MISSION STATEMENT

to heal when possible? to comfort often? to inform always?


Dear Readers,

As the former Chief of the Rehabilitation and Physical Therapy Department at SinoUnited Health, I took the decision to stop, observe and look inside and around on a break from 10 years of hands on patient care. I found in my memories a dusty box of unforgotten pictures and stories from all over the world, with half a dozen different mental subtitles, from people that had lived their world with different eyes for different causes and ideals…

In the autumn of 2005, the sketch of the Yue Foundation started in the small hospital of Delek in Dharamsala (INDIA) from the simple idea that anybody could make a difference, from the simple fact that many doctors and healthcare providers were already making a difference. Those individuals had been bringing people all over the world together harmoniously triggering a new revolution, a promise of an opportunity for change. It was not about the revolution of the classes anymore but the internal personal revolution that would move, inspire and push us to do what we believe in, the revolution of our awareness. They have been  showing us that we have more in common than a nationality, an ethnicity, a religion or a shared political view but a vision of how the world should be, of how people should treat each other, a moving example of compassion and philanthropy…  They have shown us a better place not just to dream about but to experience, inherit and pass on to the ones be love, a place where everyone can have a second chance to change, live and enjoy happiness at its fullness.

At that point, I realized I had spent the last years of my career and life not just traveling and working, volunteering and observing, learning and not accepting things for what they were but also encouraging patients and beloved ones to believe in the power of their dreams and visions. It was however the lack of possibilities and second chances that I realized some people had that made me kept going with the foundation. I remembered reading some updates from the WHO (World Health Organization) and found that:

650 million people live with disabilities around the world. People with disabilities make up more than 10% of the world’s population. Too often though, they are unable to access healthcare services. This is not about just the physical access to buildings, but also access to services, information, care and support

These horrifying numbers and the following statement from the IFC (International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health) put my notions of “health” and “disability” in a new light:

Every human being can experience a decrement in health and thereby experience some degree of disability. Disability is not something that only happens to a minority of humanity. The ICF thus ‘mainstreams’ the experience of disability and recognises it as a universal human experience. By shifting the focus from cause to impact it places all health conditions on an equal footing allowing them to be compared using a common metric – the ruler of health and disability. Furthermore ICF takes into account the social aspects of disability and does not see disability only as a ‘medical’ or ‘biological’ dysfunction. By including Contextual Factors, in which environmental factors are listed, ICF allows to record the impact of the environment on the person’s functioning

Because of that, I decided to contribute with my little grain of sand to the cause by letting the idea of Yue Foundation and its Health Blog to take off. The vision was and it is still simple:

To help the ones with disabilities to overcome pain; to help them regain not just function but the chance to redirect their lives; to offer those who are in most need a helping hand to achieve their goals and dreams. To achieve this by promoting health, educate on health and using education and art as a way to overcome obstacles in life… To bring people together, to put an invisible hand on their shoulders. To make them realize that they are not left alone with their pain and that the seeking for comfort in health should always be heard by those who can make a difference

Eric Yue

Founder