Africa Educates Her Campaign - Angola. Season 3. Don't Miss Out! Webisode 39

 Our girls back to school campaign is ongoing. Day 39

COVID-19 Leaves Millions of Girls at Risk of School Dropout in Africa. Women and girls are among the most vulnerable to education disruptions, and that will have negative effects for everyone.

Amid the pandemic, 11-year-old Lorena misses going to school, being with her friends of hers, having fun and learning from her teachers.

Hello, I am Lorena, I am 11 years old and study in the fifth grade. I'm going to talk about the impact that  Covid-19 has had on my entire life.

Okay, Lorena, when did you stop studying?

I stopped studying on March 20, 2020.

Why did you stop studying?

I stopped studying due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Some schools have already reopened. Did you go back to school?

No.

Why didn't you go back to school?

Well, we were informed that the schools only reopened for students studying in the 6th grade and above. Students studying in the fifth grade to grade 1 will receive topics to study at home.

During this time that you are not going to school, have you done anything to continue learning?

Yes, I have been solving some school assignments that I studied before the pandemic.

 Have you been following the coronavirus prevention measures?

Yes.

Have you been following the coronavirus prevention measures?

Yep.

What are the coronavirus prevention measures that you follow?

To wash hands with soap and water, disinfect them with hand sanitizer and wear face mask.

Aren't you afraid of the coronavirus?

I'm afraid.

Have you ever seen your teachers and classmates again?

No.

Don't you have any means of communication or via internet?

I don't have.

Women and girls are particularly vulnerable to the negative impacts of education disruption caused by school closures. Girls deprived of education will suffer long-term consequences for their welfare and agency. That affects us all, as we know from available evidence that girls ’education can bring economic prosperity, more just societies and benefits for everyone.

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

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 are 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.

Corona Voice - Angola. The tok show with Sofonie Dala. Don't Miss Out! Day 54

 Our Corona Voice show is live in Angola. Day 54

Art transcends all barriers and boundaries. With art there is no race, religion, age or color; just the joy of rhythm. A joy that melds diversities and has the power to bring people together in one voice

This group of children are expressing in a dance form what their daily life has been like. They have been out of school since March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Many of these children spend the day on the streets playing and dancing, some don't even remember what it means to pick up the notebook to study.

In the end they are singing: corona voice, corona voice, corona voice

Corona voice, corona voice, corona voice.

Corona voice, corona voice, corona voice.

The current Covid-19 pandemic is enough to daunt even the strongest, but dance with its unique power is already serving as a useful vehicle of hope and positivity to bring relief into a world that could be perceived as struggling under a huge cloud of uncertainty and gloom.

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

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.

Call for Applications! RLC Southern Africa Online Program Cohort 11

 

Dear all,

The Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) is a signature effort to invest in the next generation of African leaders. The YALI Regional Leadership Center Southern Africa (RLC-SA) is hosted by the University of South Africa at the Graduate School of Business Leadership in Midrand, South Africa. The RLC-SA aims to create critical thinkers who can solve complex, multidisciplinary problems; foster entrepreneurial and innovative thinking; and encourage cross-border communication and multicultural collaboration. The RLC-SA develops the skills of young African leaders by providing core training in contemporary African issues, as well as specialized training in three key areas: Business and Entrepreneurship; Civic Leadership and Public Management.

Apply Now!

The Program encourages applications from:

• Individuals that represent and advocate for the rights of LGBTIQ communities across the region
• Rural-based and economically disadvantaged young leaders
• People who are HIV positive or who are living with AIDS
• Young leaders with disabilities
• Women
• Other minority groups

APPLICATION CRITERIA

• Age (18-35)
• English language proficiency
• Demonstrated commitment to positively impact their communities, countries, and the African continent
• Proven experience and track record in Public Management, Business and Entrepreneurship, or Civic Leadership
• Citizen of: Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Zambia or Zimbabwe
• Ability to commit to a seven-week online program

Best,
The YALI RLC-SA Team

COVID-19: ANGOLA RECOVERS 214 PATIENTS, REGISTERS 27 NEW CASES

Angolan health authorities announced Wednesday the recovery of 214 patients and the report of 27 new cases in the last 24 hours.

Among those recovered, according to the Secretary of State for Public Health, Franco Mufinda, who was speaking at the usual update session, 121 of those recovered are residents of Lunda Sul, 33 of Luanda, 27 of Zaire, 20 of Lunda Norte and 13 of Huambo, aged between 4 and 71.

The new cases, 13 were diagnosed in Cabinda, 6 in Huambo, 5 in Luanda, 2 in Zaire and 1 in Benguela.

In the list of new cases, whose ages range from 14 to 88 years, 22 are male and 5 female.

