Day: October 6, 2021

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Seminar on management and leadership

Seminar focusing on management and leadership was organized in the Southern Region. The seminar program was organized by the office of the PFDJ and the National Union of Eritrean Youth and Students branches in the region.

The seminar was attended by 41 exemplary youth from the 12 sub-zones of the region.

The seminar focused on the preparation of research paper, organization and integrated leadership, leadership management, institution concept, effective management, conflict resolution as well as leadership and nurturing political community.

At the seminar, extensive discussion was conducted on the topics presented by Mr. Yemane Gebreab, Head of Political Affairs of the PFDJ on self-management and characteristics of leadership and time management.

Mr. Ghirmai Gebru, head of the National Union of Eritrean Youth and Students branch in the region, on his part said that the seminar was in continuation of the sustainable programs aimed at developing the overall capacity of the youths,

Commending for the successful organization of the seminar, Mr. Habteab Tesfatsion, Governor of the Southern Region, called on the participants to practically exercise the knowledge they gained at the seminar.

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

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Eritrea is Winning the War Against Malaria

The Government of Eritrea launched the Primary Health Care Policy (PHCP) to minimize and eventually eliminate easily controlled diseases that pose the most serious public health problems. Malaria, which affects millions in the developing world, is one of them. The common malaria parasite in Eritrea is Plasmodium falciparum, which accounts for more than 84% of all cases.

Eritrea achieved the Millennium Development Goals in the health sector because it was able to reduce its infant and child mortality, morbidity, mortality due to malaria, and the prevalence of communicable diseases as well as an increase in the penetration rate of immunization. The commitment of the government to providing sustainable and accessible health care has enabled Eritrea to be one of the countries expected to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in the health sector.

The success achieved in health is attributed to strong political commitment and prioritization of health, innovative multi-sector approaches and administrative competency, and the ability of the government to motivate and mobilize the people. The main driver behind such a commitment is the government’s emphasis on human capital as a vital element of development. Historically, during the struggle for independence, the EPLF put great emphasis on education and health with particular emphasis on the rural population. The barefoot doctors made regular visits and conducted surveillance to protect the health of the people.

Since independence, Eritrea has been successful in controlling the spread of many communicable diseases, including malaria, mainly due to its strong commitment that puts health at the center of development. The government foresaw future needs and made long-term investments in health. The reduction of morbidity and mortality caused by malaria has been realized as a result of strategic interventions that included the distribution of mosquito nets, early diagnosis, a high level of community awareness, and access to health facilities throughout the country. As a result of the efforts made to build, expand and upgrade health facilities, access to health care is available for all within a five km radius. These developments and improvements in healthcare and other sectors over the last twenty-nine years have led to an unprecedented reduction in malaria.

Although through systematically integrated surveillance and vector control mechanisms, the threat of malaria has been minimized greatly, the government will not be satisfied until malaria is totally wiped out of the nation. As the National Health Policy of Eritrea states “…comprehensive vector-borne disease including malaria control and prevention measures will be strengthened to ensure that malaria will no longer be a public health problem in the country” (2010:18). Eritrea’s progress in the provision of health care is also demonstrated in life expectancy, which has risen from 49 years in 1991 to over 64 years at present.

Despite the commendable achievements in the control and prevention of malaria, the threat of resurgence due to climatic changes is evident. Rainfall this season is forecasted to continue in the coming few months, and the period from September to December is considered ‘malaria season’ in Eritrea, especially in the Gash Barka and Southern regions, the two most susceptible malaria-risk regions in the country.

Malaria is both a cause and consequence of poverty. For this reason, the government of Eritrea sees malaria not only as a public health concern but also as a major challenge to development. Accordingly, the fight against malaria is considered a way to improve the health status of the population and reduce poverty. The general wellbeing of the people is determined by, among many factors, health. Poverty cannot be alleviated in an environment plagued by diseases.

The prevalence of malaria is associated with the impoverishment of households. Women’s empowerment, poverty eradication, and complete self-reliance are difficult to achieve without the elimination of malaria. The Eritrean society has benefitted greatly from the defeat of malaria. People today are far healthier than ever before. As early as 2013, Eritrea’s Malaria Program- Performance Review concluded that Eritrea was winning the war against malaria. For instance, malaria infection has been declining from 110 cases/1000 people in 1998 to 11.9 cases/1000 in 2012 and malaria-caused deaths have been declining from 0.198/1000 people in 1998 to 0.0076/1000 in 2012.

