his initial 14 years. He returned to Japan in 1945 after the end of the world war and this was his first visit to Korea ever since then. What a surprise, what a centennial coincidence. We also visited the house where Mr. Sasaki used to live.

Photo1 from left Dr. Ishida, Mr. Sasaki, Dr. Ju, and myself

Photo2 With Dr. Ju （Vice Chairman of the Korean Academy of Sciences）

Photo3 At the Korean Medical Institution

Photo4 Keijo Imperial University School of Medicine (now the Seoul National University College of Medicine)

I hope that this visit helps to further our understanding of our history between the 2 closest countries and opens a new door to the future. The detail of this visit is reported in Mr. Deguchi’s mail magazine （Oct. 10 and 17 edition） who joined this trip: his background is a journalist, thus write much better and professionally. As he wrote properly of our encounter, the story is much real and very touching; I hope you have a look.

The following day, Mr. Sasaki, Dr. Ishida and I strolled around places associated with Dr. Sato. At night, we had a “luxurious” dinner where fresh fish were cooked in front of us at the fish market.

Photo5 At the fish market in Seoul

On the 15th, I met with a charming woman scientist, Dr. Narry Kim of the Seoul National University (Photo 6). I wanted to pay this visit because I recognize her outstanding achievement on micro RNA. I wanted to know how she could establish her independent research as an assistant professor while being a mother of 2 children. I will touch upon this on a different occasion. There are things that I can’t disclose at the moment, but please look forward to the story sometime later.

Photo6 With Dr. Narry Kim of the Seoul National University

On the 16th, I joined the World Knowledge Forum held at the Walkerhill Sheraton. The following day, on the 17th, there was a Keynote Lecture by Mr. Colin Powell, the former Secretary of State of USA. With no paper, no memo, he talked for 45 minutes right off the reel about Vietnam War, his stay in Korea, his visit to the former Soviet Union during the Cold War, his visit to China, his secret rendezvous with Gorbachev before the end of the Cold War, etc. He shared some specific episodes with us and talked about the current China and expectations for the future. It was such an outstanding well constructed and presented speech with full of grace.

As for me, I joined a panel with Dr. D. Bangalore who is playing an active role in India and Silicon Valley, and Yoko Ishikura who is my co-author of the book “How to build a world class career.”

After this panel, I went straight to the airport to catch a flight back to Haneda.

From Dalian – attending New World Champions

Posted on 2007/09/142014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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I’d been to Dalian from 5th to 8th September.

It was a conference of “New World Champions" that the so-called Davos Forum (World Economic Forum－WEF) over. I have attended 7 consecutive years of Davos Forum that is held every year in January and I have also attended other conferences that the WEF preside over. I think they are considerably familiar for the readers of my blog. Davos Forum of this January and conference at Singapore in June etc are as I have reported. The conference hall in Dalian was a very big one.

The conference was a large successful meeting where about 1,700 people had gathered from 90 countries mainly from Asia. Especially, the participation of young people and new enterprises was great, and was very much crowded. From Japan, politicians like Jyunko Kawaguchi, Motohisa Furukawa and Keiichiro Asao, university people like Heizo Takenaka, Director Nagata of Ritsumeikan University, and Yoko Ishikura etc. were present. Also, stakeholders from wide range of society, mainly business people such as Yoichi Funabashi, chief editor of Asahi Newspaper and Tamura, Administrative Vice Minister of the Ministry of Environment were there. I also met Hiroshi Tasaka and Kumi Fujisawa whom I have introduced on this site recently.

Dalien20070908001_2 Photo1 With Ms.Tsubouchi in charge of Geneva headquarters of WEF Japan at hall entrance.

Dalien20070908002 Photo2 From left, Director Lee of WEF Asia meeting, Tsuchiya in charge of Geneva headquarters Japan, Ishikura, I and Takenaka.

Dalien20070908003 Photo3 From left, Toru Takanarita the editor of Asahi Newspaper, I and Yoichi Funabashi the editor in chief.

I participated in two panels as a panel member. First panel was “The Transformative Potential of Science and Technology in Asia”. Mr. Graves, the chairperson of this session is related to the production of the program that used as its anchor Ms. Nonaka who later became Chairman of Sanyo electric and was a topic and Ms. Yoriko Koike, one of the star politicians of today. I exchange E-mails with him even after the meeting. Wan Gang, the Minister of Science and Technology of China, is originally a scientist and also was the president of a university. His opinion was also excellent. Look it up on the site of weforum.org.

