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Youth Focus Initiative Honors Falana Afolayan, Others, Report by Ajibola Olarinoye

Dr. Tunde Oseni delivers a speech at the Youth Focus Role Model Awards 2013 ceremony.
Dr. Tunde Oseni delivers a speech at the Youth Focus Role Model Awards 2013 ceremony.

Legal icon and Human Rights activist, Mr. Femi Falana and top Nigerian film maker, Mr. Kunle Afolayan were among eminent Nigerians honoured by Youth Focus Initiative (Y.F.I) on the recognition of distinguished roles they have played individually in motivating several young people in the society.

The historic event tagged “Youth Focus Role Model Awards 2013 and Public Presentation of SOURCES OF SUCCESS” was held on Saturday 19th October 2013 at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry  Conference Building, Ikeja Lagos.

In his welcome speech, the Founder of Youth Focus Initiative and President of Upward BAO Consulting, Dr. Tunde Oseni said Y.F.I is a pet project which he started in 2001 at the age of 24. He asserted that since then, the idea has remained to motivate and engage the youths wherever they are. “I am happy to report to you that our strategy is working. We have transformed  Y.F.I  into  the Corporate Social Responsibility and Advocacy of Upward BAO Consulting, a growing Human Capital Development Company’.

Attendees listen as Dr. Tunde Oseni talks at the Youth Focus Role Model Awards 2013 program
Attendees listen as Dr. Tunde Oseni talks at the Youth Focus Role Model Awards 2013 program

The awardees and their categories of awards are: Petroleum Geologist and retired Senior Manager of Chevron, Prince Adekunle Oduborisha (Leadership), Mr. Femi Falana S.A.N (Career Development), Mr. Kunle Afolayan (Entertainment), Founder and C.E.O, Flying Doctors, Dr. Ola Orekunrin (Social Entrepreneurship) while Mr. Kehinde Bamigbetan (Chairman, Ejigbo LCDA) and Comrade Ayodele Adewale (Chairman, Amuwo Odofin Local Government) bagged awards on their roles in Grassroots Development. Continue reading “Youth Focus Initiative Honors Falana Afolayan, Others, Report by Ajibola Olarinoye”

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Hope for Malaria Vaccine by 2015

British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline is seeking regulatory approval for the world’s first malaria vaccine after trial data showed that it had cut the number of cases in African children.

Experts say that they are optimistic about the possibility of the world’s first vaccine after the trial results.

Malaria, a mosquito-borne parasitic disease, kills hundreds of thousands of people worldwide every year.

Scientists say an effective vaccine is key to attempts to eradicate it.

The vaccine known as RTS,S was found to have almost halved the number of malaria cases in young children in the trial and to have reduced by about 25% the number of malaria cases in infants.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is developing RTS,S with the non-profit Path Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), supported by funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“Many millions of malaria cases fill the wards of our hospitals,” said Halidou Tinto, a lead investigator on the RTS,S trial from Burkina Faso.

“Progress is being made with bed nets and other measures, but we need more tools to battle this terrible disease.”

The malaria trial was Africa’s largest-ever clinical trial involving almost 15,500 children in seven countries.

The findings were presented at a medical meeting in Durban, South Africa.

“Based on these data, GSK now intends to submit, in 2014, a regulatory application to the European Medicines Agency (EMA),” GSK said in a statement.

The company has been developing the vaccine for three decades.

The statement said that the hope now is that the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) may recommend the use of the RTS,S vaccine from as early as 2015 if EMA drugs regulators back its licence application.

Testing showed that 18 months after vaccination, children aged five to 17 months had a 46% reduction in the risk of clinical malaria compared to unvaccinated contemporaries.

But in infants aged six to 12 weeks at the time of vaccination, there was only a 27% reduction in risk.

A spokeswoman for GSK told the AFP news agency that the company would file its application to the EMA under a process aimed at facilitating new drugs for poorer countries.