The goal of the malaria control program in Eritrea is to ensure that malaria will no longer be a public health problem. According to the Program Improvement Agenda, Eritrea has already launched pre-elimination programs (2014- 2018). Now, the journey to elimination and the establishment of a malaria-free future is on the way.

As we all know, global health security is in danger due to the rapid spread of COVID-19. Human lives are disrupted and the national economy of every country is severely shattered by the virus. With the outbreak of the pandemic, UNICEF warned that the overlap of COVID-19 and malaria could have potentially highly lethal consequences for children under five if governments failed to respond soon to ensure continuity of services. The organization reported that every two minutes, a child under the age of five dies from malaria. According to the 2019 World Malaria Report, children under five accounted for 67 percent of all malaria deaths worldwide in 2018. Most of the cases were in sub-Saharan Africa.

Although Eritrea is not free from the disruptions of COVID-19, it is one of the few countries that have a few deaths caused by the virus. However, while it has been taking precautionary and necessary measures to limit the transmission of the virus, it has not ignored other killer diseases, such as malaria. Environmental management through community participation and outdoor and indoor spraying of insecticide for the prevention and control of malaria outbreaks continues to be practiced. Also, insecticide-treated mosquito nets are handed out to people who live in malaria-prone regions and free ambulance services are given, particularly to women and children. Further, awareness-raising campaigns are conducted by the national media outlets to keep people vigilant.

It is common knowledge that sick people are too weak to work, and this causes them to suffer from poverty. Fortunately, the era of misery caused by malaria is going to end in Eritrea with the elimination of malaria. This means having healthy people who are productive and capable of eliminating poverty in Eritrea once and for all.

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

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WHO Backs Malaria Vaccinations for African Children

The World Health Organization recommended Wednesday that children in sub-Saharan Africa and other regions on the continent with moderate-to-high malaria transmission receive a malaria vaccine.

The vaccine, known as Mosquirix, proved effective in a pilot program in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi that has reached more than 800,000 children since 2019.

The WHO said malaria is a top killer of children in sub-Saharan Africa, causing the deaths of more than 260,000 children under age 5 every year.

The vaccine, which requires four doses, counters P. falciparum, “the most deadly malaria parasite globally, and the most prevalent in Africa,” WHO said in a press release.

“For centuries, malaria has stalked sub-Saharan Africa, causing immense personal suffering,” Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said in a statement. “We have long hoped for an effective malaria vaccine and now for the first time ever, we have such a vaccine recommended for widespread use. Today’s recommendation offers a glimmer of hope for the continent which shoulders the heaviest burden of the disease and we expect many more African children to be protected from malaria and grow into healthy adults.”

Substantial benefit

According to WHO, pilot program data showed that more than two-thirds of children who were not sleeping under bed nets were benefiting from the vaccine, and that there was a 30% reduction in “deadly severe malaria, even when introduced in areas where insecticide-treated nets are widely used and there is good access to diagnosis and treatment.”

The pilot program also found that the vaccine had a “favorable safety profile” and was “cost effective.”

According to The Wall Street Journal, it could still be years until the vaccine is widely available.

The vaccine has been under development for 30 years by GlaxoSmithKline, a global pharmaceutical company; PATH, a global nonprofit focused on health issues; and some African research organizations, WHO said.

The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation provided late-stage development funding for the vaccine, WHO said.

Source: Voice of America

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Malawi Leader Orders Wider Use of Sign Language

Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera has ordered sign language to be used on all television stations and at official functions, and to be recognized as a national language.

Chakwera said he was concerned with challenges deaf people in the country face largely because of a lack of sign language interpreters.

“We must stop thinking of sign language as a favor to deaf people,” he said. “That kind of condescension has no place in this new Malawi. We need a re-education of our minds to regard sign language as a human right.”

Chakwera said every person has a right to acquire language from the moment of birth, including sign language for people born with hearing impairments.

“In this new Malawi, we want the use of sign language to be adopted everywhere for every function and by every institution,” he said.

Chakwera said his administration will work with the Malawi National Association of the Deaf, MANAD, to make life easier for the country’s 400,000 sign language users.

“It is because of this commitment that we are supporting the reproduction of the first ever Malawian sign language dictionary developed by MANAD to help harmonize the existing sign languages in Malawi into one sign language,” he said.

Chimwemwe Kamkwamba, a partially deaf student at Exploits University in Lilongwe, said youths with hearing difficulties are denied loans to start their businesses.