Moreover, the PR activity for “Table for Two” project which was planned by James Kondo our colleague, Furukawa a Democratic Party congress member, Nakata the Mayor of Yokohama, Chino of Itochu corporation and Young Global Leaders of WEF of Japan is also active and during this meeting Press Release to the world was also conducted. Excellent! It is a practical program based on groundbreaking idea of offering the surplus of the intake of nutrition which cause the obesity and diabetes in advanced countries to the malnourished children in developing countries through WFP (World Food Program). I would encourage all domestic companies as well as international companies to participate and please introduce us to any interested companies. Please read also my support message of this program.

Dalien20070908004 Photo4 Furukawa the congress member of Democratic Party and I in front of a “Table for Two” poster.

On the second night of reception, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao came to greet and then excellent shows with good tempo in large numbers were performed one after another.

Dalien20070908005 Photo5 “Thousand Armed Avalokiteshwara” by deaf young people in reception. Really excellent! Some of you may have seen it on television in Japan.

Dalien20070908006 Photo6 A scene from the reception shows.

The second panel during dinner, in which I participated, was a session on Energy. It was so nice. I met Lady Barbara Thomas Judge, former Commissioner of (Unites States) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), who had visited Tokyo Stock Exchange many times about 20 years ago and who strongly supported my opinion related to nuclear energy, almost after one year. I participated with her in BusinessWeek CEO Forum performed in Beijing last November in the same panel.

Dalien20070908007 Photo7 Lady Judge, I and Ishikura.

Dalien20070908008 Photo8 Prof. So (From Dalian. He used to teach in the Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University), Director Nagata, I and Tsukamoto the Director of JETRO.

There were various new encounters and reunions. Friend’s circle extended and I also got dynamic energy, it really was stimulating three days. Gained much more encouragement. Our involvement in these activities also seems to have stimulated young people who participated from Japan which is very good. As I always say, future is in the hands of young people.

Dalien20070908009 Photo9 Dr. and Ms.Professor Schwab, Chairman of WEF and I at Japan reception.

Dalian is a very beautiful city. Japan has constructed its infrastructure which is maybe the reason for the hearty welcome. They show us the headquarters of Manchuria Railways, the laboratory of Manchuria Railways, and so on. They are maintained beautifully and are located at the center of city. About 4,000 Japanese enterprises are now operating in Dalian, and I think the contribution of Japan to expand its economy, employment etc. is considerable. Most local staffs speak Japanese in the hotels etc.

I woke up at 5:30 in the morning on 8th and went to Chubu International Airport by 8:00 a.m. flight. From Chubu International Airport travelled to Nagoya railway station by Meitetsu railway and then again travelled to Tokyo by Shinkansen. I arrived at the assembly hall of Japanese Society of Nephrology at 3 o’clock and did the memorial speech for its 50th anniversary. After that, I immediately headed to Science Council of Japan and participated to the 2nd day of international conference “Sustainable Society” held every year. I gave the last (closing) speech from 6 o’clock.

Whew, I am hopping here and there busily.

To New Delhi, meetings of International Council for the Minister of Health and Welfare of India

Posted on 2007/08/272014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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In my last column, I have reported about the Gates foundation and Dr. Yamada. On the next day, on 5th, I left for New Delhi.

This visit is with Professor Jeffrey Sachs, whom I have introduced in March, to participate in the meeting to be held for 2 days on the 6th and 7thas the members of the International Council for the Minister of Health and Welfare of India. The main purpose of the meeting is to listen and exchange opinions about healthcare administration of rural area (Rural Health).

Program and members on the panel are as per “Agenda and Meeting Presentations” of MV Project site, but Mr.Banno, my office staff (Photograph 1) has also participated. He is scheduled to enroll in the Master course of School of Public Health, Harvard University this September. He was very happy to have this opportunity to meet top people in the world in respective fields just before going to graduate school.

Dr.Sachs is Director of “The Earth Institute of Columbia University”. 　I hear that his latest book will be published soon. I am amazed by his effort. And what a great energy!
In the council, I met Mrs. Sachs after a long time (Photograph 2: As I had informed in my blog of March 13, Dr. Paul Ehrlich, winner of Nobel Prize in Medicine is her grand-uncle. A pupil of Dr. Ehrlich, Sahachirou Hata, has discovered the first artificial compound “salvarsan” that is effective in the infectious disease (Spirochete).).　 I also met Dr. Jaime Sepulveda, (Photograph 3: Introduced in, “ From Nairobi- Knowing a great leader” (June 30, 2006) He is a brain of healthcare policy of Mexico along with Julio Frenk, the former Health and Welfare Minister.), whom I saw last year in Beijing at the time of the presentation of DCPP 2nd edition (“Healthcare Policy of the World” (2006/4/2)) which he supervised with Dean Jamison. By the way, I hear that Dr. Sepulveda is moving to Gates foundation from August.

