HEALTH

Glaxo offers free malaria research, vaccine nears

GlaxoSmithKline PLC hopes to seek approval by 2012 for its experimental malaria vaccine and said on Wednesday it would seek only a small profit and ensure it is widely available in hard-hit countries.

AFRICA: AIDS vaccine programme comes home

In what is being hailed as a boost for African involvement in AIDS research, Uganda has been selected to host the African AIDS Vaccine Programme (AAVP), formerly based in Geneva, Switzerland. Read more

ENVIRONMENT

Southern Africa Moves to Safeguard Groundwater

Southern African countries are taking steps to protect a precious resource — drinkable groundwater. Read more

French, African Leaders Promote Fight Against Deforestation

French and African leaders are calling for international aid to fight deforestation in the Congo Basin area – which is a key contributor to global warming. Read more

DEVELOPMENT

USAID gives US $14 million to farmers, agri-businesses

THE United States Agency for International Development has awarded approximately US $14 million to support more than 52 000 farmers and agri-businesses in Zimbabwe. Read more

India pledges investment, assistance to Zambia

Visiting Indian business delegation said on Thursday that the Asian country would like to invest in the key sectors of Zambia, with a commitment of assistance to the Zambian business sector. Read more

African Women Gain Improved Access to Tap Water

A new project is bringing water to 4,000 homes in the southern district of Mwanza. Read more

MICROFINANCE

African Development Bank (AfDB) Approves $660k Grant to Access Bank Tanzania (ABT), a Microfinance Bank in Tanzania

The African Development Bank (AfDB), a regional development organization in Africa, has approved a USD 660,000 grant to Access Bank Tanzania (ABT), a newly established commercial bank in Tanzania focusing on microfinance. Read more

Africa Information and Communications Technology Exhibition & Conference (AITEC) Banking & Mobile Money – West Africa, Lagos, Nigeria; May 11 – May 12, 2010

Event Name: AITEC Banking & Mobile Money West Africa, 2010

Event Description: The theme of this two-day conference is “Innovating to Survive and Thrive in Hard Times.”  Read more

Barry Segal, founder of the Segal Family foundation, has joined our board.  With generous support from his foundation, we are pleased to announce 4 new All For Africa beneficiaries; MacDella Cooper Foundation (Liberia), Nibakure Children’s Village (Rwanda), Kip Keino Foundation (Kenya) and Tanzania Rift Valley Children’s Village (Tanzania).

MacDella Cooper Foundation, Monrovia , Liberia

This year, the MacDella Cooper foundation will open the first school of its kind in post-war Liberia that will offer free education, including room and board, to 200 students in Monrovia. The trust from all For Africa will cover operation expenses for the school.

Nibakure Children’s Village, Kigali, Rwanda

This organization supports widows in Rwanda and provides orphans with housing, health care, education and career training. Nibakure Children’s village is building an orphanage that will house 150 children, catering for their health, education and nutrition needs. The trust from All For Africa will cover operational expenses for the orphanage.

Kip Keino Foundation, Eldoret, Kenya

Kip Keino Foundation is building an elementary and high school in Eldoret.  The school will educate, feed and house 300 orphans.  The trust from All For Africa will cover operational expenses for the school.

Tanzania Rift Valley Children’s Village, Oldeani, Tanzania

The Rift children’s village provides a home, family and community for orphans in Tanzania. The trust from All For Africa will cover the operational expenses for the orphanage.

HEALTH

HIV infections and deaths fall as drugs have impact

Greater access to anti-retroviral drugs has helped cut the death toll from HIV by more than 10% over the past five years, latest figures show.  READ MORE

LESOTHO: Mountain clinics bring HIV services to remote villages

Isolated mountain communities hard hit by HIV and AIDS in Lesotho have begun to reap benefits from the overhaul of nine healthcare clinics over the past four years. READ MORE

Researchers, Aid Groups Optimistic About Malaria Fight

With a promising new anti-malaria vaccine in its final stage of testing, researchers around the world are optimistic they are finally making progress toward ending the deadly disease. READ MORE

