Conference Opens

The Healthy Caribbean Conference 2008 opened this morning with a packed room of participants from 18 countries across the Caribbean and Latin America with an interest in health - health NGOs, development agencies, the private sector, governments.

Prof.  Trevor Hassell, Conference Coordinator, opened the conference, welcoming participants and laying the foundation for the meeting.

Chronic non-communicable diseases remain the leading cause of deaths across the region but are easily overlooked because they lack the impact on the public imagination of other more visibly tragic diseases.  

The Conference aims to engage civil society in supporting implementation of the Port of Spain Declaration.  Other objectives include identifying priorities and developing an initial 48-month Caribbean Civil Society Plan to respond to the challenge of the Port of Spain Summit - Uniting to Stop the Epidemic of Chronic Non-communicable Diseases; presenting the InterAmerican Heart Foundation Science of Peace Award and to present the 5th InterAmerican Journalism Contest Awards on Tobacco Control.