"Rx for Survival" Web Site Examines the Challenges and Successes of Global Health and How Individuals Can Help

The recently-launched "Rx for Survival" Web site at http://www.pbs.org/rxforsurvival gives users the chance to learn more about global health and become involved in efforts to improve the health of people around the world.

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(PRWEB) July 13, 2005

Rx for Survival—A Global Health Challenge™ is a pioneering multimedia project that explores the current global health crisis and the solutions that promise to make our borderless society healthier. At the center of the project is a compelling six-hour documentary series premiering on PBS, November 1-3, and co-produced by the award winning team of the WGBH/NOVA Science Unit and Vulcan Productions. "Rx for Survival" will be extended by a wealth of companion elements from major media partners, including TIME magazine, NPR, The Penguin Press, and a comprehensive PBS Web site.

In addition, co-producers WGBH/NOVA Science Unit and Vulcan Productions have created "Rx for Child Survival," a campaign to raise awareness about the fact that children bear the brunt of the world’s global health problems and will offer ways for Americans to give time and voice their own opinions about global health issues. The campaign will also encourage people everywhere to give money to improve the health of the world’s neediest children.

The "Rx for Survival" Web site at http://www.pbs.org/rxforsurvival gives users the chance to learn more about global health and become involved in efforts to improve the health of people around the world. The site will continue to grow in breadth and depth through the premiere of the documentary series in November 2005.

Visitors to the "Rx for Survival" site can:

  • Explore a detailed overview of the "Rx For Survival" project: the television series, the many media partners, and the "Rx for Child Survival" campaign.

  • Learn what it’s like on the frontlines of global health from personal accounts posted by healthcare workers and producers around the world in ongoing “Dispatches from the Field.”

  • Ensure that children in need receive basic health interventions by making a secure donation to the "Rx for Child Survival" campaign, facilitated by international fulfillment partners CARE and Save the Children.

  • Discover ways to be involved on both local and global levels and find links to help make it all happen.

  • Follow links to our partners’ sites to learn how to speak out among friends and neighbors, write to the media and contact your local officials.

  • Celebrate health with the Global Health calendar – a list of important dates related to the campaign, to local and national campaign events, and to world health in general.

  • Subscribe to the "Rx for Survival" e-mail newsletter or browse back issues in the archive.

"Rx for Survival" content features will expand this fall to include:

  • Information about the series along with a preview video clip

  • An atlas that illuminates key factors influencing global health in countries around the world

  • Stories of global health champions

  • Portraits of killer infectious diseases

  • E-postcards emphasizing the importance of global health issues

  • The politics of global health

  • Educational materials for middle and high school teachers and students with a focus on both science and social studies

Major funding for "Rx for Survival—A Global Health Challenge" is provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Merck Company Foundation.

WGBH/NOVA Science Unit

WGBH Boston is America's preeminent public broadcasting producer, the source of fully one-third of PBS's prime-time lineup, along with some of public television's best-known lifestyle and children's programs and many public radio favorites. One of its premiere programs, NOVA, is a production of the WGBH/NOVA Science Unit. Now in its 31st year of broadcasting, NOVA is the most popular science series on American television and is seen in more than 100 countries. It is also one of television's most acclaimed series, having won every major television award, most of them many times over. NOVA's programs are used extensively in classrooms around the country and the NOVA website is consistently the most trafficked on pbs.org. In 1998, the National Science Board of the National Science Foundation awarded NOVA its first-ever Public Service Award. NOVA has won every major broadcasting award, including the Emmy, the Peabody, the AAAS Westinghouse Science Journalism Award, and the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Gold Baton. For more information on WGBH and NOVA, respectively, visit http://www.wgbh.org and http://www.pbs.org/nova.

Vulcan Productions

Vulcan Productions is the independent film production company founded by investor and philanthropist Paul G. Allen in 1997. Vulcan Productions devotes itself exclusively to producing independent films of unique vision and artistic quality. With feature film projects such as "Hard Candy," "Far From Heaven," "The Safety of Objects," and award-winning documentaries such as Martin Scorsese’s "The Blues," "Evolution," "Black Sky: The Race for Space" and "Black Sky: Winning The X-Prize," the company commits its talent and resources to creating films of substance and enduring significance. Through its collaborative partnerships with established and emerging filmmakers, Vulcan Productions explores creative opportunities that result in engaging and inspirational storytelling. Visit Vulcan Productions online at http://www.vulcanproductions.com.

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