UK politician Lynne Featherstone, International Development Minister, said: “Malaria is not just one of the world’s biggest killers of children, it also burdens health systems, hinders children’s development and puts a brake on economic growth. An effective malaria vaccine would have an enormous impact on the developing world.

“We welcome the scientific progress made by this research and look forward to seeing the full results in due course.”

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Malaria: Focus on Prevention and Get the African Privileged Engaged

by Dr. K Amponsah-Manager

I have written on malaria in the past. Since then, much has changed and nothing has changed.

There are more than 400 million cases of malaria annually. Most of malaria infections and deaths occur in Sub-Saharan African where the most vulnerable are infants, pregnant mothers and seniors. In fact, it is estimated that 90% of malaria-related deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa.

Significant progress has been made in the fight against malaria as more effective drugs are made available. At the same time, challenges emerge as the plasmodium parasite develops resistance towards existing drugs. For instance, chloroquine which in the past used to be the most commonly prescribed medicine against malaria, even though is still used to treat and prevent malaria, is no longer as effective against the disease because the parasite developed resistance to the drug. There is currently no effective vaccine against malaria but there may be one in the horizon.

Even though malaria has not received global attention required for a killer of such profile, wealthy foundations, some private companies, and smart governments across the world are beginning to wake up and make malaria a priority. One of such foundations is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Malaria can be defeated, albeit, not overnight. The funding available for anti-malaria campaigns, and research and development is tiny compared to the challenges.

While governments, Foundations and private institutions work towards eradication and prevention, it is important for private citizens to join the partnership especially in efforts towards preventing malaria.

In the long run, I believe that prevention of malaria is the cost-effective route to take rather than treatment of the disease. However, for preventive measures to make a dent, individual participation and community involvement would have to be spurred up. Continue reading “Malaria: Focus on Prevention and Get the African Privileged Engaged”

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“Happy” World Malaria Day

world malaria dayToday is April 25th. It is designated as World Malaria Day. Unlike other celebrated days like New Year, Valentine, Independence, today is meant to remind us of the scourge of a pernicious disease that kills a child every 45 seconds.  Malaria Day commemorated with speeches, seminars, symposiums and workshops that are meant to petition all us to put out collective effort together in the fight against malaria.

As a result of the efforts by civil society, foundations and non-governmental organizations, governments around the world, remarkable progress has been made in the assault against malaria. The situation looks more hopeful today than it looked a few years ago. Presently, 9 African countries are on target to achieve 75% malaria cutback by 2015 as a result of effective national policies and preventive actions.

Many challenges remain such as cut back in funding for research from advanced nations due to austerity measures. But the progress happening on malaria in Africa shows that when private citizens, non-profits, NGOs and governments pursue common goals with a common understanding, the results can be amazing.

As a society, when we set simple, specific, measurable goals against malaria and have everyone play their part, we can be hopeful that malaria will be history in our lifetime.

Do we ever say ‘Happy Malaria Day’?

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The Story of My Pet

Dr. Tunde-Oseni
Dr. Tunde-Oseni

Youth Focus Initiative is my pet project which I started when I was 24, an age by which most students have already completed their first degree and for some their PhDs. After completing secondary school, financial meltdown at the family level put a temporary cap on my thirst for a higher education. As fate would have it, it was in between the struggling eight years of self-help, selling petrol as a pump attendant, teaching pupils in private schools, and working

as a community newspaper reporter that I started Youth Focus Media (later renamed Youth Focus Initiative) in Lagos.

The idea was (and still is) to motivate and engage the youths, wherever they are. I believe that some of the ideas that were packaged into those modest editions of the Youth Focus magazine had the same impact as the regular talks I gave along with the marketing of the publication. I made the magazine so simple that even the busiest person in the world would still find it ‘unputdownable!’ My sister and I were the company and we ‘hired’ some ad hoc distributors. It was not easy in the beginning, but we later found it very exciting.

