APO News from Africa:
International Francophonie Day celebrated at the Alliance Française in Accra:
Monday the 20th of March, 2017 was International Francophonie Day and in Ghana, it was marked with the grand finale of the annual Francophonie competition which was followed by a round table discussion on the joys and challenges of working in a cross-cultural setting.
The day commenced with the finals of the nationwide Francophonie competition which capped off several weeks of preparation and selection of students at the University level. There were four finalists from three universities for this year’s grand finale held under the high patronage of the French Ambassador, the Head of Cooperation at the French embassy and the Director of Alliance Française. The finalists had to demonstrate their proficiency in French language and their knowledge of general Francophone culture through a variety of word and vocabulary games, oral expression and MCQs. During a breather, students from the Mount Mary College of Education performed French songs, poetry and plays much to the delight of an audience made up of representatives from the Ministry of Education, educational institutions, civil society institutions as well as students of the French language.
The announcement of the results of the competition could not come soon enough for the candidates who were waiting with bated breath; but at the end of proceedings, it was Kamba Kombat of the University of Education, Winneba, who emerged tops, whisking away the grand prize of a two-week stay in France. In second and third place were Nana Yaa Aboagye and Esther Biney respectively, both from the University of Cape Coast, whereas the prize for fourth place went to Seyram Gawu of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
Prizes were also awarded to winners of the senior high school category. The day before, the final competition between the 10 best French high school students (1 representing each region) had been organized by the CREF network (Regional Centers for the teaching of French) with the support of the French Embassy. A laptop, tablets, cell phones, books and dictionaries were given out among winners and participants. All of them, teachers included, received a bag, a t-shirt and a notebook branded “Et en plus je parle français!” (What’s more I speak French!) The award of these prizes would never have been possible without the support of the French Embassy, the Consulate of Belgium, the Canadian High Commission, Sam-Woode Ltd., Café Mundo and Fanmilk Ltd.
The French Ambassador François Pujolas was full of praise for the zeal and enthusiasm exhibited by all the participants and their teachers. This, he said inspired confidence of a glowing future for the French language here in Ghana.
The second part of the event featured a panel discussion drawing on the experiences of four illustrious personalities to address the topic “what people from Anglophone countries should expect when working in a Francophone setting”. The panelists were Mrs. Maa Adoma Afoakwa, a Business Development Officer with Cirrus Oil Services Ltd., Mr. Jean-Pierre Diassouka, Founder and CEO of DIAS Consulting, Mrs. Delphine Adenot-Owusu, Head of France Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Mr. Samuel Owusu-Baafi, Communications Head at the West Africa Civil Society Institute.
The forum centered on the cheers and challenges involved in adapting to a different cultural working environment with specific focus on the Anglophone to Francophone transition. Panelists shared in great detail the differences observed in their experiences with both Francophone and Anglophone working environments. The Cooperation Attaché for French language at the French Embassy Julie Fournier-Angelo, who was also the moderator for the forum, encouraged participants to make the best use of the opportunity of being bilingual. According to her, a foreign language “gives you access to the foreign culture and through the culture, you understand how others work”. The audience also had the opportunity to contribute and ask questions as to how to practically adapt to the francophone working world.
The term “Francophonie” refers to all of the states and governments worldwide who share the French language. The International Organisation of La Francophonie, created in 1970, represents one of the biggest linguistic zones in the world. Its mission is to embody the active solidarity between its 84 member states and governments (58 members and 26 observers), which together represent over one-third of the United Nations’ member states and account for a population of over 890 million people, including 274 million French speakers.
Distributed by APO on behalf of Embassy of France to Ghana.
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School-going TB patients speak out on crisis in adolescent TB healthcare:
As a group of Khayelitsha schoolchildren living with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) today unveils an artwork commemorating their battles against the disease, the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warns that adolescents are being fatally neglected in the response to TB and DR-TB in South Africa, and calls on the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to expedite plans to implement school-based TB education and TB screening in collaboration with the Department of Health (DOH).
Medical staff who work in the MSF DR-TB projects in Khayelitsha, Western Cape, and King Cetshwayo District, KwaZulu-Natal, have spoken of critical gaps in the country’s response, including low TB literacy, too few TB screening opportunities, difficulties identifying adolescents who have been exposed to DR-TB and linking them to diagnosis, and limited access to better, more tolerable DR-TB treatments. Consequently this underdiagnosed population misses the opportunity to realise improved treatment outcomes.
According to Dr. Jenny Hughes, MSF’s TB doctor in Khayelitsha, ‘an estimated 10% (of approximately 650’000 cases of DR-TB worldwide) occur among children and adolescents, and although young people respond well to treatment, thousands die from this disease each year, largely due to lack of access to improved diagnostic techniques and more tolerable treatment for young people. South Africa is no exception.’
The country’s new National Strategic Plan for HIV, TB and STIs (2017-2022) recommends providing health services such as TB screening in schools, although this much-needed activity is likely to stall until the Department of Basic Education finalizes and implements its 2015 Draft Policy on HIV, STIs and TB. MSF calls on the DBE to have this strategy approved without further delay.
