Issues Archives - Page 7 of 64

April 22, 2013

“Enormous opportunity” for ending hunger in Africa

Proposed new partnership will build on successes, political commitment

22 April 2013, Rome – Ministers and senior delegates from five African Nations met today with FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva ahead of a High-Level meeting of African and international leaders in Addis Ababa next June set to create a renewed partnership for intensifying efforts to end hunger in Africa.

“There is an enormous window of opportunity,” for eradicating hunger in the continent, Graziano da Silva told a side-event organized during a week-long Session of FAO’s governing Council here. The key lies in capitalizing on the successes of the many African countries who have already found solutions for food insecurity and malnutrition.

“By building on these experiences we can eradicate food insecurity and malnutrition in Africa. Together we can stop the suffering of the estimated 23 percent of all Africans who remain undernourished, and 40 percent of children under five who are stunted or malnourished,” he said.

One reason for optimism is the unprecedented political commitment of governments and the African people to end hunger. An example is the decision of FAO’s regional Conference for Africa to set up an Africa Food Security Trust Fund. The Republic of the Congo, Angola and Equatorial Guinea have already announced they will contribute. Continue reading ““Enormous opportunity” for ending hunger in Africa”

April 14, 2013April 14, 2013

Wake up, Nkrumah, by Dr. Tunde Oseni

Dr Kwame Nkrumah. the father of African independence

The Gladiator of no distant past

Who fought for liberation with a distinction pass

Wake up now, and resurrect in our land

Before things degenerate beyond our hand

Nkrumah, the father of independence

Now is the time for your kind of intelligence

Wake up now and resurrect in our land

Before we bite more than we can chew

The shining star and the golden voice

Your type is what we crave as an urgent choice

Wake up now and resurrect in our land

Our continent needs an urgent fix

April 14, 2013April 14, 2013

Mandela, the Madiba, by Dr. Tunde Oseni

If you want success out of struggle

Mandela, the Madiba represents a model

If you think it’s over when the chips are down

Study Mandela, the Madiba for a change of mind

If you think a people can forever be in chains

Mandela, the Madiba will let you think and change

If the world has no Mandelas in our midst

What for all will that be a great miss

Revenge is not for the strong in mind

Reconciliation is an article of faith for the large in heart

Mandela, the Madiba

Man with a thousand lives

It is to your memory and love

That South Africa and the world know more about peace

April 1, 2013April 1, 2013

My Father and the Whiteman, by Dr.Tunde Oseni

It was a sunny day

My father, then a boy, joined his mates

On a stony pitch

Chasing around a ball

Just beside the hall

Then a call from the Reverend Father

A missionary man from afar

‘You follow me’

My father cleaned up the sweat on his face

And behind the white man he gently walked

The boys behind the White Man were now two

For an errand boy normally escorted the holy one

They got to the storey building

Opposite the Catholic Church

The first in our town,

That owned the school my father went

And the mission to the place was yet unclear

As my father held his breath till the end

The Holy One entered a room that was dark

Asked the Little One to climb upon a desk

And waved a cloth to him to hold

To be pinned to a little window made of wood

The Little One obeyed the Boss

Until the show came to a close

Just by chance

As the white man made to move

A little ray of light snaked into room

And my father got the tip;

It was the call of nature

That the White Man had come to heed

That was 1956 as I was told

In 1959 the boy finished at the school

Then in 1989, the son of the boy

Entered the college arm of the school

Where his father once held the cloth

*This is based on a true life story told me by my father.
Dedicated to Pope Francis I for his love for the oppressed and
tolerance for all faiths.

April 1, 2013

Democratic Republic of Congo Gets Boost for HealthCare

NAIROBI, 31 March 2013 (IRIN) – The British government has announced a major new programme aimed at providing essential healthcare to six million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The five-year, US$270.7 million project will focus on rebuilding health facilities, training health workers, and supplying drugs and equipment.

Civil war has destroyed much of the country’s health infrastructure, as well as the road networks and vital services such as electricity, meaning patients often have to travel long distances to health centres that may not be equipped to handle their complications.

