(MissionNewswire) Salesian Missions joins the United Nations and other organizations around the globe in recognizing Universal Children’s Day. Celebrated each year on November 20, the day was established in 1954 to promote international togetherness and awareness on children’s issues worldwide. It also marks the day on which the Declaration of the Rights of the Child was adopted in 1959 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child was held in 1989.

The theme of Universal Children’s Day 2015 is “Promoting children’s welfare and children’s rights” and focuses on protecting and promoting children’s rights to survive and thrive while making sure their voices are heard and they reach their full potential.

“This year, I wish to emphasize the importance of ensuring that the commitments made by the international community to the world’s children are extended to a group of children who are often forgotten or overlooked: those deprived of their liberty. Far too many children languish in jail, mental health facilities or through other forms of detention. Some children are vulnerable because they are migrants, asylum seekers, homeless or preyed on by organized criminals. Whatever the circumstances, the Convention dictates that the deprivation of liberty must be a measure of last resort, and for the shortest time. Our aim must be to pursue the best interests of the child, prevent the deprivation of liberty and promote alternatives to detention.” – UN Secretary General Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The UN notes that this year’s observance falls at a time when 60 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes, more than at any time since the Second World War. Almost half of those displaced are children fleeing oppression, terrorism, violence and other violations of their human rights. This observance also comes following the landmark adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which points the way towards peaceful, prosperous and inclusive societies for all. Achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals will depend on reaching the most vulnerable children.

Salesian Missions serves more than 1 million students at more than 5,300 primary and secondary schools — most located in some of the poorest places on the planet. It also provides nearly 1,000 vocational, pre-professional and training programs with an emphasis on serving vulnerable youth.

In honor of Universal Children’s Day, Salesian Missions is proud to highlight programs that focus on children’s rights education and provide for the protection, education and promotion of children’s welfare around the globe.

BENIN

Salesian missionaries around the globe are working to end child trafficking and other abuses by addressing their root causes. From identifying traffickers and holding them accountable to educating families about these predatory practices, missionaries are working to change local laws and strengthen legal protections for youth. Child victims of trafficking are forced into all types of labor including work on farms and in sweatshops, construction, hotels and restaurants as well as in private homes as domestic servants. Some are forced to beg on the streets and are used as child soldiers. Others are sold into sexual slavery and forced into prostitution. In Benin, a country in West Africa, Salesian missionaries are focusing their work on providing hope and healing to victims of child trafficking. The Don Bosco Center in Porto-Novo, the capital city of Benin, cares for more than 200 victims of child trafficking, many who have been sold into slavery by their parents for the equivalent of $30 or less. Nearly 40,000 girls and boys are forced into agricultural or domestic labor each year within the country of Benin alone.

More stories about the work of Salesian missionaries in Benin >

CAMBODIA

In a country where less than half of children finish primary school, more than 50,000 children have received the encouragement and support needed to complete an elementary education through the Don Bosco Children Fund since its inception in 1992. The Don Bosco Children Fund assists poor youth between the ages of 6 and 15 who are either unable to go to school or have had to drop out due to poverty. Through the fund’s program, youth not only receive support to continue their education, they also receive a monthly assistance package consisting of goods and cash. Social workers ensure that participants make progress and remain in school and those with special aptitude are further supported and encouraged to pursue college coursework. During the 2013-2014 school year, the Don Bosco Children Fund supported 4,426 students in Cambodia’s government-run schools and another 637 students in schools managed by Don Bosco Schools Battambang.

More stories about the work of Salesian missionaries in Cambodia >

INDIA

The Child Rights Education and Action Movement Project, launched in November 2012 by the Salesian-run Bangalore Rural Educational and Development Society, has started more than 200 child right’s clubs that are responsible for training more than 8,000 children and adults on the rights of children while providing resources to keep children safe. Child Rights Education and Action Movement Project staff have also provided human rights education in schools for thousands of children, youth and teachers as well as formed task forces, peer education programs and three regional networks and one state level network to address the issues of child labor. Early this year, 140 school children representing 63 human rights clubs from 55 schools participated in a two-day event in collaboration with juvenile justice professionals from the police and courts in the Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts of Andhra Pradesh. The event focused on the children’s right to be heard, a basic right established in India’s Convention on the Rights of the Child.