It was also a great pleasure to meet Mr. Rajat Gupta of McKinsey, who was recently selected as board chairperson of “Global Fund”. (Global Fund was established by proposal of Japan at the Okinawa summit in the year 2000. Here again, the initiative of Japan is great……)

Anyhow, they are trying their best to overcome such poverty that cannot even have access to sufficient power supply. It seems that “ASHA” program to support the activities of women in the villages, which was planned by Dr. Mirai Chatterjee, Commissioner of WHO etc., has achieved great success. Dr. Chatterjee is my colleague in the commision.

Next day, I had discussion with Dr. Ramadoss, Health and Welfare Minister for about 5 hours in the morning. I was impressed, as he was aware of each detail (Photograph 4, 5). It was obvious as he is a physician specializing in sanitation of rural community. He assumed the post of Health and Welfare Minister just at the age of 37 (years). This is his 3rd year as a Minister. Since the budget may go on increasing as the economic grows, the task is huge and difficult, but I think it will move in the correct direction even though time is required.

In the meanwhile, it is said that in 8 states out of 32 states in India (may be more in area) the water contains large quantity of fluorine resulting to millions of intoxicated persons. Moreover, the arsenic poisoning from water is very large in three states, and this is truely miserable. When speaking of arsenic it reminds me of the intoxication in Bangladesh, for the same cause.

I left for Singapore by night flight on 9th .

Photograph 1: With Mr. Banno, and Dr. Roger Glass (NIH Fogerty Intl Center)

Photograph 2：Dr. Sonia Erhlich Sachs, Mrs. Joanna Rubinstein (Wife of Dr. Ellis Rubinstein of NY Academy of Science, and Chief of Staff of J. Sachs) and myself

Photograph 3：From left Dr. Glass, J. Rubinstein, J. Sachs, J. Sepulveda, (？), and myself

Photograph 4：From left, myself, R. Gupta, (？), Health and Welfare Minister

Photograph 5：N. Bajpai of Columbia U. The Earth Institute, myself, J. Sachs

Gates Foundation, Dr. Tachi Yamada and support to Africa!

Posted on 2007/08/162014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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I’m sure you are all familiar with the Gates Foundation (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). Gates, the richest man in the world, took a big step forward and established an enormous foundation (4-5 trillion yen) to eradicate AIDS, malaria and poverty in the world. This program is called the Global Health Program and last year, and it caused a big sensation when the second richest man in the world, Warren Buffet donated a tremendous amount (3-4 trillion yen) to this foundation. Gates will retire from Microsoft next year to concentrate his focus on this activity.

The first President of Global Health Program was Dr. Richard Klausner of NIH National Cancer Institute, but last year my old friend Dr. Tachi Yamada assumed office. Tachi and I have been friends for 30 years, ever since he came to UCLA in 1977, I helped him develop human resources in the gastroenterological area in Japan. A few years ago, I introduced him in a column in the Nikkei Newspaper. In 1984, the year after I returned to Japan from UCLA, he became a professor of University of Michigan and later became the Chairman of Department of Internal Medicine then turning to the Chairman of R&D of GSK, the world’s second largest pharmaceutical company after its merger. He became the President of Global Health Program of Gates Foundation last June. I met him in Singapore this April.

This time, we invited him to have a session on how Japan can cooperate to support Africa. As I have written on several occasions in my blog, Japan has indeed done a lot of contribution to Africa. It’s their PR strategy that isn’t good.

Upon Tachi’s arrival to Narita from India, we held a conference in the afternoon of August 3rd in Tokyo. I thought it was a good timing, when Japan is expected to attract a lot of attention from the world with the coming TICAD G8 summit next year. It was a very fruitful session with participants from the World Bank who is supporting TICAD with the Japanese government, JICA（Japan International Cooperation Agency）, JBIC (Japan Bank For International Cooperation）, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, JCIE (Japan Center for International Exchange) President Yonekura of Sumitomo Chemical who is widely contributing to fight against malaria in Africa with their BedNet（Olyset Nets）. (I have introduced him in my blog on March 13th　and May 29th)

On the following day, I had lunch with Tachi and asked my friend Ken Shibusawa to join. At night, after so long, I had dinner with my wife, Tachi and our granddaughter whom Tachi met for the first time. We went to a traditional soba (buckwheat noodle) restaurant in Shiroganedai. In the past 25 years, our relationship was more business related, so it’s been a while since I had a pure private dinner with him and enjoyed every moment of it.

