- The FIFA
- The same rules apply to each
and every team, irrespective of their country of
origin. All teams, from poor and rich countries alike,
are expected to play quality football.
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- The WHO (World Health
Organisation)
- Medical equipment and health
services must meet country-specific economic
realities. In other words, the least quantity and
quality of care should be delivered in poor countries
while rich countries should enjoy the highest quantity
and quality of care.
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- This is unfortunately a
reality, as evidenced by the actions of
organisations that obey the trend in world health
policy. The consequences are disastrous: in many poor
countries the current health situation is worse than
it was 30 years ago and there is a massive brain drain
to rich countries as the medical elite cannot achieve
anything with nonexistent resources in their country
of origin. Or rather, they cannot achieve anything
with the limited and inadequate means that world
health policies consider appropriate for poor
countries. This shortfall in medical professionals is
usually compensated for by second-rate western NGO
personnel, who in any case cannot achieve anything
with nothing either. Only their salaries are decent
(compared to local salaries) but they meet the
economic realities of their country of
origin.
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- Kantha Bopha: an efficient
alternative that works
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- The situation is very
different in the four Kantha Bopha Hospitals. For most
Cambodians, economic realities mean utter destitution.
This is why health care is provided free of charge;
but the medical equipment is decent and matches the
technical standards achieved in developed countries.
Similarly, our local staff is paid decent wages (1650
Cambodian salaried staff and only 2 resident
expatriates). Qualified doctors stay, even after we
have sent them abroad to Paris, Marseille, Lyon and
Boston to complete their professional training. They
all come back because here they can make a useful and
beneficial contribution. We supply proper and
effective medicines of a quality similar to that found
in the West rather than cheap and ineffective
medicines as the economic realities of the country
would demand. This is also the reason why the
mortality rate has dropped to 1.1% in the four Kantha
Bopha Hospitals, where 75,000 patients are
hospitalized and 800,000 outpatients are treated every
year.
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- Here is the
score
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- If you want to know why,
unlike football, medical care for the poor is of
lesser quality than medical care for the rich, watch
the Infrarouge programme on French TV channel France 2
on June 22, 2006 at 10.30pm after the football game. A
short reportage provides insight into this injustice
and explains the reasons behind Kantha Bopha's
success.
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- We can only perform our work
-i.e. provide medical care for 85% of all Cambodian
children- with your financial support. We know that in
this country, which has been devastated by wars and
crisis, this responsibility should lie with Asian and
Western Governments alike. We have been waiting and
fighting for 14 years for these governments to take
their responsibilities. But we haven't stood idly.
Otherwise hundreds of thousands of children would have
died or become permanently disabled.
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- We continue to fight. In the
meantime, every Franc helps us cure, save lives and
prevent illnesses. We thank you from the bottom of
our hearts. In 2005, only 5.5% of the money
collected was used for administrative tasks,
accounting, auditing by PricewaterhouseCoopers, media
releases, thank you letters, reports to donors, etc.
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- Dr. Beat Richner, Kantha
Bopha Children's Hospitals
- Phnom Penh / Siem Reap
Angkor, June 16, 2006
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