Africa Educates Her Campaign - Angola. Season 3. Don't miss out! Webisode 2

 Our girls back to school campaign is ongoing. Day 2

“Education is the only thing that cannot be taken away. It is the key to fulfilling girl's dreams.”

Our today's guest is Engrácia. She will tell about her feelings of her and challenges she faces during the coronavirus time.

Introduction

Hello, my name is Engrácia, I am 14 years old, I am from Angola and I study in the 7th class.

How has the coronavirus affected you?

The coronavirus has affected my academic life. When covid-19 emerged I stopped studying and was forced to stay at home.

Now that school has reopened, have you gone back to school?

Yes I went back to school thanks to God.

Did your school distribute any biosecurity materials?

No.

What are the prevention measures that the school advises you to follow?

Always wash hands, do not touch doorknobs, do not exchange pencils with colleagues and always keep a meter away from colleagues.

How is your academic development going? Did you forget anything you learned before?

My academic development is going more or less. Yes, I forgot a lot. I practically no longer remember the things we studied, and in this second phase of the schools reopening, we started writing our exams at one blow.

Isn't this difficult for you?

It is. It has been very difficult for me.

Have all your colleagues who studied with you before the pandemic returned to school?

Yes, everyone came back to school thanks to God.

How do you feel when you enter school? Aren't you afraid?

I am very afraid. Every time I enter school I get the feeling that I will find a colleague with Covid-19 and can easily contaminate me, or by touching my desk, probably an infected colleague has touched it before and I will also catch the disease.

I am always afraid but I have been praying to God to protect me from this disease.

The longer schools remained closed, the more damaging the consequences, especially for children from more disadvantaged backgrounds. As schools closed then, kids, and mostly girls, weren't able to learn as well or at all at home since their responsibilities shifted to caring for the home and family, and making money.

The COVID-19 pandemic will have huge impacts on student learning across the world, but students sub-Saharan Africa will be the most negatively affected. In these countries, governments have been less able to provide remote learning opportunities and guidance to teachers to address student learning needs during the crisis. ”

Do you have a personal experience with the coronavirus you'd like to share? Or a tip on how your town or community is handling the pandemic? Don't miss this opportunity to bring girls back to school. Tell us your story!

Click here to watch free full webisodes: https://she-leads.blogspot.com/

''Corona Voice'' - Angola. The tok show with Sofonie Dala. Don't miss it. Day 16

Our coronavirus show is ongoing. Day 16

As living in poverty usually implies a greater exposure to COVID-19 and its economic impact, the crisis is, in effect, also bringing about a vicious cycle between growing poverty and inequality. Indeed, the most vulnerable have been hit the hardest by both lockdowns and the direct health threat of the pandemic.

Today we invited Suzana, she will share with us the challenges she faces during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Introduction

My name is Suzana

Why are you in these situations?

My husband doesn't work, so I'm asking for alms on the street.

How many children do you have?

I have 6 children, I am here with 2 the other 4 stayed at home.

Do your children study?

No, my kids don't study, we don't have possibilities to support them.

How has Covid-19 affected your life?

Very difficult, we are scraped. My children used to study, but now things have gotten more complicated.

Moreover, our house is not in such favorable conditions to live.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected vulnerable communities globally, and poor women are among those groups severely affected. Children in poor households also suffer disproportionally from the closure of schools, as they miss out on essential school meals and may find it harder to access digital learning in oftentimes overcrowded and poorly connected environments. In addition, girls may be required to take care of their younger siblings thereby missing school.

This is the first and the only Coronavirus show in Angola where the most ordinary citizens show their brilliant talents.

The heroes of the program are the most ordinary citizens - they share with the audience their songs, poems and real stories of how the Coronavirus pandemic affected their lives.

We launched the “Corona Voice show” campaign to provide a space for young women and men around Angola to share their views, experiences and initiatives.

Click here to watch free full webisodes: https://coronavoice-angola.blogspot.com/

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) Resilience Fund Fellowship 2021 (US$15 000 in funding)

 Application Deadline: January 4th 2021 

For 2021, the theme of the Resilience Fellowship will be extortion and organized crime. Within this framework, Fellows will be asked to combine their various perspectives in the development of collaborative outputs, as well as to represent the Fund as Resilience Fund Ambassadors who will raise awareness of the theme, issues and the importance of civil society in countering organized crime

Requirements

For the year 2021, a total of 10 Fellows will be selected.

These can represent the fields of journalism and media; activism; advocacy and community mobilization; the creative arts (including artists, writers, filmmakers and others); community leaders (religious, cultural or youth leaders); academia (researchers and scholars), and the public sector (policymakers). Individuals from other disciplines will be considered if their work is relevant to the Resilience Fellowship’s objectives and annual theme.