National statistics show 19,580 cases, with 462 deaths, 17,602 recovered and 1,516 active.

Of the active cases, three were critical, nine were severe, 88 moderate, 102 mild and 1,314 asymptomatic.

In the treatment centres there are 202 inpatients, while 119 people are in institutional quarantine and 2,286 contacts under epidemiological surveillance.

The laboratories processed 1,520 samples, with a daily positivity rate of 1.8 per cent.

 

Canada’s lawmakers grant citizenship to Saudi blogger Badawi

 Members of Canada’s House of Commons decided to grant citizenship to Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, who has been imprisoned in his home country for nine years and whose wife and three children live in Canada.

The motion, which was unanimously voted on Wednesday, asks Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino to use his “discretionary power” to grant Canadian citizenship to Badawi, “in order to remedy a particular situation and unusual distress”.

Badawi was arrested in 2012 and sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes and then resentenced to 10 years and 1,000 lashes in 2014 for blogging about free speech and “insulting Islam”.

He received 50 of those beatings in January 2015, but the rest of the sessions, which were to be carried out weekly, were suspended after a global outcry.

Before Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court abolished in late April flogging as a form of physical punishment, Badawi had been the most high-profile instance of flogging in the kingdom.

The blogger was awarded the European Parliament’s Sakharov human rights prize the following year. He is currently serving his jail term.

Ensaf Haidar, the wife of the jailed Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi, shows a portrait of her husband as he is awarded the Sakharov Prize, in Strasbourg, France [File: Christian Lutz/AP Photo]

“Now that this is a formal request from the House, [Prime Minister] Justin Trudeau and Minister Marco Mendicino must act,” Yves-Francois Blanchet, head of the separatist Bloc Quebecois party and sponsor of the bill, said after the vote.“Every day counts” for Badawi, “as his health is constantly in danger in prison”, Blanchet said in a statement.

Translation: There are days when, despite everything, we are very proud to be in politics for the right reasons. I can imagine the reception, after more obstacles I know, that Quebec will give to Raif Badawi upon arrival in Quebec. We are there for him, and for the right causes.

The news was welcomed with joy by the human right activist’s wife, Ensaf Haidar. “What a news! Raif will be so happy! It gives me hope,” she said on Twitter, thanking lawmakers for remembering her husband’s case.

Relations between Ottawa and Riyadh deteriorated in 2018 when the Canadian government called for the release of Saudi human rights activists, including Badawi’s sister Samar Badawi.

Badawi’s wife and three children, who live in Quebec, have already received Canadian citizenship.

SOURCE : AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Sudan denies occupying Ethiopian territory in contested region

 Sudan has denied claims by Ethiopia of occupying its territory, in the latest dispute over the contested al-Fashqa area.

Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mansour Boulad said on Wednesday the Sudanese army had redeployed its forces in the border area with Ethiopia, and did not go beyond the Sudanese territory.

In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera Mubasher on Wednesday, Boulad said claims by Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman Dina Mufti of Sudan occupying Ethiopian lands “are not true”.

“Our choice so far is that we must deal with the situation according to the mechanisms of good neighbourliness and cooperation between the two countries, but if Ethiopia does the opposite, we will have another position according to the circumstances,” he said.

The exact boundary of al-Fashqa – where the northwest of Ethiopia’s Amhara region meets Sudan’s breadbasket Gadarif state – is rarely delineated on the ground.

According to the colonial-era treaties of 1902 and 1907, the international boundary runs to the east.

This means that the land belongs to Sudan – but Ethiopians had settled in the area and were cultivating there and paying their taxes to Ethiopian authorities.

In 2008, the two governments settled on a compromise, which resulted in Ethiopia acknowledged the legal boundary, but Sudan allowing the Ethiopians to continue living there undisturbed.

Ethiopia committed to ‘peaceful resolution’

In late December, Sudanese soldiers reportedly moved up to 40km (25 miles) into Ethiopian-held territories, including the contested fertile agricultural region of al-Fashqa.

Ethiopia says Sudan took advantage of its forces being distracted by the Tigray conflict to occupy Ethiopian land and loot properties.

It then launched a diplomatic effort to get Sudanese forces out of the territories to promote a return to the normal mechanisms of dialogue to resolve the century-long border dispute.

“Ethiopia is committed to a peaceful resolution of the border differences with Sudan,” Dina Mufti said in a press statement on Tuesday.

Any possibility of mediation would require Sudan to pull its forces to positions prior to late December, when Ethiopia first signalled a breach of its borders, he added.

“We have had mechanisms, technical and political committees,” he said, adding that the two countries need to get back to those resolution mechanisms through dialogue.

