Africa Educates Her Campaign - Angola. Season 3. Don't Miss Out! Webisode 13

 Our girls back to school campaign is ongoing. Day 13

Angolan government has decided to postpone the resumption of lessons in primary education, the largest chunk of the education system. A record number of children and youth are not attending school because of closures mandated by governments in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Our today's guest is Inácia, she will share with us her academic experience.

Hello, how are?

Hi, I am fine thanks

Please introduce yourself

My name is Inacia Dala, I am 8 years old

Do you study?

Yes, I study in the 2nd grade

Did you go to school this year?

No, I didn't go to school due to Covid-19 pandemic.

Would you like to go back to school next year?

Yes, I would like to go back to school

Can you tell us what are the preventive measures against Covid-19?

To wash hands with soap and water, disinfect them with alcohol gel, stay 1 meter away from people and use the mask

There are no conditions for biosafety in schools to restart classes in Angola, specially in the first cycle of primary education, with many schools still without water and personal protection materials.

After covid-19 crisis ends, we hope that all children will be able to return to our schools. But more than anything, we hope students return to better education. Where each student thrives and achieves their best to their abilities and interests.

We launched this campaign to ensure that every girl is able to learn while schools are closed and return to the classroom when schools safely reopen. Everyone can play a role in supporting girls ’education - whether you’re a teacher, parent, student, journalist, policymaker, or simply a concerned citizen.

Don't miss this opportunity to bring girls back to school. Tell us your story!

Do you have a personal experience with the coronavirus would you like to share? Or a tip on how your town or community is handling the poverty among women?

FIND SOMEONE TO SPONSOR TODAY

Your sponsorship will help the most vulnerable girls and women to take the first step out of poverty.

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 27

 Our Corona Voice Show is ongoing. Day 27

Days in lockdown were an opportunity for children to reinvent ways of play and learning, exploring their immediate environment and making the most of what they had available.

Our today's guest is Meury. She will recite a very emotional Covid-19 poem for us all.

Ladies and gentlemen, please meet our poet Meury!

Covid-19

A disease that has attacked the whole world

And made the world its hostage.

The world has reached an extreme where tomorrow is uncertain

People now walk in fear of a faceless enemy 

An enemy that we don't see;

Before, going out was routine 

Now it became an extreme need

People don't just go out for leisure or just to have fun, 

People now go out for a need

They leave their houses because they have to fulfill an activity that can not be left for tomorrow or that can not be postponed

Now everything we do is cautious, 

We use a mask to protect ourselves

Before, we didn't have all this care,

 Because we didn't have a threat. Now that we have, 

We are giving importance to friendships, 

We are giving importance to being with someone we love.

Thank you.

Building resilience in children is one way we help them to cope in difficult moments.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is of a scale most people alive today have never seen. We're all currently facing unprecedented challenges due to COVID-19, and one of the most important things we can all do is check in with each other.

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.

FIND SOMEONE TO SPONSOR TODAY

Your sponsorship will help the most affected people by covid-19 to take the first step out of poverty.

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

Strong earthquake kills at least two people in Croatia

 A strong earthquake in central Croatia has killed at least two people – including a girl, injured many and caused destruction in Petrinja, a town southeast of the capital Zagreb.

The earthquake, which downed phone lines and sent Croatians into a state of shock, was felt throughout the country on Tuesday, as well as in neighbouring Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and as far away as Graz in southern Austria.

Officials said a 12-year-old girl died in Petrinja, a town of about 25,000 people about 60km (37 miles) from Zagreb.

At least 20 people were taken to hospital, two with serious injuries, they said. Another person was killed in a village close to the town.

Firefighters arrive after an earthquake in Petrinja, Croatia December 29, 2020 [Slavko Midzor/Pixsell/Reuters]

“The centre of Petrinja as it used to be no longer exists,” Croatria’s state HRT television reported, saying people remained inside collapsed buildings.

Al Jazeera reporter Marin Versic, reporting from Petrinja, described scenes of chaos as emergency services rushed to find survivors and treat the injured.

“More victims are feared,” he said. “Army, firefighters, ambulance – everyone is here. I’ve seen firefighters and ambulance cars arrive, emergency workers checked a child for a pulse and transferred them to hospital.

“They are trying to organise themselves. People are shouting, saying that the nursing home should be attended to first.”

Petrinja Mayor Darinko Dumbovic said in a statement broadcast by HRT TV: “My town has been completely destroyed, we have dead children.