He said he spends half of his year overseas. Africa, India, all over the world. As for me, it counts for about 25-30%. We said to each other that we are both busy persons. Tachi stayed for another 3-days and heard that he met with a lot of key people. I left for India from the 5th.

Hideyo Noguchi Africa prize and a speech by former Prime Minister Mr. Junichiro Koizumi

Posted on 2007/07/102014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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In the blog of June 19 (“A few words about the low plublicity of Japan, from Paris”), I have quoted three cases as an actual example but all these three were about the large contribution of Japan in Africa. The contribution of Japan in Africa is not much recognized domestically or internationally as compared to its contribution in Asia. This may be due to geographical conditions. As I have mentioned in the above column, my article “Challenges for Japan’s Scientific Community in the 2008 G8 Summit” appeared in Business Daily Africa, one of the newspapers in Kenya, as “Analysis: G8 Summit will provide a major test for Japanese scientists”, “Comment: Challenges for Japan’s Scientific Community in the 2008 G8 Summit”. It is only at individual level but I want the world to know a little about the contribution made by Japan. World today is On-Line age, isn’t it?

After 8 years, Japan is hosting the next year’s G8 summit (which will be held at Toya Lake in July). Japan is going to play a leading role, and the fourth meeting of TICAD（Tokyo International Conference on African Development）(Ref. www.ticad-csf.net/eng/index.htm), a groundbreaking national undertaking that was started with the United Nations 15 years ago as a part of aid to Africa, which is held once in every 5 years, will be held in Yokohama in May. This conference is well recognized by various countries in Africa and the heads of more than 50 countries from Africa will gather in Tokyo for this conference. However, how many people in the world know about it? Recently, the media is only concentrating on the topic of China reaching to Africa…….

Last year, Prime Minister Koizumi visited Africa. He had been to Ethiopia and Ghana on this visit. Why Ethiopia and Ghana will be discussed later. Accra, the capital of Ghana, is the place where Dr. Hideyo Noguchi passed away due to the yellow fever and there is Hideyo Noguchi Memorial Institute. At this institute, Prime Minister Koizumi has declared the foundation of “Hideyo Noguchi Africa prize” by the government of Japan. This is an international award that acknowledges medical research and medical services that contribute to control the infectious disease in Africa. It will be given to an individual who has contributed in these two fields (It is introduced on Internet TV of the government also). The Awarding ceremony will be held once in every 5 years and we are planning to announce the first prize next year at TICAD. Currently, the selection is in process. As you know, issues like development in Africa, HIV/AIDS, poverty etc. are the serious problems of the world.

The other day, Mr. Koizumi, former prime minister went to the board meeting of "Japan Federation of Economic Organizations" to address the board for the fund-raising of this award. I heard that his speech was excellent. It was a short speech without any note, addressing about 200 business leaders including Chairman Mr. Mitarai. I heard that the atmosphere in that hall has changed dramatically after the speech. Please download and see the file, since the content of the speech is posted with the permission of former prime ministers’ office.

Down load the (PDF) “Introduction by Junichiro Koizumi, Member of Parliament, in standing committee meeting of Japan Federation of Economic Organization" (In Japanese only)

How do you feel about it? Isn’t it really an excellent speech? I think it was a very lively speech full of wit. I am thinking of translating this speech into English and transmitting it to the media in Africa.
If you think carefully, we can certainly say that the business people got hypnotized by “Koizumi magic”. This means Prime Minister Koizumi is very genius and “out of the box”. Actually, from the historical viewpoint, people who changed the world and the society through science and technology were all ”out of the box” , having imagination beyond the common sense of the people in that era. I have also mentioned this once in front of Prime Minister Mr. Koizumi at the meeting of Council for Science and Technology Policy that was held at his official residence. Everyone started laughing but I was quiet serious.

It is the same opinion as in the blog of June 4 ("St Petersburg, then from Mr. Deguchi to Don Quixote") as well as in the mail magazine of Mr. Deguchi （in Japanese only）that “Don Quixote" is very important in all-times.

