general infonews |
About the Dandelion Health CollectiveWe are a grassroots organization that works to put health back into the hands of people and to reclaim our bodies and communities from the corporate medical system. We provide resources for groups that work within the framework of the collective, serve as a hub for new ideas, projects and campaigns, and work to create community around health issues. Our basic beliefs: We believe that everyone has knowledge and experiences to share and that we can all be “experts” on our own health. Members of the collective share what they know with each other in the form of workshops and discussions. We held our first series of workshops in February 2006 and have done a couple since then. In our workshops we have covered anatomy and physiology from a feminist perspective, DIY Herbal 101, gender and transgender issues, DIY Cervical exams and fertility and charting. We encourage all to bring their own knowledge and hold workshops! Our core values: We believe that all people should have full access to healthcare. 
We support a full spectrum of genders and sexes, understand that recognize that there are differences between them and we oppose the binaries that resrict them. We are against all forms of discrimination and oppression based on race, class, gender, sexuality, physical and mental ability, immigration status, imprisonment, marital status, income, size, religion, spirituality, ethnicity and age. We believe in an individual's right and responsibility to make informed decisions about their health, including the right to refuse treatment. We support families and all their wonderful varieties. We support positive, consentual expressions of sexuality. We are against sterilization, forced genital mutilation, forced hospitalization and treatment. We are against harmful practices and policies to the environment, including animal testing and abuse.  We are against violence of all forms including sexual, emotional, mental, and physical abuse, war, and police brutality. We support an individual's rights to make choices about their own reproductive health including, the right to have children, the right to avoid pregnancy, and the right to terminate pregnancy at all stages. We support all bodies in their many wonderful shapes, sizes, colors and abilities. We support realistic methods of creating safer sex. We believe in safer sex options and that they should be accessible to all. |