 

In August 2001, we went to a massive programme called the Youth Empowerment Scheme at the National Stadium, Surulere in Lagos. The whole stadium was full and we had armed ourselves with 100 copies of Youth Focus magazine to test run the sales. In ten minutes all of our copies had been mopped up and we had to restock with an extra 200 copies, which also sold out within a few hours. It was then that it dawned on us that our Ghanaian cotenant

(Mr. Adoo) was right when he had told us to take ‘everything’ to the programme. We were surprised by the number of sales that we made in four consecutive days. Continue reading “The Story of My Pet”

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Giving Back Is Noble, But Is it Motivated by Pity or Empathy?

empathyGiving back to the community is a noble thing. Our religious and political leaders encourage it. Many do this by volunteering their time to serve in underserved communities at home or abroad.

 

In some cases, the desire to do community service, foreign charity travel or volunteer to serve in a rural area may be motivated by a feeling of pity for those in need. My observation is that a feeling of pity for the needy creates the status of a boss, a provider or a superior for the giver. A service that is inspired by a feeling of pity accomplishes little. Sometimes, it does more harm than good.

 

To make real impact on people and communities, a service should be inspired by empathy. This is where you go to the communities with the desire to learn and understand them. You put yourself in their shoes; you enter their head and feel their feelings. It is by doing so that you in partnership with the communities can address the problems they have. Continue reading “Giving Back Is Noble, But Is it Motivated by Pity or Empathy?”

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Feed One Project: Charity Movement to Encourage Giving

FeedOne Project is a massive charity movement organized to encourage everyone to reach-out to the less privileged in their respective neighbourhoods across Africa. The message of FeedOne Project is intended to herald a kinder, peaceful and more productive World! The Project emphasizes the need for all-of-us to be kind to one another, to look beyond ourselves, beyond the boundaries of our state or country, beyond our cultures, races, and to realize that we are citizens of the world.

The project which was held on Sunday, 11th November, 2012 mobilized thousands of youth in many communities of Nigeria (Ile-Ife), Sierra Leone, Ghana, Kenya and Benin Republic; to feed,  empower and provide health services for the less-privileged. In Ile-Ife Nigeria, youths fed and trained up to two thousand and five hundred less-privileged at Lagere & Sabo Commuties, Moro orphanage, Trumpet of Life Orphanage Ajebamidele, Moore Prisons, Alabameta & Kola Villages Modakeke and other communities. Continue reading “Feed One Project: Charity Movement to Encourage Giving”

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Africa Domestic Investment in HIV Goes Up But It’s Uneven

NAIROBI, 19 July 2012 (PlusNews) – Many sub-Saharan African nations – traditionally the beneficiaries of international HIV funding – are gradually increasing their financial contributions to the fight against the virus, boosting the number of people on treatment to record highs according to a new UNAIDS report, Together We Will End AIDS, released on 18 July.

Low- and middle-income countries invested US$8.6 billion in the response in 2011, an increase of 11 percent compared to 2010, whereas the international community contributed $8.2 billion, a figure that has remained flat since 2008. The United States contributed nearly half of all international assistance for HIV/AIDS.

“This is an era of global solidarity and mutual accountability,” Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAIDS, said in a statement. “Countries most affected by the epidemic are taking ownership and demonstrating leadership in responding to HIV.”

Increased local funding

In several African countries, including Kenya, Namibia, Sierra Leone and Uganda, domestic spending on HIV/AIDS rose by more than 100 percent between 2006 and 2011. In Botswana, Comoros, Mauritania, Mauritius, the Seychelles and South Africa, domestic investment accounted for more than 70 percent of AIDS funding.

The increases in funding allowed a record 6.2 million Africans to access life-prolonging antiretroviral treatment in 2011, compared to 5.1 million in 2010. The most impressive numbers in 2011 were seen in South Africa, which initiated 300,000 people on treatment, Zimbabwe (150,000) and Kenya (100,000). The recently released 2012 UN Millennium Development Goals report notes that Botswana, Namibia and Rwanda have achieved universal access to ARVs. Continue reading “Africa Domestic Investment in HIV Goes Up But It’s Uneven”

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