From Singapore. Participation in World Economic Forum on East Asia

Posted on 2007/06/252014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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I returned back home after finishing the overseas work in Slovenia and Paris. Then I worked one day in Japan and came to Singapore for participating in Asia-Pacific/East Asia conference, “Davos Forum” (World Economic Forum), which is held annualy in January. The events of the conference can be viewed at Website of World Economic Forum.

Davos meeting is held every year in January at Davos in Switzerland, and recently it is widely known in Japan as well. I have been attending this conference since last 6 years and have written about the events of the conference. (Year 2007 etc.). Furthermore, besides this conference, they have been deploying various activities worldwide. Refer to www.weforum.org http://www.weforum.org/en/index.htm

This East Asia conference has been held since past few years and last year it was held in Tokyo, Japan for the first time. I participated in India Economic Summit, conducted in New Delhi, last year and this time I will be participating in panel called Innovation “Mantra”.

The photographs and video of this panel can be viewed at the following sites.
Photographs:
www.pbase.com/forumweb/eastasia2007&page=11
www.pbase.com/forumweb/eastasia2007&page=12

Video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryOgSPKOQpY

The participants from Japan were Dr. Heizo Takenaka, Economic counselor, Mr. Khono from ministry of foreign affairs who is going to work as Sherpa for the G8 summit next year, Mr. Hirotaka Takeuchi, whom I have introduced in my blog 6/8, Mr. Tsukamoto from JETRO and Mr. Yokoyama from Social System Design. They all are my associates, friends, and good debaters. Mr. Wakabayashi, the state minister for the environment, participated in this meeting also and talked about principles and position of Japan in G8 summit. This was very good, too.

After returning to Japan, Mr. Fujisue of Democratic Party promptly wrote about this on his own website.

Whenever opportunity arises, we must report, ask questions, and write relevant details about the topics and queries. Presence of Japan should be improved much, much more.
I would like to express my recognition and appreciation to all who have participated in the conference for their hard work.

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs and Millennium Village

Posted on 2007/03/132014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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In the year 2000, Millennium Development Goals（MDG） was announced by the United Nations and “MDG Report” was published in 2005 under the initiative of Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University. It is pointing out the goals for each country towards 2025. Very challenging goals, but I am sure that they are great steps towards the future of the world. I feel that the leadership of Prof. Sachs who managed this is truely amazing.
Dr. Sachs and I have been working together for a year. As you see in my postings of 2006/2/5 and 2006/1/28 ; we have been friends since our first encounter in Davos forum in 2005. Just taking a look at his HP is enough to convince you how extraordinarily a brilliant person he is. At the age of 29 he became a professor at Harvard University and is a worldwide famous economist who has contributed tremendously in working out plans for the restoration of economy of Latin America and Russia. Last year he published a book by the title of “The End of Poverty” which was also highly appreciated throughout the world. Japanese version is also available. Magnitude of his activities is just incredible.

He is always smiling and has a relaxed attitude, not a trace of arrogance. Even now he acts as an advisor to many countries and especially travels to various African countries as Advisor to the Government. In addition, he is taking up the honor of BBC “Reith Lecture” this year. From what I have heard, it has been already recorded once.

Dr. Sachs came to Tokyo from March 4th to 6th from North Europe and Berlin. After Tokyo he will be visiting Seoul and Beijing. He requested me to arrange for various meetings in the available timeframe, which naturally summed up to a bulk of work for us. The purpose of the visit was to thank for the contribution of Japan and ask for further support for Africa. Do you know why? Because, he has started Millennium Village Project (MVP) to help achieve this difficult goal as much as possible through his own effort. First, he started with a village in Ethiopia and Kenya. The New York Academy of Sciences covers this story in a moving article "It Takes A Village" .

His wife is Dr. Sonia Ehrlich Sachs, a great granddaughter of Dr. Paul Ehrlich. As you know, Dr. Paul Ehrlich was the mentor of Sahachiro Hata. Together, they discovered the first chemical compound Salvarsan (a specific remedy that works against spirochete causing syphilis) which is effective on infectious disease. He received a Nobel Prize in 1908. Dr. Sonia is a pediatrician but she has completed MPH (Master of Public Health) and is now working as superintendent of MVP. Truely amazing!

At the Millennium Summit of the United Nations held in September 2005, only Japanese government has offered to support MVP in 8 other places (Prime Minister Mr. Koizumi was there to participate). It’s a wonderful international contribution but the news was not much told in Japanese newspapers. Just before the general meeting of United Nations, I received an e-mail from the associates of Prof. Sachs saying "Really wonderful job and we are very much impressed”. Since then, I am telling about “MVP and contributions of Japan” in every occasion; domestic and international.

