Stay Curious - Sustainable Lifestyles Challenge by Sofonie Dala- Angola. Day 14. Happy International Day of the Girl Child 2021

 Stay Curious 

Embracing a life of constant learning, adventure and curiosity

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,

Today is the 14th day of our challenge and we would like to thank you for being here with us!

This is the only campaign that help activate sustainable living for people. The challenge has shown that small actions, taken collectively, can have a positive impact on the planet.

Why the key to lifelong learning is developing curiosity

Even in the midst of uncertainty, it’s important to take time to pause. We can use this time to reflect on our path in life and to develop our curiosity, which ultimately is the key to lifelong learning, 

Did you know that if you embrace a life of constant learning, adventure and curiosity, your well-being and quality of life will increase?

Adopt a lifelong learning approach to not only enhance your mental health and overall well-being, but also to keep your mind engaged and interested in what the wonderful world has to offer. This also applies to discovering new ways you can integrate nature into your daily life!

Reading, even for short periods of time, can dramatically reduce stress levels! So embrace a life-long learning approach to enhance your overall well-being and discover what the wonderful world has to offer. 

Learning is the eternal gift. Every single day provides us all with so many opportunities to learn and grow. Life is one big adventure in so many ways and when we adopt a curious and open mindset it’s amazing what we can discover.

Happy International Day of the Girl Child 2021

International Day of the Girl Child is observed annually by the United Nations on October 11 to honour and encourage female children. This day encourages additional opportunities for females and draws attention to gender inequality throughout the world.

Our everyday motto is: "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food"

Curiosity. What is palm date?

What if you could improve your dancing through the food you eat?

Today we are spotlighting a little dancer Flo. At the same time she is breaking the palm dates to eat its seed. 

Are you okay Flo?

I'm fine thanks. 
What are you doing now?

 I'm dancing. 

What is it that you're breaking with the stone over there?

 It is the palm date.

 But why do you break it? 

To eat the coconut, its seed.

Dates are the fruit of the date palm tree, which is grown in many tropical regions of the world. 

8 Proven Health Benefits of Dates

Very Nutritious

• High in Fiber. Getting enough fiber is important for your overall health. ...
• High in Disease-Fighting Antioxidants. 
• May Promote Brain Health.
• May Promote Natural Labor. 
• Excellent Natural Sweetener. 
• Other Potential Health Benefits.
• Easy to Add to Your Diet.

COVID-19 shutdowns will disrupt early learning, formal education and livelihoods

The coronavirus pandemic could threaten decades of progress for gender equality and girls' education. For many households, lockdowns have seen incomes and savings disappear, meaning they will simply not be able to pay school fees — and where they can, boys may be prioritized.

Our today's guest is an 8 years old girl, her name is Ruth and she will share with us her experiences during lock-downs and how coronavirus has affected her life. 

This little girl confessed that the coronavirus pandemic has delayed her life, she can't go to school, she doesn't see her teacher and her classmates for a long time. She's very sad about this situation.

To continue learning, she reviews all old homework assignments and reads books. 

She recommends that the governors should put in the schools water buckets with soap for students to wash their hands, create sanitary conditions and social distance.

Many girls might not return to school 

“By trying to mitigate the risk of families falling into extreme poverty ... we hope to help mitigate the risk of those families keeping their children, especially their girls, out of school once they reopen.”

The Anatomy of Action outlines the top level changes any individual can make to support the growing shift to global sustainability.

By making individual changes to what food we eat, the stuff we buy, how we spend our money, how we move around and what we do for fun, we can bring about new ways of living that have more positive planet impacts.

#BeAnActivator #AnatomyofAction #UNESCOYouth #SustainableLifestylesChallenge

USA State Department Electronic Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV-2023): Live and Work in the United States of America.

Application Deadline: November 9, 2021. 

The congressionally mandated Diversity Visa (DV) Program provides up to 55,000 diversity visas each year, drawn randomly from all applicants who meet the strict eligibility requirements and come from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.

The Department of State annually administers the statutorily created Diversity Immigrant Visa Program. Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provides for a class of immigrants known as “diversity immigrants” from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States. For Fiscal Year 2023, up to 55,000 Diversity Visas (DVs) will be available. There is no cost to register for the DV program.

Applicants who are selected in the program (selectees) must meet simple but strict eligibility requirements to qualify for a DV. The Department of State determines selectees through a randomized computer drawing.