ENVIRONMENT

Senegalese NGO plants 34 million mangroves

A Senegalese environmental NGO announced on Friday that it had planted 34 million mangrove trees in three months in a project largely financed by French dairy giant Danone to offset its carbon footprint READ MORE

African climate policy centre receives $8.5 million from Sweden

Sweden has signed an agreement with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), committing 60 million Swedish Kronor (about $8.5 million) in support of ECA’s African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC), established in the framework of the Climate Information for Development in Africa (ClimDev-Africa Programme). READ MORE

DEVELOPMENT

All For Africa Executive Director & founder awarded  Africa investor Investment & Business Leaders Award

Africa investor, a leading international investment research and communications group, last night announced the 2009 Investment & Business Leader Awards winners to the global investment community at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, South Africa. READ MORE

All For Africa founding partner, Seacom, receives best Pan African Initiative award.

Seacom, a privately funded submarine fibre optic cable system, has been named Best Pan African Initiative at the AfricaCom Awards 2009 ceremony held in South Africa. READ MORE

Irrigation Helps Zambian Farmers Boost Food Production

There’s strength in numbers, at least for 150 of Chanyanya’s farmers who’ve formed a cooperative. The group has leased part of their land to InfraCo, a company specializing in agricultural infrastructure like trenches and electric pumps to draw water from the nearby Kafue River for irrigation.   READ MORE

MICROFINANCE

Mali’s rural poor boosted with $25.04 million for microfinance

Mali has received a US$25.04 million loan from IFAD to fund an innovative programme to build on the strengths and successes of existing rural microfinance networks to help them expand their reach and ensure their sustainability over time. READ MORE

AGRA partners launch $25m financing programme for smallholder farmers in Uganda

Stanbic Bank Uganda (SBU), the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and Kilimo Trust have announced a partnership that will provide US $25 million in financing for smallholder farmers and various businesses supporting the sector READ MORE

Message from All For Africa beneficiary Youth Action International.

” We are proud to announce that this year’s cohort of women have completed their program.  Each of the women has been trained in a skill of their choice.  They have now been placed in cooperatives and granted small business grants to start and run their businesses.   The impact will continue to be felt as they join the work force.  Thank you for making this possible! “

Youth Action international  was awarded one oil palm trust in 2008.  This trust will provide, beginning in 2012, approximately $30, 000 for operational funding per year for 30 years.  YAI also received a $50,000 grant which supported the Center for Women empowerment for the course of one year. Look for our next round of grants to be available in 2010.

]]> http://www.allforafrica.org/youth-action-internationals-womens-empowerment-center/feed/ 0 http://www.allforafrica.org/role-reversal-turns-elderly-into-providers-for-aids-orphans/ http://www.allforafrica.org/role-reversal-turns-elderly-into-providers-for-aids-orphans/#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:36:08 +0000 admin http://www.allforafrica.org/?p=1491

Ahmed Kasawala doesn’t know the warmth of his mother’s embrace; she died before he turned two, leaving him to the frail arms of his grandmother.

“I pray to Allah everyday to forgive us. Miriam was a good girl. I think she got it from the blood they gave her when she was in hospital,” says the elderly Kasawala, groping for some way to excuse a condition that carries so much stigma: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, AIDS.

In 2007, an estimated 33.2 million people lived with the disease worldwide, and it killed an estimated 2.1 million people, including 330,000 children, according to UNAIDS.

Regardless of how she contracted the HIV virus that causes AIDS, Miriam, 24, left behind three children.

“I don’t know how we will live once my eyes fail me,” says the grandmother, adding that she feel bad she does not have the energy to play with the three year old. “I am alive and my daughter is dead. Why should the old survive and the young die? The world is turned upside down. Instead of my child taking care of me, I watched her die, and now I don’t know how to take care of her child. His sisters are young, they cook, but they can barely care for themselves.”

Babies strapped to the back of 7 to 10-year-old siblings is a common sight in Malawi, where 13 percent of 7.3 million Malawian children under the age of 18 have lost their parents, mainly as a result of AIDS.