“This is like Hiroshima – half of the city no longer exists.”

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and other government ministers arrived in Petrinja after the earthquake.

He said the army has 500 places ready in barracks to house people, while others will be accommodated in nearby hotels and other places.

“No one must stay out in the cold tonight,” the prime minister said.

An Al Jazeera reporter saw the boy pictured and his father being rescued from a car buried under rubble, in Petrinja, Croatia [Al Jazeera]

Al Jazeera reporters in the town witnessed a boy and his father being pulled from a car buried in the rubble.

The European Mediterranean Seismological Center said the 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit 46km (17 miles) southeast of Zagreb.

Blanka, a resident of Sisak city, about 8.5 miles (14km) from Petrinja, was inside a shop when the earthquake struck.

“Everything collapsed, all of our things are inside,” she told Al Jazeera. “I don’t know what to expect. I am still shaking, I can still feel the earthquake.”

Tomislav Fabijanic, head of emergency medical services in Sisak, said there were many injured in Petrinja and in Sisak.

“There are fractures, there are concussions and some had to be operated on,” he said,

Croatian Red Cross said it was responding to a “very serious” situation in Petrinja following the earthquake.

The same area was struck by a 5.2 quake on Monday. In March, an earthquake of magnitude 5.3 hit Zagreb causing one death and injuring 27 people.

g 27 people.

Destroyed houses and a car are seen on a street in Petrinja, Croatia December 29, 2020 [Slavko Midzor/Pixsell/Reuters]

Croatian seismologist Kresimir Kuk described the earthquake as “extremely strong”, far stronger than the one in spring.

He warned people to keep out of potentially shaky, old buildings and move to the newer areas of the city because of the aftershocks.

Police officers secure the area after an earthquake, in Zagreb, Croatia December 29, 2020 [Antonio Bronic/Reuters]

In Zagreb, people ran out into the streets and parks in fear. Many reportedly were leaving the city, ignoring a travel ban imposed because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Source: Aljazeera

French fashion designer Pierre Cardin dies at 98

 French designer Pierre Cardin, whose space-inspired looks upended catwalk styles in the 1960s and 70s, has died at the age of 98, France‘s Fine Arts Academy said in a statement on Twitter.

Cardin who was born in Italy in 1922 but emigrated to France as a small child, died in a hospital in Neuilly in the west of Paris, his family said.

He cut his teeth working at top couture houses such as Christian Dior before going on to launch his own brand and pioneering the use of licensing in fashion, plastering his label’s name on products of all kinds and making a fortune in the process.

Cardin (bottom row, centre) with models wearing his clothes in 2017 at a fashion show in Cardin’s chateau in the village of Lacoste that once belonged to the Marquis de Sade

As well as shaking up fashion with bubble-dresses and geometrical designs, Cardin was also one of the first to bring high fashion to the masses by selling collections in department stores from the late 1950s.

His savvy business sense brought him a mix of admiration but also scorn from fashion purists at the time but he maintained that he built his business empire without ever asking for a bank loan.

Cardin was the first designer to sell clothes collections in department stores in the late 1950s, and the first to enter the licensing business for perfumes, accessories and even food – now a major profit driver for many fashion houses.

‘It’s all the same to me whether I am doing sleeves for dresses or table legs,’ a telling quote on his website once read.

Hard as it may be to imagine decades later, Armani chocolates, Bulgari hotels and Gucci sunglasses are all based on Cardin’s realisation that a fashion brand’s glamour had endless merchandising potential.

Cardin with models at the now-closed Simpsons Piccadilly department store in London in an undated photo

Over the years his name has been stamped on razor blades, household goods, and tacky accessories – even Walmart boxer shorts.

He once said it would not bother him to have his initials, PC, etched into rolls of toilet paper.

He was also the inspiration for a phallus-like perfume flask.

Cardin’s detractors accused him of destroying the value of his brand and the notion of luxury in general. But he seemed largely unaffected by criticism.

‘I had a sense for marketing my name,’ Cardin told Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper in 2007.

‘Does money spoil one’s ideas? I don’t dream of money after all, but while I’m dreaming, I’m making money. It’s never been about the money.’

Born Pietro Cardin on July 2, 1922 in San Biagio Di Callalta, near Venice, Cardin moved to France at the age of two and grew up in the central city of Saint-Etienne.

The youngest of 11 children, at aged 17 he went to work for a tailor in nearby Vichy, which was under Nazi rule at the time, while also working for the Red Cross.