More stories about the work of Salesian missionaries in India >

SIERRA LEONE

In 2014, Don Bosco Fambul, a leading educational and vocational organization that serves disadvantaged youth in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in collaboration with Catholic Caritas and Sierra Leone Prisons Service, launched the Legal Support Project with the intention of helping the most disadvantaged inmates incarcerated at Pademba Road Prison in Freetown. The project provides legal representation for poor inmates who would otherwise be unable to access legal services to ensure their rights are upheld. As a result of this project, one young prisoner held for nearly six years without a conviction has been released. Many of the prisoners being assisted through the project do not have family outside the prison to ensure that the court and prison system acts in a fair and balanced way. Don Bosco Fambul hopes the project will free up to 100 inmates who have been held for more than three years without a conviction.

More stories about the work of Salesian missionaries in Sierra Leone >

Sources:

UNICEF -Press Release

UNICEF report – For every child, a fair chance: The promise of equity

United Nations – Universal Children’s Day

N’Djamena, 23 November 2015 – Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno has called on African countries to demonstrate more active solidarity to provide appropriate responses to the many health challenges facing the Region.

In a speech read on his behalf by Prime Minister of the Republic of Chad, His Excellency Kalzeube Payimi Deubet, at the opening ceremony of the 65th Session of the WHO Regional Committee taking place in N’Djamena, he noted that the global financial crisis that hit international institutions, including WHO, requires all members states in the region to honor their obligations. The Prime Minister used the opportunity to announce "Chad's willingness to honor all firm commitments with respect to special funds and participation in statutory contributions of the Organization".

He mentioned some major initiatives introduced by His Excellency the President of the Republic Chad to improve the health status of the Chadian people. These include strengthening the health care delivery through the provision of adequate health facilities throughout the country; training and motivation of health workers; and improving accessibility for all to health care and medicines.

He reminded the delegates that the people of Africa expect a lot from the current session of the WHO Regional Committee. “I urge all delegates to discuss with a lot of objectivity, rigor and relevance as you examine issues brought to your attention so that the resolutions and recommendations of your work really benefit our countries, " he concluded.

In her remarks, the WHO Director-General, Dr Margaret Chan commended Member States for the progress made towards polio eradication in the Region. Since the past year, no child in the Region has been paralysed by the wild polio virus. She however cautioned that this triumph over the disease is not secure and stressed the importance of maintaining high immunization coverage and intense surveillance.

Referring to the Ebola virus disease outbreak, the Director-General noted that the disease put a spotlight on some of the worst things that can happen when health systems and infrastructure are weak or broken. She urged countries in the Region to partake in opportunities offered by ongoing initiatives to develop International Health Regulations (IHR) capacities, improve surveillance and strengthen laboratory capacities.

The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, told the delegates that the Ebola epidemic is almost at its end. She said many lessons have been learnt in the response to the epidemic including the need for strong and functional health systems for timely detection and notification and for a quick and effective response to prevent further spread of the diseases. She also stressed the importance of community leadership, ownership and engagement. “Improved global mechanism for rapid response to major epidemics through effective global coordination is critical for any public health event of international concern,” she emphasized.

Dr Moeti reminded delegates that as countries work towards the Sustainable Development Goals, there is the need to address the social and environmental determinants as well as to explicitly focus on equity. “This will require broad collaboration among different actors in countries - government, civil society, international development partners, the private sector and philanthropy,” she said.

In a report on the work of WHO in the Region during the past biennium, the Regional Director indicated that the pace of introduction of new vaccines has been sustained. All countries in the Region have introduced vaccines against hepatitis B and haemophilus influenza Type B in all 47 member countries. Thirty five countries introduced the Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine while 26 introduced the rotavirus vaccine in their routine EPI programs. To minimize the risk of meningitis epidemics, more than 64 million people were vaccinated against type A meningococcal meningitis between December 2014 and September 2015.