The Fellowship welcomes applications from individuals of any gender, ethnicity, age, religion, or any other defining factor, who work in communities affected by organized crime. The overall make-up of the 10 Fellows will be diverse and will reflect an equitable geographic and gender balance.

Benefits

Each fellow will receive US$15 000 (divided in three payments of US$5 000) to be executed with no other limitation than the principles of professionalism, integrity and transparency

Click here to apply: http://bit.ly/2LOz08k

Commonwealth PhD Scholarships 2021 (for least developed countries and fragile states) to Study in the UK (Fully Funded)

Application Deadline: 18 January 2021 

Commonwealth PhD Scholarships are for candidates from least developed countries and fragile states in the Commonwealth, to undertake full-time doctoral study at a UK university.

Requirements

Be a citizen of or have been granted refugee status by an eligible Commonwealth country, or be a British Protected Person
Be permanently resident in an eligible Commonwealth country
Be available to start your academic studies in the UK by the start of the UK academic year in September/October 2021
By September 2021, hold a first degree of at least upper second class (2:1) honours standard, or a second-class degree (2:2) and a relevant postgraduate qualification (a Master’s degree)
NOT be registered for a PhD, or an MPhil leading to a PhD, at a UK university before September 2021
NOT have commenced and be currently registered for a PhD, or an MPhil leading to a PhD, in your home country or elsewhere
Have the support of a potential supervisor from at least one UK university listed in your application form

Benefits

- Approved airfare from your home country to the UK and return at the end of your award (the CSC will not reimburse the cost of fares for dependants, nor the cost of journeys made before your award is confirmed)
- Approved tuition fees
- Stipend (living allowance) at the rate of £1,116 per month, or £1,369 per month for those at universities in the London metropolitan area (rates quoted at 2020-2021 levels)
- Warm clothing allowance, where applicable
- Study travel grant towards the cost of study-related travel within the UK or overseas
- Provision towards the cost of fieldwork undertaken overseas (the cost of one economy class return airfare to your fieldwork location), where approved

- Paid mid-term visit (airfare) to your home country 

Click here to apply: bit.ly/3p1OW5u

FAO and Belgium support Southern Africa in the fight against the African migratory locust

 Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe have been facing a serious outbreak of the African migratory locust (AML) (Locusta migratoria migratorioides) since May 2020. Damage to summer crops was limited as harvesting had already occurred. However, irrigated crops, winter crops and the next season of summer crops are now in jeopardy. About 1.1 million hectares have already been affected, according to the Food and Nutrition Security Working Group (FSNWG).

The AML is a transboundary pest capable of flying long distances and severely affecting crops, pastures as well as food security, nutrition and livelihoods. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), about 2.3 million people already facing acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3) are likely to be seriously impacted by AML in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia.

The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) has launched a regional appeal for USD 20 million for a coordinated response, including financial and technical support, to address the surging impact of AML in the region. Under this framework, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is working with SADC and the International Red Locust Control Organization for Central and Southern Africa (IRLCO-CSA) to support the governments of the affected countries in the fight against locusts.

To date, all funds received under the appeal have been mobilized by FAO through the Organization’s Technical Cooperation Programme with a USD 500 000 project and from the Central Emergency Response Fund with USD 2 million. Through the Special Fund for Emergency and Rehabilitation Activities (SFERA), an additional USD 500 000 from the Government of Belgium will contribute to the regional appeal by increasing the emergency response capacity of the SADC’s five affected member countries. In particular, the capacity to control and prevent the pest from spreading further and damaging crops and livestock grazing, key sources of food security and nutrition and the livelihoods of many vulnerable households.

With Belgium’s generous support, the project will procure and deliver appropriate biopesticides, personnel protective equipment, specialized locust control equipment and health monitoring material to strengthen the capacity of locust control units to implement sound ground operations. It will build on FAO’s global experience in responding to locust threats. It will use a synergetic and collective impact approach with respect to other AML projects that may be funded. In close collaboration with SADC, IRLCO-CSA and other UN agencies, FAO will continue to support coordination, dialogue, advocacy and risk communication with all stakeholders. FAO will also support consultations with the affected communities and other partners for the inclusion of specific AML related livelihoods interventions in country-based responses.

Coronavirus vaccinations have started. But people in Africa face a much longer wait.

 In the pandemic’s early days, scientists across Africa were certain: They did not want to rely on vaccines from abroad. Richer countries could hoard supplies, they feared, leaving nations with tighter research budgets behind.

