Why don't poor parents send their daughters to school?
Usually children go to school from 5 years old in Angola, but a 7 years old LĂșcia remains illiterate at home. Lucia is having problems in understanding basic things, at a time when she was suppose to be at school, she stays at home helping her family with the houseworks. We are not sure if her parents will manage to send her to school in the coming years as in this time of COVID-19 pandemic things got more difficult.
Hi! How are you?
I'm fine thanks.
What is your name?
My name is Lucia.
How old are you?
I am 7 years old
Lucia do you study?
I don't study.
Why?
My father did not enroll me in school.
Have you ever attended any type of study?
No, never.
Would you like to go to school one day?
No...
Don't you want to study?
I want to study.
Have you been following the preventive measures against coronavirus?
Yes I have been following.
What is coronavirus?
Hmmm....
OK, what are the preventive measures against the coronavirus?
To wash hands with soap and water, use the mask and gel alcohol.
Lucia what do you do during the day?
I wash the dishes and clean the floor, now I also started cleaning the house, after this I take a shower and then go out.
Where do you use to go?
To play on the streets.
In response to the question stated above, we can say that parents cannot send their daughters to school because of poverty. So we are left with a world of girls whose lives are blighted, and who will give birth in childhood to a new generation of poor children.
The world knows that the education of girls delivers the highest social and economic dividends to a developing economy. In regions where girls face acute disadvantage, their education has transformative potential.
Don't miss this opportunity to bring girls back to school. Join us!
Our campaign aims to identify illiterate and girls with disabilities in such a way that it supports building an inclusive society for all.
The Challenge of Inclusive Education in Africa, shows that disability gaps in education are increasing. We call for urgent action of Ministries of Education and other stakeholders. We need the global political will to tackle this devastating problem that is failing tens of millions of the world’s most vulnerable.
There are more than 100 million children with disabilities across the world – and in developing countries, 90% never go to school.
We recommend investment in inclusive schools and classrooms, equity focused planning and monitoring, as well as incorporating the needs of girls specifically in efforts to help disabled people access education.
Our main challenge is to seek all kinds of solutions to address the prevailing question:“How do we feed 10bn people on a hotter planet?”
Among the works of mercy, there is the reminder of hunger and thirst: to give food to the hungry — there are many today — and drink to the thirsty.
We all know that there are populations who are suffering from the lack of food and water, with serious consequences, especially for children.
How often the media shows us sad images and public opinions that touch us?
When, as we walk along the street, we cross the path of a person in need, or a poor person who is begging at the entrance to our home, it is very different, because they are no longer an image; we are involved personally. There is no longer any distance between me and him or her, and I feel engaged.
We need to take many actions now. Solidarity campaigns must not stop, generous donations must be made, and in this way one can contribute to alleviate the suffering of many.
The call of poverty in the abstract does not reach us, but it makes us think, and makes us denounce it; however, when we see poverty in the flesh of a man, of a woman, of a child, this plea reaches us!
And therefore, we get into the habit of avoiding those in need, of not approaching them, somewhat masking the reality of the needy, following the current trend of keeping away from them. There is no longer any distance between you and the poor person when you come across him.
In these cases, what is your reaction? Do you look elsewhere and walk by? Or do you stop to speak to him and take an interest in his situation? And if you do this, it will not be without someone saying: “This is crazy, why speak to a poor person!”.
Do you see if you can welcome this person in some way, or do you try to get away from him as soon as possible? But perhaps he is only asking for what is needed: something to eat and drink.
Let us think for a moment: how often do we recite the “Our Father”, yet do not pay close attention to those words: “Give us this day our daily bread”?
The experience of hunger is hard. Those who have endured war or famine know about it. However, this experience is repeated every day, and coexists alongside abundance and waste.
There is always someone who is hungry or thirsty and who needs us. We cannot delegate this to another. This poor person needs you, your help, your word, your commitment. We are all involved in this.
Improving agricultural performance
Poverty and hunger remain the biggest development challenges of our time.
