WINDS OF HOPE
Winds of Hope is a recognized humanitarian public utility foundation whose purpose is to rescue child victims of war, disasters, diseases and conflicts. It focuses in particular on combating ignored or forgotten forms of suffering in such children. Its primary objective is the elimination of noma. The Winds of Hope Foundation has therefore set itself the three following tasks: PREVENT – JOIN FORCES – PERSUADE.
Winds of Hope has chosen to focus primarily on prevention work in the field and to dedicate it all the donations that the Foundation receives. Thus, each donor is assured that its support will be totally dedicated to the fight against noma in Africa. The work done by the Foundation in Europe to unite forces to fight against noma, to develop advocacy with the institutions as well as running expenses and staff cost are provided through the support of its partners.
The Regional Programme for the Fight against Noma (RPFN) in collaboration with WHO during 12 years (2002-2013) aiming at the elimination of Noma is the first Foundation's main achievement. Its main objectives can be summarized as the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of activities on the ground in the area of prevention: training of health workers, early detection and primary health care, education and social mobilization, epidemiological surveillance. The funding of these National Plans for the Fight against Noma (NPFNs) has chosen to support straightforward programs with a strong multiplier effect for preventive information, early detection and primary health care.
The International NoNoma Federation was created on 20 March 2003, under the auspices and leadership of Winds of Hope is the second Foundation's main achievement. It aims to unite the efforts of more than 30 bodies actively involved in this battle, with an emphasis on developing synergies both locally and internationally, through information exchange and collaboration. For several years, Winds of Hope has been organizing roundtables that bring together organizations fighting noma, to create synergies between them and strengthen the work they all do.
The third Foundation's main achievement was a collaboration with Jean Ziegler and Ioana Cismas. By adopting in March 2012, a resolution that adopts noma as an emblematic illness and establishes a link between severe malnutrition and childhood diseases, the Human Rights Council has recognized noma as a marker of extreme poverty. This is the first official international recognition for this neglected disease. It will help reinforce the credibility of the case which the Winds of Hope Foundation is laying before the highest national and international authorities, so as to give better protection to the human rights of malnourished children, and improve the effectiveness of action taken to combat the appalling affliction of noma.
Winds of hope has taken part a few years ago in a huge push to get noma into the WHO NTDs list. Today there is a great opportunity to collaborate with Doctors without Borders (MSF) to relaunch the process and to reach finally the goal of this inscription.
NONOMA FEDERATION
In March 2002, the Winds of Hope humanitarian foundation, founded by Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones, organized the first roundtable to bring together and coordinate the efforts of field workers involved in combating noma. On 20 March 2003, the International NoNoma Federation initially brought together 17 members (NGOs, associations and foundations), all determined to work together to increase their chances of eliminating this neglected scourge of noma. The presidency of the Federation was entrusted to Winds of Hope.
Today, the Federation has some thirty members who work together to develop local and international synergies, while respecting a common ethical code. These NGOs are based mainly in Switzerland and France, but some are in Austria, Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, the United States, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mali, Niger and DR of Congo.
Since March 2003, the Federation’s members have met annually for a General Assembly and Round Table.
The missions of the Federation are to:
- Present joint campaigns and offer a single representative spokesperson to health and political authorities, at both international and local level;
- Informing the public and media about the need to combat noma;
- Offer its members a communication platform, using new technologies to improve their functioning in the fields of prevention, detection, research, medical and surgical care, rehabilitation and reintegration.