Africa is one of the most AIDS- ravaged regions of the world. Around 50 to 60 percent of orphans in Malawi, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe currently live with their grandparents, according to Help Age International. The ageing grandparents find their new provider role challenging at a time in their lives when they are in dire need of care themselves.

A 2003 study by the development ministry and the University of Malawi noted that 83 percent of the population, particularly in rural areas, “has no form of social protection. They are income insecure. There is therefore a need for a non-contributory pension as a significant component of old age income security.”

The government has launched a poverty-relief scheme, aimed at the poorest 10 percent of households. In Mchinji District, 3,094 people were provided monthly cash transfers that benefited about 14,332 people, in the 2006 pilot.

Most of the recipients were elderly people with young dependents running households with no household members between the ages of 19 and 64. This is a clear indication of the way AIDS has decimated Malawian family structures and burdened the elderly with the task of raising infants.

Who supports the children caught in the cross hairs of this crisis?

http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/aids-africa/projects-by-country/aids-malawi-africa.htm

http://www.quest4change.org/projects/africa-projects/malawi-orphan-and-community-project.html

http://www.underthebaobabtree.org/

http://www.worldcampforkids.org/

All for Africa Board Member and Award-winning actor Jeffrey Wright talks about his involvement with All for Africa. His notable film work includes roles in W, Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Basquiat, Ride with the Devil, Boycott, Lackawanna Blues, Manchurian Candidate, Angels in America, Broken Flowers, Syriana, and, most recently, Cadillac Records. The interview was conducted by Corey Fresh; host of the weekly Radio Show the Big Corey Fresh Show in New York.

Coins of golden sunlight dance on the pale blue waters of Lake Malawi as palm fringe shadows reach over the sandy beach, sheltering the children from the intense heat.
The idyllic bay makes it hard to focus on the fact that we are on a fact-finding mission at the behest of a school that is locked in a constant struggle to shield its students from the debilitating forces of poverty and ignorance in Namaso Bay.

Hundreds of those students had gathered on the beach for a feast that the Patel family had announced to the village a few days ago. The children chattered excitedly as they watched massive pot of their favorite meal being carried out of the kitchen. A swarm of children rushed forward, while the teachers and cook admonished the eager crowd, struggling to maintain order.

Jayashree Patel dissipated the tension by popping a Bollywood album into the music system. Within moments there are dozens of children dancing around her, the hunger in their stomach forgotten for moment, their empty bowls cast aside in favour of moving boisterously to Hindi tunes. She spoke to them in fluent Chechwa, encouraging them to try out their moves, as the food made its way safely to a serving table.
It was her husband who first established the school when we saw groups of children huddled in the shade of a massive baobab tree, day after day, whatever the weather, blistering sun or pouring rain, trying to nourish their hungry minds under the guidance of a single teacher. Now her brother Raj Patel has joined forces with committed professionals like board director Yo Yoshida to embark on what they call “a passionate gesture of goodwill” to continue to support the residents Namaso Bay by bringing back experts in education and income generating enterprises to see how the school can provide the highest grade of opportunity to the community in the most “non-instrusive way.”

Back on the lawn in front of the Patel family lake house, the aroma of beans and seema as the lids come off gargantuan pots, has the children rushing to take their place in line. We are here to meet the students of the Namaso Bay school, but the meeting will have to wait till intestines agitating for their first and only meal of the day are satiated.
The next hour passes in the blur of hundreds of feet shuffling over the grass as a tangle of hands pushes their plates and bowls forward. Anxious eyes follow our hands as we dip into the vats for food, and smiles greet the generous portions we are ladling  out.