Agriculture in Africa is expected to meet the dual objectives of providing food and helping people to escape poverty. African agriculture is dominated by smallholdings and donors generally target their agricultural support at the smallholder sector.
The expectation is that if the gap between actual and potential yields can be closed, smallholders will grow sufficient crops to feed their families, with a surplus to sell, thus meeting food security needs and bringing in an income to move them out of poverty. In practice, this is often not possible.
Applications for the Canon Student Development Programme 2021 are open. 250 students will have the exclusive opportunity to have their portfolio reviewed by professional photographers. Submit your portfolio now for a chance to take your first step into the pro world.
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Changes will allow US officials to invite Taiwan officials into government buildings in Washington and attend meetings at the Taiwan mission.
The State Department has announced that it will make it easier for US officials to meet Taiwanese representatives, defying pressure from China at a time of high tensions, and as the US Congress considers sweeping legislation to counter Beijing’s influence.
The United States still considers Beijing to be China’s legitimate government, consistent with its switch of recognition in 1979, but will do away with some of the convoluted rules that restricted dealings with Taiwan, including in-person meetings.
The updated guidance “underscores Taiwan is a vibrant democracy and an important security and economic partner that is also a force for good in the international community,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said.
“These new guidelines liberalize guidance on contacts with Taiwan, consistent with our unofficial relations,” he said in a statement.
The move by President Joe Biden’s administration formalises increasingly vocal US support for Taiwan, a self-governing democracy, and came in response to an act of Congress that required a review.
Taiwan’s mission in Washington – officially called the “Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States”, rather than an embassy – welcomed the new guidelines, saying they reflected a bipartisan consensus for closer relations.
“Taiwan and the US share a deep and abiding partnership based on our common values and joint interests,” it said, pointing to cooperation on global health, space, trade and democracy promotion.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a staunch critic of Beijing, in his last days in office, said that he was getting rid of previous guidelines on dealing with Taiwan but not issue new ones, drawing confusion in some quarters on what had changed.
Open meetings
Under the guidelines issued by the Biden administration, US officials will be allowed to invite Taiwanese representatives into government buildings in Washington or attend working-level meetings at the Taiwanese mission, both of which were previously prohibited, a State Department official said.
The US began allowing open interactions with Taiwanese diplomats after Pompeo ended the earlier guidance.
The Biden administration last month sent the US ambassador to Palau on a visit to Taiwan to accompany the president of the island nation – one of a dwindling number of countries that recognise Taipei. The ambassador was the highest-ranking US diplomat to visit Taiwan in 42 years.
US Ambassador to Palau John Hennessey-Niland, right, attend a news conference in Taipei with Palau President Surangel Whipps, centre, Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, left. Niland became the highest-ranking American diplomat to visit Taiwan in 42 years [File: Ann Wang/Reuters]
Similarly, the acting US ambassador in Japan in March tweeted a picture of himself meeting at his official residence with his Taiwanese counterpart – the type of day-to-day diplomacy that is usually a non-event but which Washington had previously shied away from with Taiwan for fear of upsetting Beijing.The new guidelines are also expected to relax the strict protocol on whether junior US officials can appear at Twin Oaks, the lush, forested residence of Taiwan’s envoy in Washington.
Twin Oaks events routinely draw a who’s who of US lawmakers and former officials but sitting government employees are careful to steer clear.
Senior US officials have periodically visited Taiwan, with former President Donald Trump’s health secretary travelling in August, although Washington has remained careful not to anger China by sending cabinet members involved in national security.
‘Self-defeating’
On Monday, Beijing announced that the carrier group, lead by the Liaoning, the country’s first aircraft carrier put into active service, carried out ‘routine’ drills in the waters near Taiwan [File: Bobby Yip/Reuters]
China considers Taiwan, where the mainland’s defeated nationalists fled in 1949 after losing the civil war, to be a territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.Taiwan in recent days reported growing air incursions by Beijing. Joseph Wu, Taiwan’s foreign minister, has called the approach “self-defeating.”