“We are excluded because they feel like we cannot pay back, which is not a right thing because we are also persons,” she said. “We are also people with needs. We are also people who need to be somewhere. And to be denied that, we (are) being denied our right to do what we believe we can do.”

Stephano Maneya, chairperson for the Malawi National Association of the Deaf, said another challenge is there is only one secondary school for deaf learners in Malawi.

“So, our plea is that government should help us with special secondary schools for the deaf so that after these learners who do better from primary school, they should also get specialized support in special secondary schools and be able to excel with their education,” he said through an interpreter.

Chakwera said his government will look into that, but will first focus on training more people who can use sign language in government offices. Malawi currently has five professional sign language interpreters.

Source: Voice of America

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Biniam Girmay: The Silver Medal is for Eritrea and for Africa

Biniam Girmay hailed a landmark moment for Eritrea and all of Africa after winning the silver medal in the U23 men’s road race at the UCI Road World Championships. The rising starburst is clear of a reduced bunch to place second in Leuven, just a couple of seconds after solo winner Filippo Baroncini. In doing so, he made history, becoming the first Eritrean and the first black African to win a medal at the Road World Championships.

“For me, for my nation, also for Africa, this means a lot,” Girmay said as his section of the post-race press conference outlasted that of the world champion to his left.

“I’m really happy. I’m really proud of my nation, so I say congrats to all Eritreans and also to all Africans.”

Girmay nodded his head sharply as he crossed the line, which at first looked like a show of frustration. He had been the fastest in the reduced bunch, only thwarted by a solo attacker, but it soon became clear that there wasn’t a hint of disappointment.

He sank to the tarmac and was mobbed by his teammates and staff, and could no doubt hear – if not see – the flag-laden Eritrean fans in Leuven.

“Yesterday I called my family, and they told me to remember when I was a kid,” he revealed. “My father said to me ‘hopefully you will become one of the biggest riders in all the world, you will be world champion’. So I was on the phone with my father and my whole family, and they said ‘for sure you can do it and take a medal’.

“I say thank you for all my family. They supported me. They give me really good motivation, every single day. When I was starting my sprint, I was a bit nervous but I was also thinking just to get one of the medals. Not to win – just to finish top three and I did it. I am happy with my place.”

Girmay has been touted as a big talent but his journey to the top of the sport is far from straightforward. Cycling is popular in Eritrea but in terms of pathways to the professional ranks, it lags far behind cycling’s European heartlands.

“I’m from the capital city Asmara. That’s the cycling zone in Eritrea,” Girmay said, explaining his roots. “Every Sunday there’s a race, and all the people who like cycling give you a lot of advice. I started when I was 12 years old, at school. I rode mountain bike but then I also started road racing when I was 15.”

Girmay’s big break was an invite to the UCI’s World Cycling Centre, to which he says he owes a big debt of gratitude. The WCC is an initiative of the sport’s governing body to develop riders from backgrounds that may ordinarily prevent them from reaching the pro ranks, housing them in Switzerland and offering structured training and access to races.

“I raced a lot of races with them and gained a lot of good experience. When you’re young, you come to Europe and you see the peloton – big peloton – and a lot of tactics. Mentally and physically, I grew at the World Cycling Centre. “After I won the African Continental Championships – in the Time Trial and the road race – the UCI invited me, so I joined them in 2018 and stayed until the end of 2019. It was really important – one of the most important things,” Girmay said.

“It means a lot to me because I went to Europe in 2018 and every year, with every step, every new experience, I learn a lot. It has worked today.”

Girmay then signed his first professional contract with the French Delko team for 2020, and he immediately made his mark, winning two stages of the Tropicale Amissa Bongo in Gabon. He went on to finish runner-up behind Giulio Ciccone at Trofeo Laigueglia, then to Loic Vliegen at Tour du Doubs, as well as picking up four podiums at the Tour du Rwanda and fourth at the Giro della Toscana.

Interest rocketed, World Tour teams started circling, and, as Delko found themselves in financial and administrative trouble this year, a mid-season transfer to World Tour outfit Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux was organized for the start of August. He quickly set about winning the GP Besançon Doubs – his first professional victory on European soil.

“When I joined this team I was super happy. I think it’s a good team. It’s not only a team but a family,” he said. “I also say thank you to them for giving me the opportunity and supporting me the past few months. I joined halfway through the season but they gave me the chance immediately to sprint for the win.”

Girmay signed a long-term deal with the Belgian team and recently relocated to Lucca, Italy, where there’s a sizeable contingent of Eritrean riders. He signed through 2024 – a sign of how highly rated he is – in which time he hopes to hone his skills as a versatile sprinter and start winning bigger and bigger races.