Not surprising given that food inflation was running at 8.1 percent, according to Malawi’s National Statistical Office (NSO), making it impossible for most Malawians to consume anything other than what they can grow or catch. The NSO attributed food inflation to a scarcity of maize, the staple food but independent industry reports have pointed out that Malawian maize exports (following a confused estimate of surplus crops) may have exacerbated the shortage. United Nations news wire IRIN reported in January that the country had fallen short of producing the two million tonnes of maize required, annually, to feed its population of over 12 million.
It is no wonder that the children cannot get their minds or eyes off the food on their plates to talk about what they like about going to school. Education is a luxury in a country where starvation determines mortality rates, and prosperity is a tin roof.
“That’s right. A tin roof, it’s not pretty but we are proud to have one,” says a Malawian who has taken on the task of driving us the two hours it takes from Lilongwe to Namaso Bay. “You might like to see the dried grass on top of our homes, but dried grass means animals can live between layers and there is dampness and animal droppings so its unhygienic. When you get a tin roof, that is when your family has made it good.”
Under the Baobab Tree has injected hope into a community that feels like it has been forgotten by the outside world. The NGO built a water tank on top of a boulder to ensure the efficient distribution of water. But it is hard for the people living in abject poverty to widen their horizons and consider the world of opportunity that lies beyond their village in an area that remains unconnected by any kind of public transport.

It is difficult for them to imagine the merits of an education. It is much easier for them to see why one would go fishing. At a parent- teacher meeting, a parent explains the challenge: “When you catch. a fish you feed the family, but everyone asks how will this school help?” How sitting in a classroom, scrawling on notebooks and discussing vague concepts with a teacher will help put food on the table is harder to imagine. A group of parents were eager to make the point that they have noticed an improvement in the children who go to Under the Baobab Tree: “They are polite now and more willing to work hard.”

“Simple things come in the way of helping the children see the future,” said Richard, who was then head teacher at Under the Baobab Tree school, “We are all male teachers so for a female role model I contacted a female police officer I know who promised to come and talk to the class, but she couldn’t because there was no one to bring her, no car, no bus, nothing.”
But the top scorers of the Namaso Bay school know exactly why they are studying. They sit on the grass in the Patel family lawn, excitedly telling us what they want to be when they grow up. All the girls seem to think “nurse” was a good career to aspire to. One drew gasps when she said the word pilot. When we ventured the word “teacher,” we drew confused looks, and the girls responded that this was a man’s job. Richard, the head teacher, said: “We are trying to find female role models but it is hard. They repeat the lessons they see.”
Jayashree plays an important role here, rallying the older girls around her, talking to the youth about the dangers of multiple partners, emphasizing the merits of an education.
“There is a lot of work to be done in terms of education and awareness, unfortunately the girls think that they way to keep a man is to have his baby, so they end up with multiple partners and a lot of children that the grandparents are then expected to care for,” she explains.
From Lilongwe to Namaso Bay to Likomo island, we hear the same narrative: Aids and starvation are an everyday reality in the rural areas of Malawi: for every smiling sibling who stared into our camera lens there seems to have been one that had to be buried.

“There is no concept of crop rotation or food storage or planning. You work in the field, you eat what you harvest, or catch in the lake, and you live today,” sighs Jayashree. “There are three months of certain starvation in many of the surrounding villages.”

The Patel family coordinated with the World Food Program who now provides a breakfast meal of porridge to the children, allowing them to sit through a few hours of class. They held a parent teacher meeting where they offered to give the people cloth if they could organize themselves into groups to stitch the uniforms.
“The idea is to ensure that we are not handing them gifts or charity. We want them to take ownership of the school, and come together to participate in bettering their children’s lives,” explains Raj, who is keen to introduce beading or embroidery workshops as an income generating enterprise for the community.
The sky implodes into a kaliedescopic canvas of reds as a bunch of young boys push a canoe they have spent weeks culling from a tree trunk, into the water. As they balanced their weight to avoid toppling over, the boys’ laughter was the only sound that broke through the pervasive sense of serenity.
A few donors sat watching the idyllic scene unfold as they discussed the development of a volunteer program.
“It’s a lucky volunteer who will wake and sleep to this incredible view of the lake,” commented a donor, as we watched the sun relinquish the sky, with a final, dramatic flourish.
Check out opportunities at Under The Boabab Tree’s volunteer program by visiting their website at:
http://www.underthebaobabtree.org/volunteer.html

Photos by Misengabo E. Kapuadi

Steve Wasira and Busie Matsiko of All for Africa introducing the film ‘Youssou N’Dour: I bring what I Love’ before the screening at the premiere on June 12, 2009 at the Paris Theater in New York.

