The Ambassador speaks at the launch of Novo Nordisk programme “Changing Diabetes in Children”

13 April 2017 By admin

APO News from Africa:

The Ambassador speaks at the launch of Novo Nordisk programme “Changing Diabetes in Children”:

Children getting diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in Côte d'Ivoire face a drastic drop in life expectancy. With the launch of Novo Nordisk programme “Changing Diabetes in Children”, the Ministry of Public Health and Hygiene and Novo Nordisk are on a mission to change that.

On the 6th of April 2017, the Danish Ambassador Tove Degnbol was at the University Hospital Treichville in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire on the occasion of the launch of Novo Nordisk programme “Changing Diabetes in Children”. The programme aims at treating 500 children with type 1 diabetes and training 800 healthcare professionals in Côte d'Ivoire.

In collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health and Hygiene and the association “J’aide le diabétique”, Novo Nordisk is providing insulin free of cost, training health care professionals, and establishing 19 centres to improve the treatment of type 1 diabetes in children.

Partnering up to improve services
In front of the crowd of notable leaders and professionals from the health sector, Ambassador Tove Degnbol congratulated the Ministry of Public Health and Hygiene with the partnership. She underlined that there is a need for collaboration between the public and private sector to ensure efficient service delivery and assured that the Embassy of Denmark is ready to facilitate more of these partnerships in the future.

Being a global healthcare company with more than 90 years of innovation and leadership in diabetes care, Novo Nordisk has high ambitions for the “Changing Diabetes in Children”-programme. Mr. Venkat Katalyan, General Manager of Novo Nordisk Middle Africa, stated that the ambition is to have treated 20,000 children globally by 2020 as part of Novo Nordisk’s quest to change diabetes.

Professor Simplice Dagnan N'Cho, Director General of Health, mentioned how children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in Côte d’Ivoire face a life expectancy of between 7 months and 7 years. The collaboration with Novo Nordisk is consequently welcomed warmly and it is the hope that the project can increase the life expectancy of the affected children to 60 years.

In addition to the launch of the “Changing Diabetes in Children”-programme, the occasion was also used for signing a Memorandum of Understanding between Novo Nordisk and the Ministry of Public Health and Hygiene regarding collaboration on the future treatment of diabetes in children in Côte d'Ivoire.

Distributed by APO on behalf of Embassy of Denmark in Ghana.

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Source: APO – Africa-Newsroom: latest news releases related to Africa

Environmental migrations in Ghana and West Africa: ‘France and Europe supports efforts to prevent forced migrations due to degradation of the environment’:

On Tuesday 11th April, the French ambassador François Pujolas opened a capacity building workshop on Migration, Environment and Climate change at the Alisa Hotel in Accra.

It bordered on issues relating to the phenomenon of persons displaced due to natural disasters and environmental degradation more generally, in the Ghanaian and West African context.

As an example it was reminded that the severe 2007 floods in the northern part of Ghana, affected nearly 400 000 people, and caused massive destruction of approximately 200 schools, 45 clinics and about 1000 km of roads. No one knows how many people left the region temporarily or for good.

While the situation in Ghana is particularly sensitive, many countries in Africa and Asia are equally vulnerable to phenomenon like deforestation, land degradation, highly polluting activities – like illegal mining- and overfishing. In his remarks The French Ambassador said: ”France and Europe are keen to support efforts aimed and reduce vulnerability and prevent forced migration due to environmental degradation.”

France has been actively involved in resolving issues relating to migration and climate change for instance supporting the Nansen project. The ambassador therefore called for more environmental protection initiatives akin to the ongoing “Great Green Wall for the Sahara” project that seek to implement natural resource management projects in a concerted and coordinated manner for the improvement of the living conditions of populations. Furthermore France supports the initiative taken by Senegal and Morocco called ‘Sustainability, Security and Stability’. The main goals of this initiative are to:

reduce risk of natural disasters linked to climate change -for example through an efficient early warning system,
develop new activities in rural areas linked to agriculture or eco-tourism,
secure the access to land use by populations.

Distributed by APO on behalf of Embassy of France to Ghana.

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UNICEF Announces First Ever Gala Event in South Africa with Goodwill Ambassador Priyanka Chopra:

On 6 May this year, UNICEF will present its first Gala event in South Africa to engage some of the most respected, high-profile individuals in the country to leverage their support to enhance care and protection of children from violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation.

UNICEF’s inaugural fundraiser at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, in Rosebank, Johannesburg, is a VIP event that will help catalyze further investments for children in need.

This year, UNICEF’s global ‘Ending Violence against Children’ campaign and the visit of UNICEF’s Goodwill Ambassador, Ms. Priyanka Chopra, to South Africa, on 6 May, to highlight the challenges faced by children affected by violence, is providing UNICEF with a unique opportunity to profile our mandate and values that guide our daily work, for every child, in South Africa.

Ms. Priyanka Chopra served as a UNICEF national Ambassador in India for nearly ten years and was recently appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. She is an award-winning actress and currently features in the Hollywood series ‘Quantico’.

The Gala Dinner will be a key public advocacy moment to call on everyone in South Africa to end violence against children and to create circles of care and protection in their homes and communities. While South Africa has made impressive socio-economic progress, these achievements still need to be translated into gains for some of the country’s most vulnerable children.

The event will be moderated by UNICEF South Africa Ambassador Jo-Ann Strauss and will feature a fashion show by renowned designer Gavin Rajah, also a UNICEF South Africa Ambassador. In addition, there will be a live auction where funds raised will go towards the child protection programmes of UNICEF South Africa.

According to Herve Ludovic de Lys, Representative of UNICEF South Africa: “The Convention on the Rights of the Child was the first international treaty signed by the first democratic government of South Africa and, over 20 years later we have collectively learned how to create effective circles of care and protection for children. The urgent matter today is twofold: to put this knowledge into use by enhancing effective child protection approaches; and to support the millions of children trapped in poverty by improving the quality of public expenditures.”

To strengthen the progress made by South Africa in child protection and forge government-led innovative protection services, UNICEF funding relies 100% on voluntary donations. Therefore, proceedings from the annual Gala event will solely benefit children that are vulnerable to adverse socio-economic conditions and particularly those affected by disabilities.
Sponsors of the event include IBV Gold, and the Ryan Trust.

Distributed by APO on behalf of UN Information Centre in Pretoria (UNIC).

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