The US has voiced concern about the Chinese moves and warned against the use of coercion against Taiwan.
Under the Taiwan Relations Act approved by Congress when the US switched recognition, Washington is required to provide Taiwan with weapons for its self-defence.
The easing of rules comes amid soaring tensions between the US and China on multiple fronts.
On Friday, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee announced that it will consider sweeping legislation to counter China’s influence on April 21.
The “Strategic Competition Act of 2021” includes a range of diplomatic and strategic initiatives to counteract Beijing, reflecting hard-line sentiment on dealings with China members of both political parties.
The 280-page bill addresses economic competition with China, but also humanitarian and democratic values, such as imposing sanctions for the treatment of the minority Muslim Uighurs and supporting democracy in Hong Kong.
Relations with China is one of the most bipartisan issues in Washington, with both Democrats and Republicans generally backing efforts to do more to compete against Beijing.
Israeli study shows Pfizer-BioNTech shot less potent against B.1.351 variant than other COVID-19 mutations.
The coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa can “break through” Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine to some extent, a study in Israel found.
The South African coronavirus variant managed to penetrate the protection offered by two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to some degree, though it remains unclear just how much efficacy is lost, it said.
The research, released on Saturday, compared nearly 400 people who tested positive for COVID-19 two weeks or more after they received one or two doses of the vaccine, against the same number of unvaccinated patients with the disease.
It matched age and gender, among other characteristics.
The South African variant, B.1.351, was found to make up about 1 percent of all the COVID-19 cases across all the people studied, according to the study by Tel Aviv University and Israel’s largest healthcare provider, Clalit.
But among patients who had received two doses of the vaccine, the variant’s prevalence rate was eight times higher than those unvaccinated – 5.4 percent versus 0.7 percent.
This suggests the vaccine is less effective against the South African variant, compared with the original coronavirus and a variant first identified in Britain that has come to comprise nearly all COVID-19 cases in Israel, the researchers said.
“We found a disproportionately higher rate of the South African variant among people vaccinated with a second dose, compared with the unvaccinated group. This means that the South African variant is able, to some extent, to break through the vaccine’s protection,” said Tel Aviv University’s Adi Stern who led the study.
However, the researchers cautioned that the study only had a small sample size of people infected with the South African variant because of its rarity in Israel.
They also said the research was not intended to deduce overall vaccine effectiveness against any variant, since it only looked at people who had already tested positive for COVID-19, not at overall infection rates.
Pfizer and BioNTech could not be immediately reached for comment outside business hours.
The companies said on April 1 that their vaccine was about 91-percent effective at preventing COVID-19, citing updated trial data that included participants inoculated for up to six months.
With respect to the South African variant, they said among a group of 800 study volunteers in South Africa, where B.1.351 is widespread, there were nine cases of COVID-19, all of which occurred among participants who got the placebo.
Of those nine cases, six were individuals infected with the South African variant.
Some previous studies have indicated the Pfizer-BioNTech shot was less potent against the B.1.351 variant than against others of the coronavirus, but still offered a robust defence.
While the results of the study may cause concern, the low prevalence of the South African strain was encouraging, according to Stern.
“Even if the South African variant does break through the vaccine’s protection, it has not spread widely through the population,” said Stern, adding the British variant may be “blocking” the spread of the South African strain.
Almost 53 percent of Israel’s 9.3 million population has received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Israel has largely reopened its economy in recent weeks as the pandemic appeared to recede, with infection rates, severe illness and hospitalisations dropping sharply.
About one-third of Israelis are below the age of 16, which means they are still not eligible for the shot.
Luanda - Angolan head of State João Lourenço announced on Friday, 09 April, that the current Public Calamity Situation is being extended for an additional 30 days, until 10 May this year.
The decision is part of Presidential decree that comes into force from the midnight of 11 April, which recommends the immunisation of the frontline workers.
They feature the sectors of health and education, as well as defence and security forces.
