WIHU'20 FINAL DECLARATION
WIHU’20 FINAL DECLARATION
We have reached the end of our 5th WIHU’20 Covid-19 Congress in 2020. On behalf of WIHU, I want to thank to all those who participated in the planning, arranging and execution processes, organizing firm members, sponsors, our panelists who generously shared their knowledge with us, and those of you who have been watching and actively participating. On behalf of WIHU, I want to thank you again for your devotion. I call it devotion because you have the burden of urgencies, you have a society that seeks more and more of your services, you have patients whose conditions deteriorate, you have families you need to take care of, a job which you should continue to work, you have family elders you need to protect, now we all have bigger responsibilities on our shoulders. We are all tired as healthcare workers and government servants who fight against COVID-19 on front line during the pandemic. We lost some colleagues besides our financial and moral losses. May Allah mercy on them.
Our usual lives, dreams, expectations, and plans have changed suddenly with Covid-19. This process has showed us that we need to value what we have, priority of things we considered important has changed, it reminds us that we should put in more effort in our relationships, it has taught us better concept of family, and how valuable our elders are. Once again it has showed us just like our religion also suggests; how short and meaningless the world is.
In this pandemic, the so called rich and developed countries forcefully seized health aids passing through their borders, shopping centers and supermarkets looted, they bought all doses of vaccines for themselves without caring about the rest of the world. In the sense of humanity, justice, rightfulness, and ethics, they couldn’t have passed the test. Western world has shown their true face by charging their citizens without a social security system with health care fees they have no way of paying, and throughway showed the real face of capitalism and the signs of globalization failure by doing closed borders instead of helping each other.
This Covid-19 pandemic also showed us some other things. That cyber and biological security is so valuable that countries should have national information systems, how valuable personal freedoms are, and it has reminded us that nations should acquire better knowledge and necessary experience in crisis management. It has showed us that in this time of growing future anxiety, growing feeling of loneliness, violence, depression, and panic diseases becoming more common, countries should have plans for such things. It has practically showed us the need for a revision of health systems of every country in a time when even the most advanced countries have failed to satisfy their needs: preventive medicine, hospital, health personnel, first aid, intensive care and hardware. In this process, the value of some services such as health service delivery in houses, online healthcare services for age groups who cannot leave their houses such as children and elderly has been reminded. Besides, the fact that achieving partial success is possible by applying traditional medicine, showed the value of supporting scientific researches without ignoring the accumulated knowledge this far.
Unfortunately, in this Covid-19 pandemic, there has been an observable decline in basic medical aids to the countries in need. This is specifically because of the rising prices of food and cleaning products, the pressure on fragile social groups has increased, those who lost their jobs or went bankrupt increased and it has caused more poverty. In this process, it is seen that food and water crises which is also triggered by climate change will be some of the greatest challenges in years to come. It is necessary for countries to take care of their soils and seeds, and make planning concerning this issue. It should also be remembered that “code of brotherhood” necessitates giving aid to poor countries so they can cope with the pandemics. Also in this time, we should raise our voices and all countries should work together against discrimination against people from different ethnic, ideological and religious background including Islamophobia and forced burning of Muslim dead bodies during this pandemic.
In addition to all these negativities of pandemic, we should not forget that it gives an opportunity to revise the current issues as well as our future vision including economic, social, political etc. to plan better in manner. We should use it to convert our negative situations into positive.
It is might not be possible for countries to fight against the pandemics individually, but it is a fact that when they unite their power, they can easily solve problems such as vaccine, medicine, technology and food problems. Let us not forget that together we are strong, if we divide, we will be doomed. There is a bigger responsibility for NGO’s in delivering the right messages to right places in this pandemic. The interest shown in the 5th International HACKATHON ISTANBUL event organized within the scope of this congress increased our hopes for technological innovation-based initiatives. We would like to thank all companies, sponsors, speakers, Istanbul Consulting Group and NTR TV officials who supported this innovation event.
I salute you all with respect, and wish you success in your endeavors.
Thank you.
On behalf of WIHU Organization
Prof. Dr. Salih Mollahaliloğlu
Head of the Congress