There was a 56% decline in the number of AIDS-related deaths between 2005 and 2014. In 2014, 22 countries in the Region recorded declines of more than 50% in AIDS related deaths, compared to 2005. An additional 1.7 million people living with HIV were initiated on antiretroviral therapy in 2014, bringing the total number of persons on ART in the Region to over 10 million.

Dr Moeti stated that since she assumed office last year, she has embarked on an ambitious program to transform the WHO Secretariat in the African region into an effective, responsive accountable and results driven organization.

The Regional Committee, WHO's Governing Body in the African Region, is made up of Health Ministers from the 47 countries which constitute the African Region of WHO. Its principal brief is to review WHO's work in the Region and provide guidance on suggested actions to improve the health situation in Member States. Ministers of Finance from some Member States are also attending the meeting.

Regional Committee contacts:

Dr Joseph Cabore, Director of Programme Management; Tel: +47 24139342; Email: caborej@who.int Collins Boakye-Agyemang, Regional Communications Adviser; Tel: + 242 06 520 6565; Email: boakyeagyemangc@who.int Joana Teixeira, Communications officer, Email: Teixeiram@who.int Jonas Naissem, Communications Officer in Chad; Tel: +235 52 3805; Email: naissemj@who.int

Panel convened by Harvard Global Health Institute and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine issues hard-hitting analysis of the global response to Ebola

An independent group of 19 experts from around the globe, convened by the Harvard Global Health Institute (HGHI) and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, has issued a hard-hitting analysis of the global response to the 2014-15 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet.

The report offers 10 major reform proposals to prevent future such catastrophes, with emphasis on: preventing major disease outbreaks; responding to outbreaks; the production and sharing of research data, knowledge, and technologies; and ways to improve the governance of the global health system, with a focus on the World Health Organization (WHO).

The members of the Harvard Global Health Institute-London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Independent Panel on the Global Response to Ebola concluded that while the 2014-15 Ebola outbreak “engendered acts of outstanding courage and solidarity,” it also caused “immense human suffering, fear and chaos, largely unchecked by high level political leadership or reliable and rapid institutional responses.” Panel members come from academic institutions, think tanks and civil society, with expertise in Ebola, disease outbreaks, public and global health, international law, development and humanitarian assistance, and national and global governance.

The Panel is chaired by Professor Peter Piot, Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and co-discoverer of the Ebola virus. Professor Piot said: “We need to strengthen core capacities in all countries to detect, report and respond rapidly to small outbreaks, in order to prevent them from becoming large-scale emergencies. Major reform of national and global systems to respond to epidemics are not only feasible, but also essential so that we do not witness such depths of suffering, death and social and economic havoc in future epidemics. The AIDS pandemic put global health on the world's agenda. The Ebola crisis in West Africa should now be an equal game changer for how the world prevents and responds to epidemics.”

In addition to over 11,000 deaths from Ebola, the epidemic “brought national health systems to a halt, rolled back hard-won social and economic gains in a region recovering from civil wars, sparked worldwide panic, and cost several billion dollars in short-term control efforts and economic losses.”

“The most egregious failure was by WHO in the delay in sounding the alarm,” said Ashish K. Jha, Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, K.T. Li Professor of International Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard Chan) and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “People at WHO were aware that there was an Ebola outbreak that was getting out of control by spring…and yet, it took until August to declare a public health emergency. The cost of the delay was enormous,” said Jha.

The report’s 10 recommendations provide a roadmap to strengthen the global system for outbreak prevention and response:

1. Develop a global strategy to invest in, monitor and sustain national core capacities

2. Strengthen incentives for early reporting of outbreaks and science-based justifications for trade and travel restrictions

3. Create a unified WHO Center with clear responsibility, adequate capacity, and strong lines of accountability for outbreak response

4. Broaden responsibility for emergency declarations to a transparent, politically-protected Standing Emergency Committee

5. Institutionalize accountability through an independent commission for disease outbreak prevention and response

6. Develop a framework of rules to enable, govern and ensure access to the benefits of research

7. Establish a global fund to finance, accelerate and prioritize R&D

8. Sustain high-level political attention through a Global Health Committee of the Security Council

9. A new deal for a more focused, appropriately-financed WHO

10. Good governance of WHO through decisive, timebound reform and assertive leadership

The Harvard and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine teams felt strongly that an independent analysis from academic and civil society voices should inform the public debate, in addition to other planned official reviews of the global response.