“For now, I’m really looking at the Classics, also some hilly races with a sprint,” he said. “This is my best capacity so I’m working for this to be faster in the bunch sprints and on the small uphills. I also want to show the next few years that I can be one of the big riders.

“When I was little, I liked sprinters. I wouldn’t say he’s my hero, but I like Peter Sagan, not only for his cycling but also outside of cycling. He’s really funny and easy-going.”

The future appears very bright indeed for Girmay but he is also aware of the potential impact of his silver medal not just in the next few years, or even the rest of his career, but for decades and generations to come.

“In Eritrea our future is bright,” he said. “We have really good potential. It’s not just from the last years, it’s longer.”

“We will get more experience, and progress every day mentally and physically. There is a really good future, I think.”

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

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Kenya confirms bid for 2025 World Athletics Championships

NAIROBI— Kenya confirmed its bid to host the 2025 Athletics World Championships, which if accepted, would bring the event to Africa for the first time.

Nairobi has hosted both the world under-18 and under-20 World Championships in the last four years, but faces a string of high-profile rivals including Tokyo, which staged the Olympic Games in July.

“We formally confirmed our bid to host the global championships on Friday October 1 which was the deadline set by World Athletics,” Athletics Kenya chief Jackson Tuwei said.

“We organised two very successful world junior championships at the Kasarani stadium in 2017 and in August 2021, where a number of world records and personal bests were realised,” he said.

“We learnt a lot of lessons in staging both events, and realistically it is our time to bring the biggest event.”

Over the years, Kenya has become one of the countries to have produced the most successful long-distance runners, but has yet to see the World Championships elite runners perform in the country.

Africa has never hosted the World Athletics (WA) premier showpiece, which was first contested in Helsinki, Finland in 1983.

Kenyan sports minister Amina Mohammed first announced the country’s bid for the 2025 world championships in Doha in September 2019, after WA said the global event would be held on a rotational basis across continents.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

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Hundreds in Burkina Faso, Including Minors, Await Trial on Terrorism Charges

In Burkina Faso, at least 400 people have been awaiting trial on terrorism charges for years, including several minors.

Houretou Sidibé says three relatives, including her son, have been held in a Burkina Faso maximum security prison for three years.

Sidibé, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, says she does not know why they’re being held.

Since Burkina Faso began its war against armed groups linked to Islamic State, al-Qaida and local bandits seven years ago, at least 400 citizens have been arrested on suspicion of terrorism-related offenses and are being held in custody. Some are children under the age of sixteen.

“It has been more than a year since I’ve been able to visit them, because I have no means to do it,” Sidibé said. “Two weeks ago, my brother was able to visit them and gave me some of their news.”

The West African country created a penal code for terrorism offenses in 2019. But so far, only two people have been to trial and convicted on terrorism charges.

Sidibé says her relatives are being held at a prison in the town of Ziniaré, which is housing double its official capacity.

“I really need some judicial assistance, a lawyer, to follow up their case and free them, because it really is a long time that they’ve been remanded in prison,” she said.

Koumbo Barry, whose name has also been changed to protect her identity, says her son has been held for almost two years without trial.

“I can’t stop crying, because I haven’t been given any reason for their arrest,” she said. “I want the government authorities to help me find the reason why my sons were arrested and dropped in that prison. Today, I am old and I can’t work. I am living with their wives and children. It’s difficult to feed them. My husband is old, everyone is suffering at home because of this situation.”

Daouda Dialo is a Burkinabe human rights activist who runs the rights group, The Collective Against Impunity and Stigmatization of Communities. He says some detainees have been awaiting trial for as long as five years.

“As a human rights defender, we find that this pre-trial detention is excessive,” he said. “It is an abuse that must be corrected at the level of the law, because we cannot detain someone indefinitely to wait for his or her trial. The fact that justice isn’t working can contribute to further violence and worsening vigilantism.”

Attending a conference on the processing of terrorism offenses Friday, Burkina Faso President Roch Kabore said the country will continue to prosecute terrorism suspects despite funding concerns.

“We’re pleased we’ve been able to hold the first trial of a terrorist and I can tell you that I’ve noted all the concerns and we will ensure that the state can effectively meet these conditions,” he said. “It is true that we have to take into account the fact that we have financial difficulties, but I think that an effort can be made to reinforce what we already have.”

Although the trial of two men is a sign of progress, it remains to be seen how quickly more trials will follow.

Source: Voice of America