In his youth he dreamt for a time of becoming an actor, doing some work on the stage as well as modelling and dancing professionally.

In 1944, he arrived in Paris and began working under established designers Jeanne Paquin and Elsa Schiaparelli.

That same year, Cardin met French artists Jean Cocteau and Christian Bérard, with whom he would design the costumes and masks for Cocteau’s celebrated film version of Beauty and the Beast.

In 1946, he joined the house of the then-unknown Christian Dior as a tailor shortly before Dior revolutionised post-war fashion with his ‘New Look’.

Within five years he set up his own house on the rue Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris and began welcoming clients including Hollywood star Rita Hayworth and Argentina’s First Lady Eva Perón.

Supermodel Naomi Campbell attends a reception to celebrate the Commonwealth Fashion Exchange at Buckingham Palace in a Pierre Cardin creation in 2018

Cardin’s first big commercial venture, when he teamed up with the Printemps department store in the late 1950s, led to him being briefly expelled from the rarified guild of French fashion designers, the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture.

Couturiers in that club were forbidden at that time to show outside their Paris salons, let alone in department stores.

He also blazed a trail outside France long before other fashion multinationals in search of new markets.

Cardin designed part of the bridal trousseau for Japan’s Empress Emerita Michiko ahead of her wedding to the then-Crown Prince Akihito in 1959.

Cardin in an undated photo with models as they display his Japanese-inspired silk gowns. Cardin designed part of the bridal trousseau for Empress Emerita Michiko ahead of her wedding to Japan’s then-Crown Prince Akihito

He presented a collection in Communist China in 1979 when it was still largely closed to the outside world. And just two years after the Berlin Wall came down, in 1991, a Cardin fashion show on Moscow’s Red Square attracted a crowd of 200,000.

Cardin also expanded into new businesses, buying fabled Paris restaurant Maxim’s in the 1980s and opening replica outlets around the world.

He leveraged the investment further by launching Minim’s, a chain of fancy fast-food joints that reproduced the Belle Epoque decor of the original exclusive Paris eatery.

His empire embraces perfumes, foods, industrial design, real estate, entertainment and even fresh flowers.

True to his taste for futuristic designs, Cardin also owned the Palais des Bulles, or Bubble Palace, a residence-cum-events-venue woven into the cliffs on one of the most exclusive strips of the French riviera.

Not too far away, there is also a chateau in the village of Lacoste that once belonged to the Marquis de Sade.

For his latest venture in February this year, he teamed up with a designer seven decades his junior.

The designer (centre) is applauded by the audience at the end of a retrospective show at the Institut de France in 2016

Pierre Courtial, 27, unveiled a collection at Cardin’s studio on Paris’s chic Rue Saint-Honore, with pieces that echoed some of the veteran designer’s geometrical aesthetics.

Cardin said he still rated originality above anything else.

‘I’ve always tried to be different, to be myself,’ Cardin told Reuters news agency.

‘Whether people like it or not, that’s not what matters.’

While he no longer presented runway collections, Cardin remained active in the industry, attending parties and events and taking young designers under his wing.

He has previously been a mentor to prominent designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier.

_____

Source: Dailymail

Two-thirds of England ‘will be in Tier 4 after tomorrow’s shake-up’

 Boris Johnson will meet with senior ministers this evening to decide on the Government‘s latest coronavirus tiers shake-up.

The Prime Minister will chair a meeting of the so-called Covid-O committee, with Health Secretary Matt Hancock then due to announce the decisions to the House of Commons tomorrow afternoon.

The meeting comes amid claims that two-thirds of England, including parts of the Midlands and the North, could be forced to live under the toughest Tier 4 restrictions following the review.

Millions more people are expected to face the harshest stay-at-home orders as the Government responds to the spread of a mutant coronavirus strain thought to be at least 50 per cent more infectious than the original.

Covid hospital admissions are rising in every region, with NHS units in England now treating more patients than they were in the first wave. And Covid infections are continuing to soar, with a record-high of 41,385 announced yesterday.

There are growing fears England could be plunged into ‘Tier Five’ restrictions within days in a desperate attempt to stop the spread of the new variant of the virus.

Scientists guiding the Government through the pandemic are understood to have advised Mr Johnson to impose tougher measures than those rolled out in November’s lockdown.

One of Number 10’s scientific advisers today warned England must be plunged into a third national shutdown to prevent a ‘catastrophe’ in the New Year.

Professor Andrew Hayward, an epidemiologist at University College London and member of SAGE, warned the country is entering a ‘very dangerous new phase of the pandemic’.

