Hadassah Australia, in partnership with Melbourne’s Monash University, presented a workshop on behalf of Hadassah America, entitled “Sharing Best Practice to Advance Global Health” at the 63rd United Nations Department of Public Information/NonGovernmental Organization (NGO) Conference on August 31. Hadassah, in America, is an NGO registered with the United Nations.
The Hadassah Australia-Monash University partnership began in 2008 with the launch of AUSiMED—a collaborative research venture between Hadassah and prestigious medical and scientific institutions in Australia. The UN workshop, which showcased Israel’s and the Hadassah Medical Center’s outreach in disaster management, medical education, and HIV prevention, featured Prof. Leon Piterman, Pro Vice Chancellor, Monash University; Prof. Jayashri Kulkarni, Prof. of Psychiatry, The Alfred Hospital and Monash University; Dr. Inon Schenker, head of the Jerusalem AIDS Project; Dr. Esti Galili, Director, Hadassah’s Division of Adolescent and Child Psychiatry; and Dr. Aikant Bhatti, Human Pandemic Preparedness Project Officer, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies of India.
Over 2,000 people from NGOs, academia, community organizations, the media, and the private sector attended the UN conference, which aimed to highlight effective ways for society to foster global health, rather than just manage disease.
Hadassah has been front and center in meeting the health needs in Africa, where rates of HIV/AIDS have fallen dramatically as a result of initiatives like the Operation Abraham Collaborative, a project of Hadassah and the Jerusalem AIDS project, which involves performing male circumcisions as a way to prevent the spread of the disease. Swaziland, in 2007, was the first country to contact the Jerusalem AIDS project with a request to support their interest in scaling up male circumcision services.
For more information, contact Hadassah Australia at Australia@hadassah.org.