Homelessness is a big challenge in low-and middle-income countries and mental health conditions are highly prevalent in homeless populations. A significant number of homeless people have some sort of mental illness including sever mental health disorders. There is a considerable treatment and support gap for this marginalised population. The Banyan organisation with its treatment and care services are filling the gap in India for the most vulnerable population.

In this episode, Carine Weiss talks with Dr. Vandana Gopikumar about her passion and love to support the mentally ill homeless women and men and how she and her team are able to treat and heal patients so that they can go back and life a normal life again together with their families or in their community.

https://thebanyan.org/
www.medicusmundi.ch

In this episode, Carine Weiss speaks with Achille Bapolisi, one of three psychiatrists in Bukavu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Achille talks about the need to provide more psycho-social services and more support for his hometown and country, which is suffering from traumatic experiences of war. He talks about the need to create safe spaces to talk about feelings and traumatic experiences - not only for health workers, but for men and women of all ages.

The mental health workforce gap in low- and middle-income countries is very worrying. In low-income countries, the rate of mental health workers can be as low as 2 per 100 000 population, compared with more than 70 in high-income countries. This is in stark contrast with needs, given that 1 in every 10 person is estimated to need mental health care at any one time.

www.medicusmundi.ch

Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder in which people interpret reality abnormally. It is a mental health disorder that affects a person's ability to think, feel and behave clearly. The exact cause of schizophrenia isn't known, but a combination of genetics, environment and altered brain chemistry and structure may play a role. Schizophrenia is characterised by thoughts or experiences that seem out of touch with reality, disorganised speech or behaviour and decreased participation in daily activities. Schizophrenia is affecting 20 million people worldwide according to WHO (2020).

In this episode, Carine talks with Charlene Sunkel, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and proved to everyone to be able to have a meaningful life despite being told that she has no rights, no future and no recovery ahead. Today she is the founder of the Global Mental Health Peer Network and has won several awards for her work.

www.gmhpn.org
https://www.medicusmundi.ch/en/advocacy/publications/mms-health-for-all-podcast/

Malaria is a disease of poverty and injustice. It is both a cause and a consequence of poverty. Its impact is especially ferocious on the poorest: those least able to afford preventive measures and medical treatment. And yet, malaria is entirely preventable through an integrated package of interventions, such as properly maintained insecticide-treated nets, indoor residual spraying and information campaigns. If diagnosed and treated promptly and correctly, malaria is curable.
Defeating malaria is critical to ending poverty and improving maternal and child health. Strengthening national health services and community led initiatives are crucial in ending Malaria.

In this episode, Carine Weiss talks to Valentina Buj about her dedication to fight Malaria and to contribute to the end of Malaria. We also talk about gender inequality, access to health systems and about the importance of health system strengthening to end malaria.

Valentina Buj is the global malaria and health partnership advisor at UNICEF. Since 2002, she has worked to assist countries to continue scaling up integrated malaria interventions and works to foster greater harmonization among global malaria initiatives. Mrs. Buj spends much of her time working in malaria-endemic countries, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Nigeria, Uganda, Cameroon, and Mozambique.

www.medicusmundi.ch
http://www.unicef.org/health/index_malaria.html

Mosquitoes infect millions of people with malaria - a disease that kills a child every two minutes. Most of these deaths occur in the poorest countries with the weakest health systems. Over the past 20 years, much has been invested in malaria prevention and treatment, resulting in the prevention of over 7.6 million malaria deaths. The progress the world has made in the fight against malaria is one of the greatest success stories in global health. Currently, however, these successes are threatened by the Covid-19 pandemic, as the virus places an additional burden on already fragile health systems in sub-Saharan Africa. The good news is that many countries are finding ways to maintain important malaria programmes despite the pandemic, and there were fewer disruptions of prevention and treatment activities last year than feared.

In this episode, Carine Weiss talks to Professor Christian Lengeler about his passion for malaria research and how the current pandemic is affecting malaria prevention and treatment.

www.medicusmundi.ch

World Malaria Day, marked each year on 25 April, is an occasion to highlight the need for continued investment and sustained political commitment for malaria prevention and control.
The Swiss Malaria Group advocates for a malaria-free world. As a multistakeholder network of academic research, civil society organizations, corporate and public sectors, we unite all sectors and cover the whole intervention chain from research and innovation to large-scale access to prevention and treatment and implementation along with the necessary advocacy. The Swiss Malaria Group is a unique example of partnership which reflects the Sustainable Development Goals.

In this episode, Carine talks to the executive secretary of the Swiss Malaria Group Julia Richter, about their commitment, why the World Malaria Day is important and why collaboration between different actors in the fight against malaria is crucial.

www.medicusmundi.ch
https://www.swissmalariagroup.ch/en/

One in three women in India is likely to have been subjected to intimate partner violence of a physical, emotional, or sexual nature. Due to the deeply rooted gender norms and cultural values in the Indian society violence continues. Children in homes where there is domestic violence are often neglected or abused themselves which which means that they often go through the phase of puberty and adolescence without emotional and cognitive support.
In this episode Carine Weiss talks to Khushboo a young independent 27-year-old woman from India. Khushboo who has lost her mother due to domestic violence fights for human rights, justice and for unbiased information when it comes to comprehensive sexuality education. We talked about the impact of her upbringing and the lack of information around puberty, love and relationships.

Khushboo has completed her education in Psychology and Human Rights. She is a "Youth Champion" of Asia Safe Abortion Partnership. She has largely worked on issues related to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and Comprehensive Sexuality Education. She is also a counsellor for young adults and adolescents who deal with issues related to love, sex and relationships. Currently, she is starting her own company called "WhatTheFusss!!"

https://www.medicusmundi.ch/en/advocacy/publications/mms-health-for-all-podcast/

“Do we ever wonder why talking about sex, sexuality, sexual desire and pleasure brings in such feeling of shame and embarrassment? After all there is nothing unnatural about it nor are we born with this shame. But we grow up hearing, knowing and feeling that sex is something shameful.”

In this episode Carine Weiss talks to Vithika Yadav a human rights activists and head of love matters India who is passionate about talking about sex to lift the taboos and to change harmful social norms. If we don’t talk about it openly and honestly we will not be able to talk and tackle the issues around sexual harassment, sexual assaults or rape. In this episode we talk about how to lift harmful norms and to break taboos, the need for unbiased, youth-friendly sexuality education and about the impact of pornography on young people.
https://lovematters.in/en
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vbj4lOYN2k
www.medicusmundi.ch

The world has changed for the better for the past decades but we are still failing young people at home, in schools and in the community with regards to comprehensive sexuality education. Their sexual rights are not yet fulfilled.
In this episode Carine Weiss talks to Dr. Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli who is passionate about applying the best evidence we have to improve adolescents' lives. Appling evidence to design SRHR policies and programs is essential if we want better health outcomes for adolescents and young people.

https://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/about_us/staff/Chandra-Biography/en/
www.medicusmundi.ch

Contradicting laws reinforce stigma and discrimination against LGBT people and hinders access to health care and HIV services out of fear of being identified as gay, discriminated against, persecuted or prosecuted
In this episode Carine talks to Allan Malecha a human rights activists and a lawyer in Kenya about the importance of human rights lawyers to combat human rights violations and to protect the rights of LGBTI people and people living with HIV. Allan Maleche explains where it comes from that people are criminalised and prosecuted based on their sexual identity and what needs to be done to ensure health for all.

https://kelinkenya.org
www.medicusmundi.ch