Asked how long Ethiopia would maintain a diplomatic stance while Sudan remains in the contested territories, Mufti said: “We will cross that river when we come to it.”

Sudanese military leaders have not shown any sign of heeding Ethiopia’s call, though, and reiterate they reclaimed their own territories.

Map of Sudan and Ethiopia

SOURCE : AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Hundreds of pelicans found dead in Senegal World Heritage site

 Some 750 pelicans have been found dead in a UNESCO World Heritage site in northern Senegal that provides refuge for millions of migratory birds, the country’s parks director said.

Rangers found the pelicans on January 23 in the Djoudj bird sanctuary, a remote pocket of wetland near the border with Mauritania and a resting place for birds that cross the Sahara Desert into West Africa each year.

An unverified video published on local media showed hundreds of muddy pelican carcasses scattered on a beach, their feathers a darker shade than their normal white.

“We took some samples for screening and we hope in the near future to know what caused the death of the pelicans,” Bocar Thiam, the director of Senegal’s parks, said in an interview.

The sanctuary is a transit place for about 350 species of birds but only pelicans were found dead, he said. Of those killed, 740 were juveniles and 10 were adults.

Authorities have closed the park and ordered the incineration of the dead birds as a precaution.

This month, Senegal reported an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu on a poultry farm in the Thies region about 120 miles (193 kilometres) south, resulting in the culling of about 100,000 chickens.

SOURCE : REUTERS

COVID death toll in Americas reaches 1 million people

 Hospital situation in Brazil is particularly worrying, with three-quarters of ICU beds occupied in many states, PAHO director says.

More than one million people in the Americas have now died from complications from COVID-19, the head of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Carissa Etienne has said.

More than one million people in the Americas have now died from complications from COVID-19, the head of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Carissa Etienne has said.

As many as 90,000 Americans are projected to die from the coronavirus in the next four weeks, the Biden administration has warned in its first science briefing on the pandemic.

There is growing pressure on hospital capacity throughout North America. In some US states, nearly 80 percent of ICU beds are being used to treat COVID-19 patients, and similar rates are seen in many Mexican states, she warned.

The hospital situation in Brazil is particularly worrying, with three-quarters of ICU beds occupied in many Brazilian states, she said.

Chinese cities using anal swabs to screen COVID infections

 Some Chinese cities are using samples taken from the anus to detect potential COVID-19 infections as China steps up screening to make sure no potential carrier of the new coronavirus is missed ahead of next month’s the Lunar New Year holidays when tens of millions of people usually travel home to their families.

China has been battling new pockets of the disease that have appeared in the north and northeast with strict lockdowns and mass testing in a bid to stamp out the outbreaks.

Justifying the decision to take anal swabs, a city official in Weinan in northern Shaanxi province said a 52-year-old man with symptoms including coughing initially tested negative for COVID-19. He was then tested via an anal swab.

The man, who was confined to a centralised facility for medical observation as a close contact of another COVID-19 patient earlier this month, was then confirmed to have the virus, the official told a news conference.

Anal swabs require inserting a cotton swab three to five centimetres (1.2 to two inches) into the anus and gently rotating it.

In a video posted online by state-backed newspaper Global Times, Zhang Wenhong of Huashan Hospital in Shanghai, said that such swabs could be useful in helping minimise the risk of a relapse after recovery.

“There may be traces of the coronavirus detected in the abdominal cavity faeces and intestine,” Zhang was quoted as saying in the report.

Last week, a Beijing city official said that anal swabs were taken from more than 1,000 teachers, staffers and students at a primary school in the city after an infection had been found there. Nose and throat swabs and serum samples were also collected for testing.

Additional tests using anal swabs can pick up infections that other tests miss, as virus traces in faecal samples or anal swabs could remain detectable for a longer time than in samples taken from upper respiratory tract, Dr Li Tongzeng, a respiratory and infectious disease specialist in Beijing city, told state TV last week.

Li added that such samples were only necessarily for key groups such as those under quarantine.

‘Low harm, extreme humiliation’

Stool tests may be more effective than respiratory tests in identifying COVID-19 infections in children and infants since they carry a higher viral load in their stool than adults, researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) found in a paper published last year.

Users of China’s Weibo, its Twitter-like social media platform, reacted to the method with a mix of mirth and horror.

“So lucky I returned to China earlier,” one user wrote.

“Low harm, but extreme humiliation,” another said, using a laughing emoticon.

Others who had undergone the procedure chimed in with dark humour.

“I’ve done two anal swabs, every time I did one I had to do a throat swab afterwards – I was so scared the nurse would forget to use a new swab,” one Weibo user joked.

SOURCE : AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES