Olivia Anderson, second year medical student, attended the People’s Health Movement workshop “Building the Health Movement for Health in Asia and Pacific” in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 26 – 29 April 2016. The workshop was attended by health activists from 9 different countries across the region. Each country had the opportunity to present on their movement for health. Stories on campaigns such as anti-privatisation, access to essential medicines and grassroots campaigning were told from a diverse range of healthcare workers, unionists, activists and others. The participatory sessions demonstrated that there were many similarities in the struggle for health between the countries, from both the global South and North.

Olivia attended as part of the Advanced Studies program, where she is undertaking research into the role and impact of global health activists in health activism for health and human rights, under Professor Fran Baum, Director, Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity.

For more information on the People’s Health Movement, see http://www.phmovement.org/ or http://phmoz.org/wiki/index.php?title=People%27s_Health_Movement_Australia