The Philippine Embassy in Berlin hosted a lecture-discussion entitled “The Philippines at the Heart of Planetary Health” by Dr Ramon Lorenzo Luis ‘Renzo’ Rosa Guinto, Chief Planetary Doctor at ‘think-and-do tank’ PH Lab and a Harvard doctoral graduate, for the fourth session of its AklaTamBayan living library series, held on 25 October 2019.

 

Dr Guinto, who is a visiting fellow at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium until December 2019, is in Berlin to attend the World Health Summit taking place from 27 to 29 October 2019.

In his talk at the Embassy, he noted the importance of a planetary health framework to serve as a fresh ethical paradigm and renewed basis for collective action that integrates the health of people and the health of the planet. He mentioned the unique challenges faced by the Philippines in the area of Climate Change, as shown by the devastation wreaked by super typhoons like Haiyan.

To show what is being done to address the challenge, he screened two short films he produced as part of his doctoral dissertation, documenting the experiences of communities in Del Carmen, Surigao del Norte and Ajuy, Iloilo.

The talk drew an audience of around 25 people, including Embassy personnel as well as public health practitioners from the German Health Alliance and Médecins sans frontieres, and members of the Filipino community.

Alongside the talk, wherein Dr Renzo identified current food production systems as a major contributor to Climate Change and health issues such as obesity and antibiotic resistance, the Embassy provided a vegetarian grazing table with plant-based interpretations of Filipino favorites like adobo.

“Along with Migration and Food Security, Climate Change is one of the great defining issues today,” Ambassador Ma. Theresa B. Dizon-De Vega said in her remarks before the talk, “and it is a privilege for us to host events like this to contribute to the conversation about it in our own small way.” (END)

Filipino participants of the 2019 Berlin Marathon got a morale and carbo boost from the Philippine Embassy in Berlin last September 28, the eve of the much-awaited elite sporting event.

Over 50 Filipino runners from the Philippines, the US, and the Middle East enjoyed a carbohydrate-rich Filipino dinner at the Embassy with old friends and new acquaintances.

Philippine Ambassador to Germany Theresa Dizon-de Vega welcomed the runners to the Embassy, and was out on the streets of Berlin on marathon day itself, September 29, to show her support.

 

The dinner, the second such event organized by the Embassy, was part of its Sports Diplomacy and Martial Arts Day celebration, which included an arnis demonstration by the Deutscher Arnis Verband e.V on Breitscheidplatz, along Berlin’s famed Kurfürstendamm Avenue.

The Berlin Marathon is one of the world’s elite marathon races held annually in the German capital since 1974. The current world record time for a marathon was established in the 2018 Berlin Marathon and remains unsurpassed. This year’s marathon and its side events attracted over 62,000 people from 150 countries, including the Philippines. END