“They don’t have the vested interest in African people like we living here do,” said Christian Happi, whose laboratory in southwestern Nigeria aims to complete its own inoculations.

The mission feels especially urgent, he said, as vaccinations begin in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. Public health officials warn that stark disparities are emerging as wealthier countries reserve most of the world’s doses, while poorer countries have secured scarce amounts.

By mid-November, wealthy nations had reserved 51 percent of various vaccine doses even though they are home to only 14 percent of the world’s population, according to a new study by two Johns Hopkins researchers in the BMJ, a trade journal published by the British Medical Association.

Ending outbreaks in resource-strapped areas is vital to crushing the coronavirus for good, health officials say: As long as the contagion exists somewhere, it can continue to seed and circulate.

Distribution campaigns across Africa are not likely to begin until April, the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated. Even then, far fewer doses will be sent to African countries than are being shipped to the United States and Europe.

“It will be extremely terrible to see,” said John Nkengasong, the Africa CDC director.

Most of Africa’s 54 nations stand to benefit from the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Assess Facility, or Covax, the World Health Organization-backed program set to divide a billion doses across 92 low- and middle-income countries next year. But $5 billion more is needed to cover vulnerable residents in target nations by the end of 2021, according to Gavi, the alliance raising funds for Covax.

“Africa is often holding the short end of the stick,” said Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, deputy director of the Africa CDC.

There was no evidence of direct deals between companies such as Pfizer and the globe’s poorest countries, researchers from Duke University wrote in early December, suggesting that huge numbers of people will be “entirely reliant” on Covax.

The United States has locked in 800 million doses, more than enough to inoculate its entire population, according to the study published in the BMJ. Low-income countries have collectively reserved 100 million fewer than that.

“High income countries have secured future supplies of covid-19 vaccines,” the authors wrote, “but that access for the rest of the world is uncertain.”

If conditions do not change, 67 nations will be able to vaccinate only 1 in 10 people over the next year, according to a report this month from the People’s Vaccine Alliance, a nonprofit coalition that includes Amnesty International and Oxfam International.

For months, leaders across Africa have called for a more equal path to recovery.

“Nobody should be pushed to the back of the vaccine queue because of where they live or what they earn,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in May.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said in October that “a bold international agreement cannot wait.”

Africa has shouldered a tiny share (3.4 percent) of the globe’s coronavirus infections. Researchers attribute that to several factors: doctors and nurses with epidemic experience, early lockdowns, the continent’s youth — almost 60 percent of sub-
Saharan Africans are younger than 25 — and a unique landscape of pathogens. (Fatality rates have been higher in South Africa, Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia, which have older populations.)

There are hundreds of vaccine candidates at different stages of development worldwide, a WHO database shows. None in Africa have reached clinical trials.

Funding is the top barrier for Happi, the director of the African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases in Ede, Nigeria.

His formula was 90 percent effective in animal trials, he said, but the lab has not secured the money to move on to humans. Nigeria’s central bank has earmarked cash for vaccine development, but only about $1.3 million is available to complete the process. Finishing a drug often requires hundreds of millions of dollars.

Then there are the logistical challenges around what will amount to the largest immunization drive in Africa’s history. A WHO analysis, based on self-reporting from 47 nations in November, found that the region has an average score of 33 percent readiness for a vaccine rollout — well below the 80 percent goal.

One issue is a lack of cold rooms and other high-tech freezers for imported drugs. Pfizer’s vaccine, for instance, must be kept at minus-94 degrees Fahrenheit (minus-70 Celsius). That is a particularly huge task in areas that lack reliable electricity.

Some airlines already have the frigid-transport technology. Ethiopian Airlines has announced plans to fly coronavirus vaccines throughout Africa.

Misinformation, however, has fueled skepticism around treatments from overseas. Social media exploded in outrage this summer after a French doctor suggested in a televised interview that new drugs be tested in African nations.

Health officials continue to stress the importance of clinical trials in Africa. Vaccines must be tested across different populations, they say, to ensure efficacy for everyone.

“The majority of our building materials are the same, but the differences could impact how things affect us,” said Moses Bockarie, honorary chief specialist scientist at the South African Medical Research Council.

South Africa, Egypt and Kenya have enrolled people in trials of Western-made vaccines. The vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford seems to be the best candidate for most African countries because it can be transported at refrigerator temperature, said Shabir Madhi, a professor of vaccinology at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg who co-authored a peer-
reviewed study of the trial.

Happi longs to see more local solutions — something people might be more likely to trust.

His team created a DNA-based vaccine that factored in viruses circulating the continent, as well as the genetic makeup of immune systems here.