 The Department of State distributes diversity visas among six geographic regions, and no single country may receive more than seven percent of the available DVs in any one year.

Click here to apply: https://bit.ly/3mvXstM

Texas clinics cancel abortion appointments after court reinstates ban

Texas abortion clinics are canceling appointments they had booked during a 48-hour reprieve from the nation’s most restrictive abortion law.

FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2007 file photo, the Texas Capitol is shown in Austin, Texas. The Texas Capitol will reopen to the public in January after being closed for much of the year because of the pandemic, a decision that comes as new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are surging to the highest levels since summer. The capitol will reopen Jan. 4 — roughly a week before the Texas Legislature reconvenes for the first time since (AP Photo/Harry Cabluck)

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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas clinics on Saturday canceled appointments they had booked during a 48-hour reprieve from the most restrictive abortion law in the U.S., which was back in effect as weary providers again turn their sights to the Supreme Court.

The Biden administration, which sued Texas over the law known as Senate Bill 8, has yet to say whether it will go that route after a federal appeals court reinstated the law late Friday. The latest twist came just two days after a lower court in Austin suspended the law, which bans abortions once cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks, before some women know they are pregnant. It makes no exceptions in cases of rape or incest.

The White House had no immediate comment Saturday.

For now at least, the law is in the hands of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which allowed the restrictions to resume pending further arguments. In the meantime, Texas abortions providers and patients are right back to where they’ve been for most of the last six weeks.

Out-of-state clinics already inundated with Texas patients seeking abortions were again the closest option for many women. Providers say others are being forced to carry pregnancies to term, or waiting in hopes that courts will strike down the law that took effect on Sept. 1.

There are also new questions — including whether anti-abortion advocates will try punishing Texas physicians who performed abortions during the brief window the law was paused from late Wednesday to late Friday. Texas leaves enforcement solely in the hands of private citizens who can collect $10,000 or more in damages if they successfully sue abortion providers who flout the restrictions.

Texas Right to Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion group, created a tip line to receive reports of violators. About a dozen calls came in after U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman suspended the law, said John Seago, the group’s legislative director.

Although some Texas clinics said they had briefly resumed abortions on patients who were beyond six weeks, Seago said his group had no lawsuits in the works. He said the clinics’ public statements did not “match up with what we saw on the ground,” which he says include a network of observers and crisis pregnancy centers.

“I don’t have any credible evidence at the moment of litigation that we would bring forward,” Seago said Saturday.

Texas had roughly two dozen abortion clinics before the law took effect. At least six clinics resumed performing abortions after six weeks of pregnancy during the reprieve, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.

At Whole Woman’s Health, which has four abortion clinics in Texas, president and CEO Amy Hagstrom Miller said she did not have the number of abortions her locations performed for patients beyond six weeks but put it at “quite a few.” She said her clinics were again complying with the law and acknowledged the risks her physicians and staff had taken.

“Of course we are all worried,” she said. “But we also feel a deep commitment to providing abortion care when it is legal to do so, we did.”

Pitman, the federal judge who halted the Texas law Wednesday in a blistering 113-page opinion, was appointed by President Barack Obama. He called the law an “offensive deprivation” of the constitutional right to an abortion, but his ruling was swiftly set aside — at least for now — in a one-page order by the 5th Circuit that on Friday night.

That same appeals court previously allowed the Texas restrictions to take effect in September, in a separate lawsuit brought by abortion providers. This time, the court gave the Justice Department until 5 p.m. Tuesday to respond.

What happens after that is unclear, including how soon the appeals court will act or whether they will request more arguments. Texas is asking the appeals court for a permanent injunction that would allow the law to stand while the case plays out.

In the meantime, Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, urged the Supreme Court to “step in and stop this madness.” Last month, the high court allowed the law to move forward in a 5-4 decision, although it did so without ruling on the law’s constitutionality.

A 1992 decision by the Supreme Court prevented states from banning abortion before viability, the point at which a fetus can survive outside the womb, around 24 weeks of pregnancy. But Texas’ version has outmaneuvered courts due to its novel enforcement mechanism that leaves enforcement to private citizens and not prosecutors, which critics say amounts to a bounty.

The Biden administration could bring the case back to the Supreme Court and ask it to quickly restore Pitman’s order, although it is unclear whether they will do so.

“I’m not very optimistic about what could happen at the Supreme Court,” said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, about the Justice Department’s chances.