Other professionals include those named by the health authorities via vaccination.
People aged 60 or older, with chronic disease, obesity and pregnant women are subject to special protection.
The decree also defines the functioning rules of the public and private services and of the social equipment during this period.
The decree also recommends classes in person, both in public and private education institutions, covering all education levels, including the international schools operating in the Angolan territory.
It was also decided that the cordon sanitaire should remain in the province of Luanda, to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission.
Ondjiva - A locust plague, which appeared last Friday (9), is destroying crops of millet, sorghum and corn in the southern Cunene Province of Angola.
Speaking to ANGOP, this Saturday, the director of the provincial office of agriculture, Pedro Tiberio, explained that the plague appeared in the commune of Chiedi, municipality of Namacunde, and is moving to the locality of Oipembe.
He also said that they have already notified the Ministry of Agriculture, in order to provide aerial means to spray the protective substance on some crops, in order to avoid further damage.
So far, the real damage caused by the plague on local crops is unknown.
According to Pedro Tiberio, this is a type of infestation that was recorded this year in the south-eastern Province of Cuando Cubango and in some provinces of neighbouring Namibia.
It should be remembered that some provinces in the southern region of Angola have been facing a drought problem for some months, a situation that has impaired agricultural activity and complicated the life of local peasants.
La Soufriere Volcano, which is currently active as of late 2020 and into 2021, is the largest but youngest volcano on St. Vincent. It occupies the northernmost third of the island. It overlays volcanic remains that have been actively creating the base rock of St. Vincent for over some 700 thousand years. The main volcano consists of an older strato-cone and a younger pyroclastic cone. This latter cone has been the source of historical eruptions after AD 1700 up to the one that is active today.
The first historical eruption of the volcano took place in March 1718, and then again, on 30th April 1812 an eruption produced major explosions. Nearly a century went by before the next eruption, a hugely destructive event that began in earnest on 7th May 1902. This was within 24 hours of the eruption of Montange Pele in Martinique.
There was confusion as the news of the eruptions spread around the world about which volcano was which. The devastation and 28,000 deaths in the city of St. Pierre on Martinique overshadowed the reports from La Soufriere. Much of the northern end of St. Vincent was devastated by this major eruption and approximately1565 lives were lost.
After 1903, St Vincent returned to a state of calm which wasn’t disturbed until 1971, when a remarkably quiet eruption built a new lava dome within the flooded crater of the volcano. The lake was then largely ejected during a series of explosive eruptions in 1979 and the dome was replaced with another.
The 1979 eruption began with only a very short period of unrest, starting with a strong local earthquake on April 12. Eruptive activity began with a series of short-lived but violent explosions and that lofted a series of ash plumes, high into the sky on Good Friday, April 13, 1979. Evacuation of people living in this zone commenced as is happening again at this time.
The explosions heralded two weeks of vigorous activity that peaked with an 18 km high plume on April 17, and ended, with the reduction of measurable seismicity on April 29. After this, the eruption switched to the quiet extrusion of lava, slowly forming the dome that sat in the centre of the crater for some 42 years. This was until the current build up of extruded lava began in late 2020 and surrounded much of the 1979 dome. The seismic activity began on April 8, the first since 1979.
And as of 9 April 2021 the UWI Seismic research confirmed that at 8:41 am EST, an explosive eruption began at the La SoufriĂšre volcano. St Vincent’s National Emergency Management Organisation said the volcano has ‘moved into an explosive state’ with plumes up to 8km high. Now a new chapter begins upon the unpredictable mountain.
Brazil’s South American neighbours worry a COVID-19 variant will spread quickly and lead to another wave of deaths.
Almost a year ago to the day, the jungle city of Manaus grabbed international headlines after a flood of COVID-19 deaths forced gravediggers to dig mass burials – catapulting the city into the centre of Brazil’s coronavirus outbreak.
Those scenes are now being repeated throughout Brazil, where authorities are working day and night to bury the dead, with experts warning that the country’s funeral services could be the next to topple.
