Join us for the ninth episode of GFN Voices 2023!
In this episode, Jeffrey Zamora and Francisco Ordoñez reflect on the Latin American focus of #GFN23. You can rewatch both Spanish language sessions from #GFN23 at GFN Youtube Channel!
Transcription:
Hi!
How you doing?
What's your name and where are you from?
My name is Jeffrey Zamora, I'm from Costa Rica.
And what do you do?
What is your background?
Well, that's difficult.
I'm the president of Asovape Costa Rica, which is a consumer organization in Costa Rica.
I'm the president of ARDT Iberoamerica, which is an alliance of consumer organizations from
Latin America, Portugal and Spain.
I'm the director of social media and audiovisual producer for INNCO, which is an global
alliance of organizations.
I also have been working as a project leader for the ECLAT, which they're actually making
a study that is called the Veritas Study, that is part of the COEHAR and the University
of Catania.
What we're looking is people who vape and haven't smoked before, that contrary to many narratives,
there are not a lot.
Yeah, it is not prevalence, actually, the best majority of people that actually vape,
they have smoked for many years before.
So it is difficult to find that people that have not smoked and they're currently vaping
and they have been doing so for at least three months.
And also part of the scholarship program, the KAC scholarship program, I have been part
of making a documentary that is called Safer.
And I'm just glad, which I really feel honored and grateful that I have been selected as
a Kevin Malloy Fellowship.
Yes, congratulations.
Thank you very much.
And what do you think about this year's GFN conference?
It has been great.
It has been really great.
I do think that the GFN is a unique place and a unique conference because it brings
together a lot of the parties as stakeholders in both, right?
One of the things that is different from the GFN that from any other conferences is that
it welcomes everybody, right?
So you can find here researchers, scientists, people in politics, consumer organizations,
which obviously because of my background, I do consider that they're important.
And it is kind of the step in the middle between researchers and politics and regulators.
The consumer advocates are the one that actually make the effort to bring those pieces together, right?
It's in the middle, the kind of the bridge between one and the other.
So that's why I really think that consumer organizations are important to the whole public health environment.
And which topic on GFN conference seems to be most interesting for you?
One of the topics that I want to visit the panel tomorrow is that it's about neurodiversity.
So I do think that is important.
Also obviously there's a lot of topics that we are interested in, right?
For example, what have been happening in the last 10 years, which is quite an interesting conversation.
We had two panels in Spanish this year, which was amazing.
And I think that it's a great opportunity to get more people involved that perhaps they
were feeling a little obstacle and that restriction because of the language barrier, right?
So we are getting more people involved which I think is amazing.
Great.
Thank you so much.
You're very welcome. Thanks.
So, hello.
Hi.
What's your name and who are you?
My name is Francisco Ordonez.
I come from Colombia.
I am the president of Asovape Colombia.
And is it your first time here?
No, it's my third time.
Yes, it's a third time here in GFN.
Great.
So what do you think about this year's GFN conference?
I think all the time in here that is very special because you all the time learn about the
new visions, about for the advocacy for the tobacco harm reduction.
You make contacts with another advocates and the doctors and the other people who are very important
in this fight because it's very important to create network in the world of the advocacies
and the science and the doctors and the different people.
I think it's very important.
The GFN is the ideal space to make contacts, learn, talk with many people about the different
experiences in different countries, the different strategies or this is good, no, it's good.
I think it's the excellent space for this work.
And which session, which topic on the conference seems to be the most interesting for you?
This year is the first time we have sessions in Spanish - two sessions.
I think it's very important to talk about this session because Latin America needs to
talk about the most topics because the context is different in Latin America and the Europe
and the United States is different and the troubles are different, the people are different.
I think it's a good point for the other countries, for example, the European countries to learn,
listen about the situation in Latin America.
I think, it's good to have Farsalinos and different big doctors, it's always amazing here at the conference.
Thank you very much.
With pleasure, to you.