“You can’t develop a vaccine based on the responses of people in New York or Paris or Berlin,” he said, “without understanding how it will work for African people.”

The Washington Post

UN appeals for $254m to help Mozambique conflict victims

 The United Nations has launched an appeal for $254m to help hundreds of thousands caught in violence in northern Mozambique linked to the ISIL (ISIS) group that has gathered pace this year.

The ISIL-linked groups unleashed a violent campaign in the gas-rich Cabo Delgado province in 2017 that has since killed more than 2,300 people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee.

The UN said many people fled with just the clothes they were wearing and warned that 1.1 million people would need help next year.

“They lost their belongings, their livelihoods, their future,” said Myrta Kaulard, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in the country, on Friday.

“Humanitarian assistance is vital to alleviate their suffering.”

The fighters have launched hundreds of attacks since starting their campaign by killing two police officers in the port city of Mocimboa da Praia in 2017.

The violence escalated this year and the fighters now control swathes of the coast – including strategic ports and cities with gas installations – and have advanced inland.

“Women and girls are at risk of abduction, gender-based violence and exploitation, while boys are at risk of being killed or recruited by armed actors,” said Kaulard, expressing particular concern about those trapped in isolated areas.

Thousands of refugees have poured into nearby towns and cities, staying with relatives or have been taken in by strangers, leaving local services stretched to breaking point, warned the UN.

With the rainy season approaching, many areas hosting those fleeing the violence are expected to flood, ramping up the pressure to find a quick solution.

“The situation in Cabo Delgado is a protection crisis with widespread human rights abuses and disregard for international humanitarian law,” Juliana Ghazi, associate external relations officer at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told Al Jazeera.

“The UNHCR remains deeply concerned with the rising number of civilians that have been displaced in northern Mozambique as attacks continue to take place in Cabo Delgado,” Ghazi said.

“Access in some areas of Cabo Delgado also remain limited due to the violence and insecurity.”

Nathan Sales, the coordinator for counterterrorism at the US State Department, said last week the fighters in northern Mozambique belonged to a “committed” affiliate of ISIL and should be seen as a global threat.

Violence spilled across the border into Tanzania in October, prompting the two countries to launch joint military operations.

SOURCE : AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Coronavirus in South Africa: Unravelling the mystery

 South Africa’s unusually high infection rate – potentially far higher than in some European nations after their first waves – appears to have been accompanied by an uncommonly low death rate, with early data from one province suggesting that the Covid-19 mortality rate was less than half that experienced in the worst-hit countries.

Scientists warn that their preliminary figures could go up or down as more data becomes available in the coming weeks.

A total of 19,000 people will be involved in a string of nationwide surveys. Experts also note the risks involved in trying to extrapolate from one country to the rest of a continent.

But, if confirmed, these findings could have huge significance in South Africa and beyond, and might help to shed light on the reasons behind the relatively low death rate seen in many African countries, as well as helping governments to understand which communities are most at risk from the virus and how best to modify economically damaging lockdowns.

On a recent, rainy morning in Soweto, a group of health workers moved from one community to the next, taking blood tests to check for antibodies that indicate past infection by Covid-19. This type of survey is considered a far more accurate system for measuring a country’s overall infection rate than trying to extrapolate from laboratory and hospital data.

“These surveys are very important. There’s still so much that is just unknown,” said Dr Portia Mutevedzi, a senior epidemiologist at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto.

‘No lockdown’ in Soweto

Early results have shown a 25% infection rate in some areas, but another recent survey of participants in a vaccine trial came back with a rate of 35%, while a different group of people, living with HIV in the Western Cape hit 42%, and scientists say the real figure could be even higher in some regions, given the likelihood of false negatives as antibodies disappear over time.

The comparatively low death rates from the pandemic reported in South Africa and in many other African countries have been widely attributed by experts to demographics – with the average age on the continent roughly half that of Europe and the United States – and also to early and aggressive lockdown measures taken by many African governments, which undoubtedly helped to delay the spread of the virus and bought valuable time for countries to prepare.

Africa accounts for 17% of the global population, but approximately 3% of reported pandemic deaths. In South Africa, the official death toll stands at more than 23,000, although experts believe the true figure – as indicated by total excess deaths – is likely to be considerably higher.

 

But three senior epidemiologists involved in seroprevalence surveys in South Africa told the BBC that the emerging data could also prove, or disprove, the hypothesis that people living in high-density areas might have some extra level of immunity to Covid-19 because of greater prior exposure to other diseases.