IRIN has put together a list of five health issues in DRC that require urgent attention:

Maternal and Child Health – DRC’s maternal mortality ratio is 670 deaths per 100,000 live births, with an estimated 19,000 maternal deaths annually. The country has a severe shortage of health workers – less than one health professional is available per 1,000 people.

With 170 out of every 1,000 children dying before they reach the age of five and 10 percent of infants underweight, DRC has one of the worst child health indicators in the world. It is one of five countries in the world in which about half of under-five deaths occur. Some of the biggest killers of children are diarrhoea, malaria, malnutrition and pneumonia.

Sexual violence – Several studies report high levels of sexual violence perpetrated against women, children and men in DRC, both by armed groups and within the home; one study, conducted in the North and South Kivu and Ituri in 2010, found that 40 percent of women and 24 percent of men had experienced sexual violence. Continue reading “Democratic Republic of Congo Gets Boost for HealthCare”

January 15, 2013

HIV/AIDS: Groundbreaking Vaccine Research Reveals More Clues about HIV

JOHANNESBURG, 15 January 2013 (PlusNews) – The only HIV vaccine trial to achieve moderate success took place four years ago, yet it continues to reveal new information about the virus and renew hopes for a future vaccine.

In 2009, researchers released the findings of a six-year HIV vaccine study carried out in Thailand known as RV144. Conducted among 16,000 HIV-negative men and women, the trial found that HIV infection rates were 31 percent lower among participants who received the vaccine than in those who had not.

It was an encouraging protection rate, but short of the minimum 50 percent prevention rate required to slow the epidemic, which afflicts an estimated 34 million people worldwide, according to researchers at Duke University in the US.

Now, researchers say they have a better understanding of why the vaccine might have worked – and possible new targets for future vaccines. Continue reading “HIV/AIDS: Groundbreaking Vaccine Research Reveals More Clues about HIV”

January 13, 2013

ETHIOPIA: Concerns Over HIV/AIDS Funding Cuts

ADDIS ABABA, 9 January 2013 (PlusNews) – Major projected cuts in US government funding for Ethiopia’s health sector could greatly undermine the progress the country has made in the fight against HIV, authorities and experts say.

“There’s an AIDS spending cliff in Ethiopia, and the government is already in free fall. Next year, Ethiopia will experience a 79 percent reduction in US HIV financing from PEPFAR [the US President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief],” wrote Amanda Glassman, a director at Global Health Policy and a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development.

Ethiopian government officials, however, told IRIN/PlusNews that, while they were concerned about the funding cuts, they had been expecting them.

“We are a bit concerned, but considering the current global financial crisis and the budget deficit in the US, we had anticipated this,” said Kesetebirhan Admassu, the new minister of health.

“Most of the cuts are going to be around softer programmatic activities that can be taken care of by mobilizing internal resources as well as using some innovative approaches like the health development army and so on,” Admassu added. Continue reading “ETHIOPIA: Concerns Over HIV/AIDS Funding Cuts”

January 11, 2013January 11, 2013

ZIMBABWE: Still Struggling with Drug Shortages

HARARE, 11 January 2013 (PlusNews) – Chronic shortages of generic and antiretroviral drugs, stock-outs, high medication costs, and long distances to clinics are some of the hurdles people face in their quest to access essential medicines in Zimbabwe.

At any given time, public health facilities in much of Zimbabwe have in stock only half of a core set of critical medicines, according to findings from civil society groups working to improve access to medicines in Southern Africa.

Zimbabwe is still recuperating from a drastic decline in health services caused by sub-optimal investments in healthcare and an unprecedented economic crisis in 2008, during which the local currency crashed.

To make matters worse, over 80 percent of the country’s drugs are externally funded.

“Unsustainable”

A poorly resourced local pharmaceutical industry can barely provide the country with its essential medicine requirements, and government-backed institutions, such as the National Pharmaceutical Company of Zimbabwe (NatPharm), which is mandated with securing drugs and healthcare products on behalf of state institutions, are struggling to survive. Continue reading “ZIMBABWE: Still Struggling with Drug Shortages”