Since the start of the year, an uncontrollable second wave has pushed Brazil over the 300,000 death mark. As the country continues to hit grim milestones – a record 4,247 deaths on Thursday alone – the entire South American nation is now the global COVID-19 epicentre, with experts warning that 5,000 Brazilians could lose their lives in a single day in April.
Much of the fear is being directed to the P1 variant, linked to the Brazilian Amazon. If Brazil cannot control its high transmission rate, experts fear the country’s healthcare tragedy could endanger the world. If the virus is left to circulate freely, it could create the ideal breeding ground for new and even more deadly variants.
Brazil’s neighbours have sealed off their borders to the country in a desperate attempt to prevent new variants from bleeding into the rest of the continent and harming vaccine efficiency.
“We’re very concerned. The staggering amount of deaths in Brazil in just a few months is our biggest worry,” virologist and researcher Humberto Debat, from the National Institute of Agricultural Technology told Al Jazeera.
Bolsonaro’s catastrophic response
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is increasingly being blamed for undermining the severity of the virus.
Even in the pandemic’s darkest hour, the far-right leader continues to ignore calls from health officials for a national lockdown, attacks the use of masks, ignores science, peddles unproven remedies and told Brazilians this week “there’s no use crying over spilled milk”, referring to Brazil’s soaring death toll.
“Unfortunately, we have a denialist president who refuses to follow science and encourages the public to follow,” said Ethel Maciel, a professor at the Federal University of SĂŁo Paulo.
No social distancing
Experts have said a lack of social distancing measures has created the ideal environment for variants to mutate.
Since June 2020, Brazil’s infections and deaths marooned at a steady plateau of approximately 1,000 deaths a day, leading many to believe the worst was over. For months, Brazilians commuted on crammed public transport and packed its beaches, bars and nightclubs.
People wait to board a train at Luz station in SĂŁo Paulo, Brazil, April 6, 2021 [Amanda Perobelli/Reuters]
As Brazilians continued to flout containment measures, the P1 variant hatched, believed to have emerged in the Brazilian Amazon at the tail end of 2020. Weeks later, Manaus’ health system had all but collapsed.According to the Fiocruz research institute, the P1 variant now accounts for more than 80 percent of cases in populous states, Rio de Janeiro and SĂŁo Paulo. Three months ago, it was 0 percent.
A ticking time bomb
Officials and experts are concerned about the speed with which the P1 variant, which is likely more infectious, is spreading and the damage it could pose globally.
“The virus has become ‘synchronised’ in the whole country, with intensive care units in several states at over 90 percent capacity,” said epidemiologist Daniel Villela from the Fiocruz branch in Rio de Janeiro.
As Brazil’s health system caves in, with intubation drugs and oxygen stocks critically low, Villela also told Al Jazeera that oversaturated hospitals were causing more deaths.
Meanwhile, Brazil’s painfully slow vaccine rollout, the result of disorganisation and a lack of urgency from Bolsonaro is worrying. To date, fewer than 10 percent of Brazil’s 212 million people have been vaccinated.
“The only way out is accelerating our vaccine drive and national coordinated COVID protocols,” explained Villela.
Residents wait in line to receive a COVID vaccine at the community Quilombo Quilomba, descendants of African slaves, in Mage, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, April 7, 2021 [Pilar Olivares/Reuters]
“The P1 variant is serious. Brazil could also spin out new, even more dangerous variants. The more people infected with the virus, the more mutations we’re going to see,” epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding, an adjunct senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, told Al Jazeera.Despite promising news on Wednesday of preliminary results from a continuing study finding China’s Sinovac vaccine to be 50 percent effective against the P1 strain, experts have warned that the speed with which the virus is mutating could spell disaster for current vaccine campaigns.
“The 4,000 Brazilian deaths on Tuesday show that the virus is circulating in great quantities, mutating and evolving quickly. It’s trying to find a way to escape natural antibodies,” said Felipe Naveca, a virologist at Fiocruz Amazonas.