All For Africa works with communities in Africa secure long-term sustainable revenues for community level initiatives in health, education, clean water, micro-financing, community development and skills training.

Here’s Busie speaking before the screening began.

The film is about Senegalese superstar Youssou N’Dour and the making of his Grammy Award-winning album “Egypt” and its divisive aftermath back home as the forces of conservative and moderate Islam contend to interpret it.

Film’s Director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Grammy Award winning artist and the star of the film Youssou N’Dour

Youssou N’Dour and the Director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi during the post-screening Q&A session

Youssou N’Dour answering a question from the audience during the post-screening Q&A session

Questions were taken from the audience during the film’s post-screening Q&A session

Youssou N’Dour and the Director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi received much applause from the audience

Busie and Youssou N’Dour after the Q&A session

After the screening, the group headed over to the Club AfroPop experience at the Pierre Hotel Lounge on 2 East 61st Street. This event was hosted by All for Africa’s community partner AfroPop Worldwide

Special thanks to everyone who made the film’s premiere a great success.

‘I bring What I love’  continues showing in theaters in New York City at the Paris theater, Village East Cinema and BAM Rose Cinema. For more information and other cities release date visit the film’s official site at www.ibringwhatilove.com

Christian Solidarity International (CSI), along with Talkers Magazine and its political editor Ellen Ratner, took a trip to Southern Sudan and the border of southern Darfur in March 2008. Six broadcasters came on the trip and helped to deliver survival kits (“Sacks of Hope”) to freed slaves and villagers in the area. CSI also took the broadcasters to meet with President Salva Kiir of Southern Sudan, who has been supportive of CSI’s mission in the area. During the trip broadcasters viewed a school in the area built with international assistance that was basically unused. From this stemmed the idea of building basketball courts with accompanying showers and a gathering facility so that villagers could build community spirit, learn and develop proper hygiene, and learn reading skills and simple mathematics. What is clear is the importance of going to school, given the grip of possible starvation, lack of jobs, lack of electricity, and lack of any infrastructure means that a much more creative approach must be taken.

MISSION
CSI is a Christian human rights organization for religious liberty, helping victims of religious repression, victimized children, and victims of disaster. CSI was founded in 1977 in Switzerland by Rev. Hans Stückelberger, following peaceful demonstrations in support of persecuted Christians. CSI’s primary objective is worldwide respect for the God-given right of every human being to choose his or her faith and to practice it, as stipulated in Art. 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As a non-profit, independent organization, CSI cooperates with Christians of all denominations as well as with churches, human rights organizations and the public.

ORIGINS OF CSI’S EFFORTS IN SUDAN
In 1992 CSI took a fact-finding trip to Southern Sudan. For years CSI has been distributing Sacks of Hope survival kits to internally-displaced people. CSI has a full-time field physician in the area, Dr. Luka Deng, and has provided medication and medical supplies as well. Dr. Deng also provides education and prevention services in the area. Despite the current pronouncements of the President of Sudan, CSI has the full support of President Kiir and will not be asked to leave Southern Sudan. CSI is supported by Christians and other people of goodwill, it has a United States affiliate with a Board of Directors. The US affiliate has raised in recent years between $750,000 and $1.5 million per year. CSI-USA is organized as 501(c)(3) not-for-profit.

SCOPE OF PROJECT
The initial scope of this project is four basketball facilities. The first facility will be built in Wanejok, Northern Ba?r al Ghazal Province, Southern Sudan. The second basketball facility will be located in Akon, Northern Ba?r al Ghazal Province, Southern Sudan, near the Senator Samuel Brownback Clinic (which is in current disrepair, and repair of the clinic is part of the project). The other two sites will be determined within the same geographical area.

COSTS
The current costs to build one court and facilities are:
• Bore a hole, including tanks and showers: $15,000
• Latrine: $1,500
• Basketball court with cement and steel rod base: $15,000
• Thatched meeting hall with brick and cement base: $10,000
• Permanent tukul for volunteers: $20,000

Funding for the first court is guaranteed, with other funds being raised in the United States with a challenge grant.