After-hours strategies are also required for tracing adolescents who have been in contact with TB and DR-TB patients, and linking them to diagnostic and treatment services. Upward of 50% of all DR-TB cases in Khayelitsha are due to direct transmission of already drug-resistant strains. In South Africa, a strategic focus on tracing children under age 5 may have led to other vulnerable populations being neglected, including adolescents.
“Adolescents are usually at school during the daytime when health department officials do TB screening in households. Those who do get screened and referred to clinics for diagnosis find queues that keep them out of school for hours, so many turn away. So on the one hand we need wider screening for TB in schools, and on the other we need youth-friendly facilities with after-hours services,” says Xoliswa Harmans, a DR-TB counsellor at MSF Khayelitsha.
17 year old Sinethemba Kuse was diagnosed late, just days before Christmas in 2015, and later found that her TB strain was drug resistant (DR-TB).
“I didn’t know about TB. Nobody ever talked about it in school and I didn’t know that I could go to my local clinic to have a TB screening,” says Kuse, who is the subject of the portrait that will be unveiled on World TB Day.
Once diagnosed with DR-TB adolescents must face the same harsh treatment regimen that is used for adults, which includes a painful daily injection for months and side effects of the medications that can have catastrophic consequences for their growth and development.
“Studies conducted in the Western Cape show that up to 24% of children and adolescents on the injectable DR-TB agent that is currently in standard use develops hearing loss, which obviously impacts everything from schoolwork to social life. More tolerable treatments substituting an injectable agent with promising new medicines like delamanid are urgently required in order to make treatment more tolerable and also improve adolescent treatment outcomes,’ says Dr Hughes.
On World TB Day MSF will join a list of signatories on an open letter to delamanid manufacturer Otsuka, calling on the Japanese pharmaceutical company to urgently make this important new drug more widely available.
Kuse is one of the first South Africans under the age of 18 to have been initiated on delamanid, which is currently only available to approximately 1% of those in need of the drug. She is doing very well and her doctors expect she will be cured this year. Kuse says she agreed to sit for the portrait because she wants other youth to know that TB can be cured. Prints of the 2m tall artwork will be presented to select clinics and schools in Khayelitsha, along with Kuse’s story. The piece was created by local artist Claude Chandler, using word stamps made by Kuse and other adolescent DR-TB patients. The patients were asked to think of a word that expressed their experience of living with DR-TB. Kuse’s word was ‘hope’.
Distributed by APO on behalf of Médecins sans frontières (MSF).
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Security Council and region must ‘speak with one voice,’ end suffering in South Sudan – UN chief:
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today stressed the need for the leadership of South Sudan to achieve an immediate cessation of hostilities, restore the peace process and ensure unrestricted humanitarian access in order to pull the world’s youngest country back from the abyss, and back from a widening famine.
“All the optimism that accompanied the birth of South Sudan has been shattered by internal divisions, rivalries and the irresponsible behaviour of some of its leaders,” Mr. Guterres said during a Security Council briefing.
“As a result, a country that had seen a brief glimmer of hope for a better future has plunged back into darkness. We have to do everything in our power to change this,” he stressed.
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 but a political face-off between President Salva Kiir and First Vice-President Riek Machar plunged the country into full blown conflict in December 2013.
Providing a detailed overview, Mr. Guterres said civilians continue to be subjected to horrendous attacks, including rape and the recruitment of children. More than 1.9 million people are displaced internally, more than 220,000 of whom are seeking safety in protection sites of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). Some 1.6 million people have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.
“The humanitarian crisis continues to deepen. One hundred thousand people are enduring famine, one million are on the verge of that fate, and 5.5 million may be severely food insecure by this summer,” he explained.
Moreover at least 7.5 million people across South Sudan – almost two thirds of the population – need humanitarian assistance. Three years of conflict have eroded livelihoods and disrupted farming, including in the Equatorias, the country’s breadbasket.
The UN chief also said that violence has spread to include previously stable areas of northern Jonglei.
Noting that the peace process remains at a standstill, Mr. Guterres said that Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous, who returned yesterday from a trip to South Sudan, emphasized the critical importance of an inclusive political process in ensuring the well-being of the country’s people.
Mr. Guterres warned that despite the alarm sounded by the UN and the international community over this crisis, the Government has yet to express any meaningful concern or take any tangible steps to address the plight of its people.
“On the contrary, what we hear most often are denials – a refusal by the leadership to even acknowledge the crisis or to fulfil its responsibility to end it,” he said.
Mr. Guterres underscored the need to ensure unrestricted humanitarian access, including freedom of movement for UNMISS and a future Regional Protection Force, which was authorized by the Security Council in August 2016.
“But no such force, and no amount of diplomacy, can substitute for the lack of political will among those who govern the country,” emphasized Mr. Guterres, noting that there is a strong consensus that South Sudanese leaders need to do more to demonstrate their commitment to the well-being of the country’s people, who are among the poorest in the world.
“If there is to be any hope of those leaders changing their current calculations, greater pressure is needed. This means first and foremost that the region and the Security Council must speak with one voice,” he stated.
He also warned that the dangers of South Sudan’s trajectory should not be underestimated. “Atrocity crimes have occurred with impunity, and the potential for serious deterioration remains very real. Credible mechanisms for accountability are a must,” he said.
Distributed by APO on behalf of United Nations (UN).
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