With the help of Japan, funds were raized for MVP of Prof. Sachs and currently 12 MVPs are conducted in Africa.

Though the stay of Prof. Sachs was short, we managed to have him visit Minister of Finance, Minister of Health, Vice-minister of Health(Mr. Takemi), Dr. Sadako Ogata, chairman of JICA, and foreign affairs dignitaries. I also arranged several interviews including an interview with Mr. Yonekura, director of Sumitomo chemicals (covered in Nikkei, a major newspaper among the Japanese business establishment) which I served as a host. Dr. Sachs was very happy with those schedules of 3 days. Many thanks to all the people concerned for their great support. I think you will be finding articles on this at various places. The photograph is of Prof. Sachs, NPO colleague Dr. James Kondo and me.

Through this, I am aiming to spread the wonderful contribution of Japan, especially in Africa, to all the citizens of the nation and to the world with Prof.Sachs.

By the way, Sumitomo Chemicals is a worldwide successful company, producing 10 million mosquito nets called “Bed Net (Olyset Nets)” per year. This innovative net, which prevents malaria, is supplied to Africa. It is also being used in MVPs. It reduces malaria and keep children healthy thereby improving their productivity. Education and food production is also increasing. Moreover, there are 2 manufacturing factories in Africa and 1 each in Vietnam and China. Employments are provided to these countries and the employees are also doing their work with pride of contributing this product to Africa. This story is introduced in the interview with Prof. Sachs which I will post soon. Please look forward to it.

Photo：Prof. Sachs at the center

Meeting with the President of Kenya

Posted on 2006/06/272014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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Today I had a 2 hours meeting with President Kibaki of Kenya. I understand that the country was in much confusion 4 years ago when the former President was ruling the country, but now situations are getting better. President Kibaki is a reformist since then. He started our conversation by saying “Don’t hesitate to address any issue” and recognizing the importance of this WHO Commission, he ordered to organize a committee in Kenya. There are only 2 countries in the world, Brazil and Kenya, whose head of the state have directly organized such committee domestically, to deal with WHO CSDH（Commission for Social Determinants of Health）. Since Kenya’s political situation is relatively stable in Africa, Kenya may become a model case for Africa’s policy, and he said that it is also for Kenya’s benefit to do so.

To the slum
In the afternoon, I went to a slum called Kibera in the suburbs of Nairobi with Ms.Ngilu, Minister of Health. I heard that half a million people live here, but this place is totally unbelievable. They say many people live in this small “house” made by mud and corrugated roof with no window. There is no toilet or kitchen in this “house”. Electricity and water supply is available to the slum itself, but it doesn’t reach the “houses”. They say 70% of the people who live here buy water out of their precious money.
The clinic was also a disaster and there were many AIDS patients. Nationwide, AIDS patients decreased from 14% to 6% out of total population, but in the slum area itself, it reaches more than 30% of the population.

At Payao village in Thailand, when I was involved via JICA in 1997-2002, they didn’t have any medicine. But here, medicine was distributed so I thought it was a little better.
Here in Kibera, I visited 2 elementary schools. One is located in the slums and operated by a church. It was in a poor environment, but the children welcomed me by singing a song. Another is a public school (grade 1 to 8) located in the outskirt of the slum. They say that this school is a model of the country and one of country’s top class students gather here to study. In the classroom, 3-4 students sit around one small desk and it was full of children.

The children were all cheerful, and I saw future in them. The school made them “wash their hands after going to the toilet”. It is a pity that at the “houses” they can’t afford to do it. Even in such an environment, the children were happy and they lived with shining eyes. I was deeply touched from the bottom of my heart.

The teachers were also marvelous. They are all filled with pride. Since there is no electricity at “home”, they stay at school until 5:00 and take the children’s hands to their long way home.

I wrote in the school book “The most moving experience in my life, I see the future of the nation”. Maybe some of my blog readers might see this message one day.
When I returned to the hotel, the lady who was the hotel manager turned out to be from the slum. I was surprised to hear that she graduated the school that I just visited in the outskirt. There are yet a lot of poor countries in Africa. Why not take a little bit of your time to participate in such activity?

Photo At the Kenya’s Presidential Palace. With the President (center) and Commssioner, Dr. Ndioro Ndiaye