According to Liberian Panel member Mosoka Fallah, Ph.D., MPH, of Action Contre La Faim International (ACF). “The human misery and deaths from the Ebola epidemic in West Africa demand a team of independent thinkers to serve as a mirror of reflection on how and why the global response to the greatest Ebola calamity in human history was late, feeble and uncoordinated. The threats of infectious disease anywhere is the threat of infectious disease everywhere,” Fallah said. “The world has become one big village.”

“We gathered world-class experts and asked, how can we bolster the dangerously fragile global system for outbreak response?” said the Panel's Study Director, Suerie Moon, MPA, PhD of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Kennedy School. “Now, the billion-dollar question is whether political leaders will demand the difficult but necessary reforms needed before the next pandemic. In other words, will Ebola change the game?”

“There is a high risk that we will fail to learn our lessons,” said the Harvard Global Health Institute’s Ashish Jha. “We’ve had big outbreaks before and even careful reviews after, but often the world gets distracted. We owe it to the more than 11,000 people who died in West Africa to see that that doesn’t happen this time.”

This page tracks Ebola resource flows (including monetized in-kind contributions where available) totaling US$1 million or more from multilateral and bilateral institutions and some foundations. Data is captured from government and other official websites and from communication with key officials within development partner agencies. Data is updated on a monthly basis. Pledges are a non-binding announcement of an intended contribution or allocation by the donor.

On 7 November, the World Health Organisation declared that Sierra Leone is officially Ebola-free for the first time in over a year. We are inclined to celebrate this by urging people not to celebrate too much.

The biggest lesson we have learned with Ebola is that it will return, and we have to be prepared for – and prevent – the next epidemic. That’s why we have just launched an important new Ebola vaccine trial in Sierra Leone, and it’s why we strongly support the many other vaccine trials that are under way in west Africa.

Since history’s worst Ebola epidemic began in rural Guinea in December 2013, it has killed more than 11,300 people worldwide, devastating communities and families, and leaving behind a generation of Ebola orphans. Health systems in the affected countries have been severely damaged, resulting in even more deaths from preventable diseases such as measles and malaria. Ebola has also set back economies across west Africa, and cost the countries and the world billions of dollars in humanitarian aid.

Read the story on the Guardian

Freetown, Nov. 23, 2015 (MOHS) – The distribution of Free Health Care medicines across the country covering 1,209 peripheral health units and 23 government hospitals starts on November 23, 2015 for all 13 districts in the country. The distribution incorporates over 200 products including life-saving commodities.

Addressing a press briefing at the Central Medical Stores, New England in Freetown, the Director of Drugs and Medical Supplies, Mr. Bassie Turay noted the significant role played by the media in previous distributions, and during the launch of the Free Health Care in April 2010, and appealed for more support in monitoring the utilization in all health facilities.

The process he said is being conducted by the Ministry of Health and the National Pharmaceutical Procurement Unit (NPPU) with the participation of key stakeholders representing the Police, Office of the National Security (ONS), Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Civil Societies and health development partners. The first trucks are scheduled to leave Freetown for the district on November 23, 2015 with completion of distribution to the health facilities in December 2015. Next distribution starts in February 2016.

The Director of Drugs and Medical Supplies, Mr. Bassie Turay reiterated government’s continued commitment to ensure that beneficiaries of the Free Health Care Initiative: Pregnant women, lactating mothers, and children under five years continue to get the deserving treatment. He maintained the sustainability of services in all health facilities in the 13 districts. The sustainability of the free health care programme, Mr. Turay said is key in the government’s Nine Months Recovery Programme within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

He expressed appreciation over the growing high accessibility of pregnant women, lactating mothers and the under-fives in the government health facilities noting the drop during the height of the Ebola crisis.