He called for ministers to ‘learn the lessons’ of earlier waves, when the Government was criticised for being too slow to lockdown, and to act early this time.

Around 24million people living in London, the South East and the East of England are already under the harshest Tier 4 curbs.

But more regions and local authorities are feared to be set to join them after Number 10’s leading scientists admitted they cannot stop the spread of the highly-contagious mutation that officials believe is to blame for rapidly spiralling cases.

‘I would expect more than half of England to move into Tier 4, but it wouldn’t surprise me if two thirds end up in the top tier,’ a health official told the publication.

‘There is also real concern about the South African variant which seems to be spreading fast.

‘Unfortunately, more action is needed to combat rising cases across the board.’

Covid-19 hospitalisations are already rising in every region.

The biggest surge over the last seven days was in London, where the mutant strain of the virus is already thought to have taken hold.

The number of beds occupied by Covid-19 patients jumped 44 per cent from 1,551.6 to 2,236.7 over the past seven days.

The second highest jump was in the East of England, where they rose 43.9 per cent from 1,118.6 to 1,610.4.

And the third highest was in the South East, where they rose by 27.8 per cent from 1,579.1 to 2,018.

In England overall the number of Covid-19 patients in hospital rose by 16.6 per cent, from 11,685.3 to 13,623.9.

In the South West they rose by 11.4 per cent, from 803.3 to 894.9, in the Midlands by 5.6 per cent, from 2,489.6 to 2,630.6, in the North East and Yorkshire by 2.7 per cent, from 2,131.3 to 2,188.1, and in the North West by 1.6 per cent, from 2,011.9 to 2,044.9.

Calling on the Government to take swift action to curb the spread of the virus, Professor Hayward said this morning: ‘I think we are entering a very dangerous new phase of the pandemic and we’re going to need decisive, early, national action to prevent a catastrophe in January and February.

‘A 50 per cent increase in transmissibility means that the previous levels of restrictions that worked before won’t work now, and so Tier 4 restrictions are likely to be necessary or even higher than that.

‘I think we’re really looking at a situation where we’re moving into near lockdown, but we’ve got to learn the lessons from the first lockdown.’

Professor Hayward said the rise in cases was ‘very largely driven’ by the new, more infectious variant of coronavirus, and suggested that allowing pupils to return to schools would mean stricter restrictions in other areas of society.

Responding to Professor Hayward’s comments, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman said: ‘I would point back to what we have done throughout the pandemic where we have taken action based on the latest scientific and medical evidence.

‘You have seen us do that throughout December when we have moved areas into Tier 4 exactly for the reason to reduce the transmission of the virus and to try and reduce the R rate of the virus in the areas where prevalence is high.

‘As I said, we obviously keep measures under constant review and we obviously keep the latest scientific and medical data under constant review as well.’

The Government has not ruled out tougher new ‘Tier 5’ restrictions, which could see schools and universities close, or the prospect of a new national lockdown in January.

Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove yesterday failed to dismiss the idea of putting the entire country in Tier 4.

He said: ‘We review which tiers parts of the country should be in on the basis of scientific evidence.

‘The Joint Biosecurity Centre will be making a recommendation to ministers, but I can’t pre-empt that because it obviously has to be a judgment based on the medical situation. The NHS is under pressure and these are difficult months ahead.’

The data suggests Cumbria could be the next area to be plunged into Tier Four tomorrow.

Three of the Tier 2 county’s six boroughs seeing their Covid infection rate – the number of new cases per 100,000 people – double in size during the week ending December 22.

Department of Health statistics show Eden, home to around 50,000 people, had a rate of 422.5 during the most recent week data is available for – up from 200.9 in the previous seven-day spell. It stood at 41.3 at the start of the month.

It means the borough, which includes Penrith, recorded more confirmed Covid cases for the size of its population than several councils already placed under Tier Four, including parts of Surrey, Berkshire and Oxfordshire.

Allerdale (163.7) and Copeland (64.5) also saw outbreaks double in size over the same time-frame. However, the latter Cumbrian borough still has England’s lowest coronavirus infection rate.

And Barrow-in-Furness – another part of the county – was one of just 27 areas that recorded fewer cases week-on-week. England’s 288 other boroughs saw their outbreaks stay stable or grow, with 35 authorities seeing infections double over the same duration.

Local health bosses fear the rapid growth in cases across parts of the county, which borders Scotland, is being driven by the same coronavirus mutation that spread rapidly across the Home Counties.

