This is one of the main conclusions of the 1st Latin American Congress on Socio-Environmental Health and the 2nd Meeting of Doctors of Sprayed Peoples, held from April 28-30 in Rosario. The activity was organized by the academics in charge of Socio-Environmental Health at the Medical Sciences School of the National University of Rosario, the Environmentalist Forum of Parana, and the Center of Protection of Nature of Santa Fe.

The call to the event made reference, among other things, to a “model of organization of societies and production processes imposed to us as “growth-development-progress” with which they are bringing pollutant production models to our Latin America”.

The general coordinator of the event, Dr. Damian Verzeñassi, said to Real World Radio: “It is clear that there is an urgent need to discuss and redefine Latin American production models, and what is the model of life and system we want.”

“Some say that it has to be a life for those who can afford it, but we say that it has to be a life with the same rights for all”, said Verzeñassi in an interview with Pablo Valenzuela, Real World Radio’s correspondent in Paraguay and present at the event in Rosario.

The Argentinian doctor is in charge of the subject Socio-Environmental Health at the National University of Rosario. He said that the unity of environmental activists and academics is fundamental. “There are still differences between the University and the social movement, and that is something we are trying to end with this Congress”, he said. “The struggles of the social movements and universities will at some point become the struggles of citizens and human beings that want to live in a dignified way”, he added.

Around 300 people from over 10 countries participated in the 1st Latin American Congress on Socio-Environmental Health and the 2nd Meeting of Doctors of Sprayed Peoples. There will be a second meeting in May, 2013.

“The reality in Latin America responds to the pattern of world economic powers to clean their territories at the expense of our diseases”, said Verzeñassi. He added that there are hundreds of thousands of researchers and teachers in the region “willing to work with social movements, and to be a part of them to build scientific knowledge to empower and to allow a more dignified life for all”.

Verzeñassi also said that four years ago, the Medical Sciences School of the National University of Rosario made the “political decision” to become a “resistance center”.

In terms of the second meeting to take place in 2013, Verzeñassi proposed that academics and social movements continue working in local and regional fora to “build knowledge” and strengthen “the struggles in favor of life.”

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