Africa Educates Her Campaign with Sofonie Dala. Don't miss this episode. Day 9

Invest in girls’ education for a better post-COVID-19 world

COVID-19 has disrupted education for 1.2 billion students - and up to 10 million secondary-school aged girls may never return to the classroom.

In some countries, the poorest girls could lose half their total years of education. Out of school, girls are vulnerable to child marriage, early pregnancy and pressure to take on more unpaid and paid work. When schools eventually re-open, millions of girls may not reenroll due to harmful gender norms and strains on household and government spending.

Our today's special guest is Chelsea dos Anjos an University student. She shared with us her challenges during lock-down. She says that covid-19 affected her student life very negatively. She can no longer go to school, can't visit libraries or institutions related to her area of study and also her academic performance has been failing. 

She recommends that entities responsible for solving the problem of schools, create biosafety conditions and social distance to ensure that all girls return to school safely. 

We need action now to respond to and recover from a looming education crisis. While girls are at home, we must provide them with low-tech, universally accessible distance learning and protect them from harm. We must plan for a quick, comprehensive return to school by setting up systems to monitor reenrollment, gather gender-disaggregated data and incentivize at-risk girls to go back to the classroom.

Second, we have to do more to help education systems recover. In the face of a financial crisis, national governments should not divert funding, continuing to aim to spend 20% of domestic budgets or 6% of gross national income on education. The international community can help relieve pressure on budgets, through coordinated actions like debt relief and special drawing rights.

Don't miss this opportunity, join us! 

Share your experiences learning/teaching during the school closures & the projects or initiatives you've launched to get girls back to school post #COVID19 in your local communities. Your submission can be in the form of a video, blog article, poetry, photograph/s or a song. To check out instructions on how to submit click this link: http://cieffa.org/

#AfricaEducatesHer

Aucieffa

Call for Submissions: AU/CIEFFA Africa Educates Her Campaign for creative content

 Don't miss this opportunity! Apply now

AU/CIEFFA invites African girls and women: students, human rights’ activists and teachers/educators to submit creative content showcasing their experiences learning/teaching girls during the COVID-19 related school closures and initiatives being taken by individuals, organisations and nations to ensure girls return back to school once schools start reopening.

Application Deadline: 30th November 2020

About the Award: COVID -19 has affected over 133 million female learners across the continent and through the Africa Educates Her campaign, the AU/CIEFFA seeks to highlight the experiences of learners at primary, secondary and tertiary education levels during the COVID 19 related school lockdown and further give voice to what young African girls, young women, youth and educators think should be done to promote, encourage and protect girls’ right to education especially during times of crisis.

Type: Contest

Eligible Countries: All African countries

Eligibility: Submissions can be in the form of videos, blogs articles, poetry, art, photography or music.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: Selected submissions will be shared on the AU/CIEFFA Africa Educates Her blog and will form part of the Africa Educates Her documentary to be released at the end of 2020.

How to Apply: See Application Guidelines here

Do not forget to include your name, country, age and what you do (student,
teacher, activist etc.) in the email when you send your submission.

Click here to apply: https://cieffa.org/

Vulnerable families sustain industry with plastic waste

 Around 70 tonnes of plastic waste is acquired monthly by the Marplastico factory of the Marivel group, from individuals and companies in the municipality of Lubango, Huila and Namibe province, who two years ago found a livelihood for their families in the business.

Marplastico is the first plastic products factory in the southern region of the country and is located in the industrial area of Figueira, which initially had its raw material source abroad but now lives on recycling, thanks to this project involving vulnerable families.

In statements to ANGOP, the owner of the company, Floriano Vieira Dias, said that they have a recycling area in the factory that uses all plastic polypropylene material, bringing to them several customers and suppliers, mostly people who collect the product from the streets.

He said they had several suppliers in Lubango, which are not fixed, and they also have a group of women from Namibe, who gather and bring in to sell plastic waste, between 30 and 40 tons.

Vieira Dias stressed that with this base, many families are already able to feed themselves and ensure their livelihoods.

"We are currently receiving 12 to 13 people a day providing plastic waste. We pay 180 to 185 kwanzas per kilogram if it is very good material and if it is what people call rubbish we pay around 120 kz, for doing more work on separation, as it has more costs for the recycling process," he explained.

He detailed that the plastic recycling process, after the purchase of the product, starts with the unloading, goes through a sorting, then goes to the crushing, melting and then the manufacturing machines, a process that takes four to five hours, involving 64 workers, out of a total of 110 employees.

Covid-19: Angola reports 51 new infections, 23 recoveries

  At least fifty one new infections, two deaths and 23 patients recovered is the national epidemiological balance of the last 24 hours presented Monday by the health authorities.

FRANCO MUFINDA, STATE SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC HEALTH