The Heart Foundation of Jamaica - The Caribbean Tobacco Control Project

	The chief objective of this regional project is to accelerate the placement of Graphic picture Health Warnings (GHW) on cigarette packs and packaging in the Caribbean, starting with the four countries of Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, where the two-year project operates. GHW show areas of smokers’ bodies – mouth/teeth, throat, feet – badly diseased as a result of smoking cigarettes. The project is funded by the Bloomberg Global Initiative, an organization created by the Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg. The funding was granted to The Heart Foundation of Jamaica, a Non-Government Organization (NGO), via the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, based in Washington, DC, U.S.A. In the other project countries it operates from these sister NGOs: the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Barbados, the Guyana Chest Society and the Trinidad and Tobago Cancer Society. The Project Head Office is located at The Heart Foundation of Jamaica (HFJ), whose Executive Director is also the Project Director. The regional Project Manager and the Communications Officer also operate from the HFJ and a Project Officer operates from each of the three NGOs mentioned above. Our project celebrated its first full year in April 2009. Our achievements to date: • Strong relations with and assistance for the Ministry of Health, Jamaica, as it facilitates that Ministry’s production of the Graphic Health Warnings, as mandated by CARICOM and as required of Jamaica and other countries that signed the world’s first international public health treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). This treaty was spearheaded by the World Health Organization, in response to the global rise in deaths, diseases and disabilities as a result of tobacco use, mainly in the form of cigarette smoking. Many people do not realize that the world’s health is under siege from this tobacco epidemic, which currently results in approximately five (5) million deaths worldwide, annually. Additionally, cigarette smoking is increasing in the developing world, of which our region is a part. It is decreasing in the so-called developed world and one of the reasons is that the GHW continue to dissuade young persons from starting the addictive and deadly habit.

	• Regional recognition within relevant CARICOM bodies of the importance of GHW and the Project’s role in facilitating their regional implementation. This had led to our invitation to speak with the Technical Management Committee (TMC) of the regional Standards body, the Caribbean Organization for Standards and Quality (CROSQ). The TMC comprises the grouping of regional Standards Officers who oversee aspects of the regional cigarette labelling standards. • Strong regional media and wider civil society awareness about the important role GHW play in alerting citizens to the severe damage to heath, including the rise in smoking-related disabilities that often prematurely end the ability of breadwinners to care for their families, workers to be productive/report for work every day and Governments to meet spiralling health care costs because of cigarette smoking/smoke -related ill health. The Project continues to receive wide media coverage and public attention via the electronic, print and other mass communications avenues. READ MORE ON THE PROJECT • History • Project Objectives • Project Partners • Project Updates • Press Articles & Releases Continue reading Page 1 of 2