“It’s a nuclear reactor that has set off a chain reaction and is out of control,” Miguel Nicolelis, a Brazilian doctor and professor at Duke University in the US, told the Reuters news agency this week.
“We desperately need to stop it from spreading in Brazil and other countries with high transmission rates,” Naveca said.
‘How many more lives will we have to lose?’
Brazil’s crisis is now being felt well beyond its borders. The Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) reported that the P1 variant has been found to be driving the second wave in at least 15 nations in the Americas.
Once championed as Latin America’s COVID poster child, Uruguay is now grappling with an explosive surge in deaths. According to government data, the 121 COVID deaths recorded in April has exceeded last year’s total COVID deaths.
“Uruguay is a good example of how things could get bad quickly,” said the Argentinian virologist Debat, who is monitoring the genome sequences of variants of concern.
A healthcare worker takes a swab sample from a man to be tested for the coronavirus disease in Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 6, 2021 [Agustin Marcarian/Reuters]
The P1 variant has also been detected in Argentina, Paraguay, Colombia, Peru and Chile, as well as Canada and the United States.
Experts argue that sealing their borders will have little effect now variants of concern have entered.
“It’s too late to keep the P1 out. But it’s also too late to build immunity to the second wave. Only 40 percent of Argentinians over 70 have received their first dose. Still, we’re doing anything to delay it,” Debat explained.
“How many lives will we have to lose before we control it?”
Rap legend DMX, real name Earl Simmons, is currently in the ICU after suffering from a massive heart attack. Early reports speculated that DMX’s condition may have been brought about because of an alleged drug overdose.
But MTO News spoke with a member of the Simmons family who believes that it was NOT drugs that caused the heart attack.
In an EXCLUSIVE interview, MTO News spoke with DMX’ family member who told us that the rapper received the COVID vaccine about a week before he suffered from the heart attack.
DMX’s family member told MTO News, “[DMX] got the vaccine when they opened it up to people over 50. He got it so that he could go travel and perform, stuff like that.”
New York State opened up the COVID-19 vaccinations for people over the age of 50 in mid March.
And the family member suspects that DMX heart attack could have been a reaction to the vaccine. The family member explained, “Everyone [in the news] keeps saying that [DMX] had a drug overdose. How do they know. I’m in the family and no doctor told me anything about an overdose.”
The family member is FURIOUS about the speculation surrounding DMX drug use. She told MTO News, “Yes he had past issues with drugs. But nobody knows that he had an OD. It’s f**cked up that its being reported like that.”
She told MTO News that she – and the family – are considering taking legal action against news publications prematurely concluding that DMX suffered a drug overdose.
But what is clear – according to the family member – is that DMX did take the Covid vaccine.
The grieving kin explained, “He took that vaccine, and he had a heart attack. I’m not saying the vaccine did it, but he never had a heart attack before.”
Over 167 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the United States from December 14, 2020, through April 5, 2021. During this time, The CDC received only 2,794 reports of death among people who received a COVID-19 vaccine.
US Ambassador to Palau John Hennessey-Niland, right, attend a news conference in Taipei with Palau President Surangel Whipps, centre, Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, left. Niland became the highest-ranking American diplomat to visit Taiwan in 42 years [File: Ann Wang/Reuters]
On Monday, Beijing announced that the carrier group, lead by the Liaoning, the country’s first aircraft carrier put into active service, carried out ‘routine’ drills in the waters near Taiwan [File: Bobby Yip/Reuters]
People wait to board a train at Luz station in SĂŁo Paulo, Brazil, April 6, 2021 [Amanda Perobelli/Reuters]
Residents wait in line to receive a COVID vaccine at the community Quilombo Quilomba, descendants of African slaves, in Mage, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, April 7, 2021 [Pilar Olivares/Reuters]
A healthcare worker takes a swab sample from a man to be tested for the coronavirus disease in Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 6, 2021 [Agustin Marcarian/Reuters]