“It’s a real scientific mystery,” said Dr Mutevedzi. “I think it’s a real possible scientific theory that [because] these crowded areas have always been prone to disease and had high infection rates so maybe that has somehow prevented them from having severe Covid-19 or from actually being infected with Covid.”

She played down the impact of government restrictions, saying that, in practice, there had been “no lockdown” in much of Soweto since people had often struggled to adhere to the rules.

“The mortality is lower here. Something has to explain it. Many people live in quite crowded settings and one theory is that pre-existing antibodies to other coronaviruses are cross-reacting,” said Prof Helen Rees, a prominent vaccine expert at Wits University.

“Well, that’s my hypothesis – that people in lower-income countries are more like to be exposed because the same thing holds true for other respiratory viruses as well as bacteria. I don’t say it’s a slam dunk, but it’s a high probability,” said Prof Shabir Madhi, who is leading a key seroprevalence survey in Gauteng province. He also oversaw South Africa’s trials for the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.

Africa steps up fight against HIV with trial of new combination vaccines

 The first trial in Africa to test two new vaccines to protect against HIV got under way in Uganda this week, raising hopes of an end to the epidemic that affects millions of people across the continent.

The African-led PrEPVacc study will test two experimental combination vaccines to see if they can provide any protection against HIV in people most at risk of infection.

At the same time, a new form of daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) will be offered to participants, which scientists say will give the vaccines the best possible chance of working.

The two vaccines have been tested for safety in previous clinical trials in Africa, Europe and the US.

More than 1,600 people between the ages of 18 and 40 are expected to participate in clinical trials over the next three years in Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa.

The study is being funded by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, supported by the EU.

“PrEPVacc provides two great opportunities: first, for Africans to be able to participate and lead in the first HIV prevention trial to test two ways to prevent HIV, a scourge that has ravaged the continent,” said Prof Pontiano Kaleebu, the PrEPVacc chief investigator.

“Second, an opportunity to grow the capacity of African sites to do future trials themselves and to foster our own future leaders,” he said.

Prof Jonathan Weber, dean of the faculty of medicine at Imperial College London, which is sponsoring the PrEPVacc trial, said: “The first PrEPVacc trial participants in Masaka [Uganda] are helping their communities and the world by answering important questions about how we can best prevent HIV in future.

“I have been working at Imperial College London on ways to prevent HIV since the virus was first discovered and I am immensely proud that we now have this African-led, European-supported trial beginning in Uganda.”

Weber said the importance of the study was that it “will either rule out or encourage further development of two different combination vaccine regimens for preventing HIV”.

More than 35 scientists, clinicians, social scientists, community liaison officers and support staff at the Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine are involved in the trial in Uganda.

An estimated 20.7 million people are living with HIV in east and southern Africa. In 2019, the region saw 730,000 new infections and 300,000 Aids-related deaths, according to UNAids data. At least 15 million people are receiving treatment.

Nkosiyazi Mncube, then 23, the first participant in an earlier vaccine trial in South Africa in 2016. Photograph: The Times/Getty

“In case the vaccine prevents HIV infection, we shall be excited. But even if it doesn’t protect, we still learn. There is no trial which is a failure. The science we learn from the study allows us to improve and to have better vaccines,” said Kaleebu.

Prof Sheena McCormack, PrEPVacc project lead, based at the Medical Research Council clinical trials unit at University College London, said the trial would also address questions raised about PrEP. “Its results will be valuable for informing future implementation and uptake strategies by local stakeholders and champions across east and southern Africa where PrEP uptake is currently low.”

Milly Katana, HIV prevention campaigner and member of the project’s steering committee, said the trial was timely. “The implementation of the PrEPVacc trial is coming at a time when the world is more appreciative of vaccines in managing global pandemics like HIV and Covid-19 … The world, especially women, need more interventions that can protect individuals from contracting HIV.”

Sylvia Nakasi, acting executive director of the Uganda Network of Aids Service Organisations, said the trial is “a great step in HIV prevention research”.

“We must accelerate HIV prevention in addition to care and treatment if we are to end HIV by 2030. PrEP is an important biomedical tool and having these two experimental vaccines will address issues of adherence, but will also promote choice.”

However, Asia Russell, executive director of the Health Global Access Project, questioned why Uganda was undertaking a vaccine trial when many people still can’t access antiretroviral drugs or Covid-19 vaccines.

“Ugandans are constantly asked to volunteer their bodies for science,” she said.

According to the Uganda Aids Commission, the HIV epidemic remains a major public health threat in Uganda. About 1.5 million people are living with the virus, up from 1.2 million in 2010. Annually the country registers 53,000 new infections and 21,000 Aids-related deaths.