Boris Johnson promised the tier allocation would be based on ‘common sense’, with the JBC – a Whitehall body that decides the whack-a-mole strategy – using a set of five criteria to decide which areas need the harshest restrictions.

This includes the overall infection rate for each area, the number of cases in the over-60s, and the speed at which the outbreak is growing or shrinking.

Officials also look at the test positivity rate – the number of confirmed infections for every 100 tests taken – and the pressure on local hospitals.

LUANDA WITH SHORT DAILY WATER SUPPLY

 The Luanda Water Company (EPAL) has a daily production of 550 million litres, which is insufficient to meet the needs of the Angolan capital, estimated at 1.5 billion.

The information was released Monday in Luanda by EPAL’s CEO, Fernando Cunha, during an interview with the TV Zimbo.

The official told the television station that the capital’s current daily producing capacity stands at 75 percent of the 1.5 billion litres needed.

He added that EPAL is 17 years behind in terms of water supply, explaining that the latest structuring project goes back to the year 2003.

“Reversing the current situation requires investments. In fact, there is need for investments in water,” said Fernando Cunha, mentioning the Kilonga project he said is delayed due to lack of funding, and Bita alone estimated at Usd 910 million.

Recently, there was a roar in the local media that the Luanda David Bernardino Paediatric Hospital was out of water supply, which Fernando Cunha explained with a delay in the conclusion of repair works at Kifangondo water treatment plant.

He further explained that a repair work at Kifangondo plant that was supposed to be complete in 24 hours’ time, ended up taking 48 hours, which affected the supply to the southern part of Luanda.

The official announced that alternative projects are underway to make sure such a situation do not occur again in Luanda hospitals.

Luanda province is currently served by 12 supplying stations, with stress to those of Kifangondo, Luanda Sudeste, Calumbo, Bita and Bom Jesus.

COVID-19: ANGOLA WITH 17,371 INFECTIONS

 The number of positive cases of Covid-19 in Angola has reached 17. 371, since the first infection was reported in the country in March this year, the Health authorities announced Tuesday evening in Luanda.

Delivering the daily Covid-19 update briefing, the secretary of State for Public Health, Franco Mufinda, said of the above number, 6,341 are active cases, 10,627 recoveries and 403 deaths.

According to the official, the active sick include three in critical condition, six in grave state, 71 in moderate, 91 with light symptoms and 6,170 asymptomatic.

Over the last 24, Angola has reported no death, 75 new positive cases and 306 recoveries, said the secretary of State.

Mufinda stated that of the newly infected patients, 25 come from central Cuanza Sul province, Luanda reported 22 and northern Cabinda (08).

Northern Zaire province recorded eight infections, followed by northern Uige with five, norheastern Lunda Sul (03), northern Malanje (02) and eastern Moxico (02). 

The ages of the new Covid-19 patients range from three months to 66 years, 44 males and 31 females, while the recoveries have been recorded in Luanda (294) and northeastern Lunda Norte province (12).

The Angolan labs in the last 24 hours have conducted 2,964 RT-PCR tests that detected 75 infections, which is a daily infection rate of 2,6 percent.

The overall number of lab specimens processed since March this year stands at 307,348, of which 17,371 are positive, showing an accumulated infection rate of 5,7 percent.

Currently, there are 171 Covid-19 patients being monitored in medical centres around the country.

Under institutional quarantine there are 255 persons, while 4,031 are under epidemiological surveillance. Two patients from southeastern Cuando Cubango province have been discharged from hospital in the last 24 hours, the source also announced.

COVID-19: YEAREND PARTIES BANNED - AUTHORITIES

 Traditional yearend parties, also known as révellion, music and dance shows, as well as fireworks to celebrate the end of the year are banned in Angola, in view of the sanitary situation facing the country.

This was said Tuesday evening in Luanda by the secretary of State for Public Health, Franco Mufinda, during the daily Covid-19 update briefing.

According to the official, banning such events is meant to avoid an environment propitiating the continued spread of the Sars-Cov-2 virus in the country.

He called on the Angolan families to make one more sacrifice and safeguard lives, on account of the new variant of the Covid-19 virus striking some countries.

Mufinda recalled that the new type of the Sars-Cov-2 virus is more violent, especially for young people.

According to the latest update on Tuesday evening, Angola recorded 75 new infections and 306 recoveries and no death.

This has led the overall figures so far to 17,371 positive cases, 10,627 recoveries and 403 deaths.