“But there’s not much downside either, right?” he said. “The question is, what’s changed since the last time they saw it? There is this full opinion, this full hearing before the judge and the record. So that may be enough.”

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Tullow Oil PLC starts multi-well drilling in Ghana

Accra, GNA – Tullow Oil plc (Tullow) has announced it will start a multi-year, multi-well drilling campaign offshore in Ghana with the commencement of drilling of the first well at the Jubilee Field.

As previously announced, the company said in a statement to the Ghana News Agency that Maersk Venturer, which had been contracted for four years, was expected to drill four wells in total in 2021, consisting of two Jubilee production wells, one Jubilee water injector well and one TEN gas injector well.

The 2021 drilling campaign is the first part of Tullow’s 10-year Business Plan, which was presented at Tullow’s Capital Markets Day in November 2020.

The Ghana portfolio has a large resource base with extensive infrastructure already in place.

“Through a rigorous focus on costs and capital discipline, Tullow believes that these assets have the potential to generate material cash flow over the next decade and deliver significant value for Ghana and investors,” the statement said.

“Throughout this campaign, Tullow will continue to implement its Shared Prosperity strategy through a strong local content programme with suppliers in Ghana, the professional and technical development of Ghanaian nationals and continued investment in STEM education, enterprise development and shared infrastructure.”

Rahul Dhir, Chief Executive Officer, Tullow Oil plc, was quoted as saying, “Today is an important milestone in the implementation of our long-term Business Plan. Working closely with the Government of Ghana and our joint venture partners in Ghana, I am confident that we will unlock the full potential from the Jubilee and TEN fields through this multi-year, multi-well drilling programme”.

GNA

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ANGOLA FORESEES PRODUCTION OF 14 MILLION CARATS OF DIAMONDS

Minister of Mineral Resources Oil and Gas, Diamantino de Azevedo

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Lisbon - Angola has predicted a production of 14 million carats of diamonds per year.

This was announced by minister of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas, Diamantino de Azevedo.

Azevedo announced this after the signing of a contract on mining investment related to the concession of the Chiri, in the Angola’s eastern Lunda Norte province, between the diamond firm Endiama and Rio Tinto Group.

The contract was signed by CEO of the diamond firm “Endiama” Ganga Júnior and Kennerhbe Tainton for Rio Tinto.

Under the Presidential Decree no 298/18 of December 05, the

exploration area, covered by negotiations with Rio Tinto since April 2019, has an extension of 108 km2 with an exploration period of 35 years.

Mining Investment document foresees, in an initial phase, participatory interests of 75% for Rio Tinto and 25% for Endiama E.P. and the constitution of a joint venture.

Under the five-year contract, there is also the possibility for Angola to increase its stake by 49 percent.

 

Rio Tinto Group is an Anglo-Australian multinational company headquartered in London (UK) and in Melbourne (Australia) with representations in more than 20 countries.

ASSET MANAGEMENT RECOVERS MORE THAN KZ 16 BILLION IN BAD CREDIT

Luanda – The Assets of Management (Gestão de Activos SA) RECREDIT recovered from March to September this year 16.44 billion kwanzas of bad debt from the Savings and Credit Bank (BPC).

The figure accounts for 83 percent of the annual goal for 2021, estimated at Kz 19.8 billion.

The result, achieved since the beginning of this fiscal year until the end of the third quarter of 2021, enabled RECREDIT an accumulated recovery value of 21.37 billion kwanzas, since 2020, according to a press release reached Angop on Friday.

According to the document, the recovery potential for this quarter (October, November and December) of 2021 is estimated at around Kz 13 billion, taking into account the various processes that are in technical progress.

Of the total amount to be recovered, includes about 7 billion kwanzas of amortisation proposals; Kz 699 million referring to approved proposals; and 5 billion represent proposals approved with agreements signed between the institution and the debtors.

According to RECREDIT, overall, approximately 28 percent of cases are in litigation (lawsuit in court) and the remaining 72% are under review or negotiation.

Additionally, RECREDIT underlines that 71 percent of the loan portfolio is concentrated in the 20 largest borrowers, which, in general, belong to the construction and commerce sectors.

Created on August 4, 2016, RECREDIT is a company governed by private law, anonymous and with public capital, in which its largest shareholder is the Angolan State, with a 95% stake in the share capital.

The entity's fundamental mission is to acquire, recover, restructure and revitalise assets, namely credit, in order to add value to the national financial system.