Members
Profiles
Jeanette Longfield, Patroklos Sesis, Carin Napier, David Sanders, Sabah Benjelloun, Gilberto Kac: six more members coming from four continents
Here are six more Association members, whose profiles we include as indicated in the links below. At left above is Jeanette Longfield. Geoffrey Cannon writes: Jeanette has been a leading actor in the agriculture, food and nutrition movement in the UK since the early 1980s, always concerned with public health and public goods. The story of the great British food movement in which she is a leader, is told in my July, August and October columns, and in my forthcoming January column. She first worked for the UK National Council for Voluntary Organisations, and then for the UK Coronary Prevention Group, the public interest organisation that finally got prevention of heart disease on the map in the UK. She then became founder co-ordinator of the UK National Food Alliance, where in my position as NFA chair throughout the 1990s I learned just how phenomenally committed she is – to the protection of population health, and to good food and nutrition as a people's movement. The NFA was renamed and repositioned since 1999 as Sustain. Like the NFA, Sustain continues to punch well above its weight, has earned the respect of government and industry, and is regularly cited in the media as the leading UK public interest group in our field. It is an umbrella group for over 100 UK national non-government organisations. It has pioneered investigation into the advertising and marketing of ultra-processed products to children, and has published action-orientated reports on many key topics. Jeanette herself remains an inspiring leader, nationally and also internationally.
Patroklos Sesis, second from left, was born and raised in Athens, Greece. He says of his early experiences: 'Being raised in a family where food and cooking was very important and an everyday point of discussion. Buying food supplies was weekly task, me and my siblings were all involved in buying weekly groceries that included fruits and vegetables from the vegetable market Laiki Agora, meat from our local butchers', and fish from the central fish and meat market of Athens Varvakeios Agora'.
Carin Napier, from South Africa, started her career as a food manager in community hospitals in her country, where she realised the need for public heath nutritionists in communities to identify and address nutrition problems.
David Sanders is third from right. He is a compelling and authoritative champion of equity and justice in our field. As told in one of our leading home page stories last month, he received a standing ovation at the WHO social determinants meeting held in Rio, for speaking out on behalf of all impoverished and exploited populations, in Africa and throughout the world. With our columnist Claudio Schuftan, he is committed to the People's Health Movement. This is the public interest organisation that is the most organised and influential champion of the rights and entitlements of common people everywhere. David points out that the way to diminish nutritional deficiencies and infections is principally not to persist in 'top-down' medicalised interventions, but first and foremost to ensure universal basic primary health care, as stated in the WHO Alma Ata Declaration.
Sabah Benjoullan expresses her beliefs as follows. 'My early interest in studying human nutrition in general and socio-economic aspects of nutrition in particular arose from a life-long conviction of the essential importance of human rights in their global sense. In other words, the right to good nutrition and good health is an integral part of human rights'..
Gilberto Kac grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during the seventies, had his first encounter with public health nutrition during high school, when he read some books by George Orwell, in which poverty was a very important issue. He obtained his first degree in nutrition at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, where we will have our Rio2012 congress next April.
We are glad to have such motivating stories told this month – please access the links to these members' profiles to know more about them and their vision and work.
Fabio Gomes
Isabela Sattamini
Association membership secretary
Isabelasattamini@gmail.com
