Latest news update for September

PacELF team leader, Dr Kazuyo Ichimori, has moved to Geneva, Switzerland, to assume a new position at the WHO head quarter. She will be working on Vector Control and Management in the Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases Unit, Cluster on Communicable Diseases. Here we have a message from Dr Ichimori before her departure from Suva, Fiji, where she was based for the past seven years:

Dear Friends,

I will leave Fiji next week and move to Geneva. I will take up a position at HQ office, WHO, and work on Vector Control and Management in the Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases Unit, Cluster on Communicable Diseases.

I have been in the Pacific for 14 years with WHO - 1992-1994 in Samoa, 1995-2000 in Vanautu and 2000-2006 in Fiji for vector borne diseases control including malaria, dengue and lymphatic filariasis. I have loved my life and work on the islands and learned a lot from the proud and brave people with big hearts in the Pacific. Especially, for the last 7 years I have spent my time to work for the Pacific filariasis programme
- PacELF with all your kind support. I am leaving but I believe PacELF will continue the "PacELF Way" to reach a real successful goal.

Thank you very much for your friendship during my stay in the Pacific countries. I will look forward to seeing you again in the future.

Vinaka Vakalevu.
Kazuyo

For further correspondences regarding PacELF matters, please contact with PacELF Home office, (pacelf1@connect.com.fj), otherwise, my new working contact after 11 September is as follows;

Kazuyo Ichimori, PhD
Vector Ecology and Management,
Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases
World Health Organization
20 Avenue Appia
CH-1211 Geneva 27
Switzerland

Tel (+41 22) 791 20 95
Fax (+41 22) 791 48 69
ichimorik@who.int

In response to the news of her departure, PacELF Office has received numerous letters and emails from our partners all over the world. We would like to share one of the responses from PacELF member countries. The message is by Dr Joe Koroivueta, the national ELF manager of  Fiji.

Sayonara Sensei Ichimori 

We members of the PacELF family are touched with sadness on the departure of our mentor, team leader, mother, sister and true friend, Dr Kazuyo Ichimori, in her new posting to the WHO Headquarters in Geneva in Neglected Tropical Diseases area. She is the founder of PacELF and steered our Pacific in a very special PacELF way. She moulded the member countries and in so doing generated humility and respect for her exuberant attention to our tradition, culture and heritage. There is no argument that this is a unique undertaking in a regional elimination initiative. She will be a mountain of aspiration to us and more has systematically built people of the Pacific in this arena. The name, the face, the smile, the achievements, the many memorable moments will be cast in gold in our hearts and mind. To our Patron and mother, we long to unite again with you anywhere and anytime. You have a special place in our lives. It is hard to idolise your footprints but what we know will be forever here is your thoughts and continual pursuit of care for the baby you planned and the full development close to immortality.

In closing, excerpts from Dr Viliame Puloka's farewell from a distance reads:

Ichimori my friend, thank you for the footprints.

We are "heart people"

that is how we think and feel the world

that is the secret of our happiness

the reason for our existence...

thank you for using your heart when thinking of us

otherwise, filariasis would still be our plight


..you have traveled far and wide in many of our islands..

..you have touched so many lives and many more to come

we savor the footprints you left behind. 


Many people walk in and out of my life, but you my friend

Your footprint is imbedded in my heart.