ONGOING COSTS
Ongoing yearly costs will include meals and transportation for volunteers, maintenance, hats, t-shirts, and clothing for participants, literacy materials, health education materials, as well as medicine and program materials. Depending on the size of the program and number of participants, which can have unlimited expansion given the profound need, costs will be starting at $25,000 per year and can be expanded to $100,000 per year.. We expect to raise some of this money through the Palm Oil Trust project of All for Africa.

PROGRAM TEAM
Currently the project team is Dr. Luka Deng, Gunnar Wiebalck, and Dr. John Eibner, all of Christian Solidarity International, Ellen Ratner of Talk Radio News Service, volunteer talk show hosts, and church volunteers from around the USA. Ellen Ratner will also be working with media outlets within the United States to publicize the project as well as to document the project.

TIMELINE
The first facilities will be built by the end of 2009, with an expectation that the three remaining courts will be completed within the following 18 months.

CONSTRUCTION
CSI has a history of constructing facilities using all-local crews, providing a great boost to the local economy. CSI has a record in Southern Sudan for 15 years and has many cooperating agreements with local village leaders as well as appointed and elected officials in Southern Sudan.

Authors : Dr. John Eibner, CSI-USA & Ellen Ratner,Talk Radio News Service

by Djibril Diallo, PhD.Lon.
Senior Advisor to the Executive Director
UNAIDS (the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS)

Africa faces the greatest challenges in trying to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), agreed on by all 192 countries that are Member States of the United Nations, which aim for the elimination of extreme poverty and its causes.

At the mid-point last year in the global effort to attain the MDGs by 2015, many African countries are not on track but have made progress. The proportion of people in sub-Saharan Africa living in extreme poverty fell from 56 per cent in 1990 to 50 per cent in 2005. The region’s total net enrolment ratio in primary education has increased from 58 per cent in 2000 to 71 per cent in 2006, a major achievement.

The MDGs are an ambitious blueprint with eight goals, including

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

Around the world, the United Nations, governments, organizations big and small, and communities are working to attain the MDGs. The efforts of All for Africa have great potential to boost this international campaign.  

Combating AIDS in Africa

Africa is the region hardest hit by HIV/AIDS, which undermines progress toward the other goals. Women now account for almost 60 per cent of those with the disease in the region.

Nonetheless, due to the increasing availability of anti-retroviral drugs, the seemingly inexorable increase in the number of deaths from AIDS each year has leveled off. Access to antiretroviral therapy rose by 42 per cent in 2007 alone — an unprecedented scaling up.

The new Executive Director of UNAIDS, Mr. Michael Sidibe of Mali, has set the top priority of helping countries attain universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010. To reach this target will require mobilization of resources, political will, and public support.

Organizations such as All for Africa can be a part of this effort by including HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention as an integral part of its projects, including steps to end the stigma against people living with the disease. Awareness and prevention are becoming part of “business as usual” for business, schools, organizations, and government agencies. This in turn will bolster efforts to provide treatment, care and support for people living with HIV. Combating AIDS is an investment brings tremendous economic and social returns, and I am proud to be working with UNAIDS to promote universal access.

We must reach out to young people, who are the most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. School and workplace prevention are a foundation for such efforts. However, in my experience, culture and sports, which are “universal languages” are vital avenues for reaching millions of people with life-saving messages.

For example, soccer star Emmanuel Adebayor from Togo has just been named as Goodwill Ambassador for UNAIDS. A star for the Arsenal team in the U.K. and “African Footballer of the Year,” he will use his popularity to raise awareness about the epidemic, including the importance of preventing new infections among young people.

Popular music stars, such as Baba Maal of Senegal, are also using their talents to warn their audiences about the risks posed by the epidemic. For the upcoming World Festival of Black Arts, hosted by Senegal on December 1 to 14, plans are underway for a panel on the role of art and culture in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

These initiatives are all bringing us closer to reversing the epidemic, achieving the MDGs, and putting African development on a fast track.