Making the briefing, the Managing Director, NPPU, Mr. Michael Jack Lansana said one of the NPPU’s mandate and major responsibilities is to deliver drugs and medical supplies needed to support the National Free Health Care Initiative to improve access to health care for the beneficiaries, disclosing that the current consignment is the 4th quarter distribution for 2015.

One key improvement that has been refined over the last three distributions he told the press, is the move to an informed push system which incorporates direct requests and feedback from District Health Management Teams and public hospitals. This initiative and transition to an informed push system is an important milestone for the progression of the national supply chain system, opined Jack Lansana.

The quantification and procurement process the Managing Director disclosed was coordinated with key donors like USAID and DFID along-side technical support from other partners UNICEF, CAIPA and MSH. The Ministry of Health, NPPU and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development have been working relentlessly to ensure that all current issues are addressed and these types of issues mitigated for posterity.

Other update include the process to explore improvements from paper to electronic reporting for more accurate and timely information on common usage, computer-based system for managing commodities, and improved electronic logistics management system. Storage facility he said remains a major problem.

The briefing was chaired by the Public Relations Officer, Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Jonathan Abass Kamara.

JAK/KK/MOHS/SLENA

CAMEROUN

4 TUES DANS UN ATTENTAT-SUICIDE

Le 21 novembre, un attentat-suicide mené par quatre assaillants a tué quatre personnes dans la ville de Fotokol près de la frontière avec le Nigeria. Le groupe Boko Haram est soupçonné d'être à l’origine de l'attaque, la dernière d'une série d'attentats-suicides dans la région de l'Extrême Nord du Cameroun depuis juillet.

REPUBLIQUE CENTRAFRICAINE (RCA)

L’INSECURITE PERSISTE A BATANGAFO

Suite à des attaques armées le 10 novembre l'insécurité persiste dans la localité de Batangafo à l’ouest du pays. Cependant, la majorité des personnes déplacées internes dont les abris ont été incendiés pendant les violences sont retournées sur leurs sites de déplacement. Une équipe du CICR évalue la capacité des ONG nationales à fournir une assistance en eau, assainissement et hygiène (WASH) à la population affectée.

TCHAD

L’ETAT D’URGENCE PROLONGE DE QUATRE MOIS

Le 18 novembre, le parlement Tchadien a voté en faveur d’une prolongation de l'état d'urgence de quatre mois dans la région du Lac, jusqu'au 2 mars 2016. Celui-ci a été déclaré après les dernières attaques présumées de Boko Haram le 8 novembre dans la localité de Ngouboua. Il donne, entre autres, les pouvoirs au gouverneur de la région d'interdire la circulation des personnes et des véhicules, de mener des perquisitions, de saisir des armes et de contrôler les médias.

MALI

22 TUES DANS UN ATTENTAT

Des hommes armés ont pris d'assaut l'hôtel Radisson Blu à Bamako le 20 novembre, tuant au moins 22 personnes. Environ 170 personnes se trouvaient à l'hôtel au moment de l'attaque. Le Président de la République Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta a déclaré un état d’urgence de 10 jours, permettant aux autorités de mener des perquisitions sans mandat et d’interdire les rassemblements publics ou les manifestations. Trois jours de deuil ont également été déclarés.

NIGERIA

UN RAID ET DES ATTENTATS-SUICIDES FONT 61 MORTS

Une série d'explosions et d'attaques ont tué au moins 61 personnes dans le nord du pays la semaine passée. Le 17 novembre, une explosion dans un marché de Yola, la capitale de l’état d'Adamawa, a tué 32 personnes et en a blessé plus de 80. Dans la ville de Kano, au Nord, le 18 novembre au moins 14 personnes ont été tuées lorsque deux kamikazes ont frappé un marché de téléphones portables. Le 20 novembre, un raid mené par des hommes armés soupçonnés de Boko Haram a fait sept morts dans l'état de Yobe. A Maiduguri, huit personnes sont mortes dans un attentat-suicide le 22 novembre.

MVE REGIONAL

REAPPARITION DU VIRUS AU LIBERIA, PREMIER DECES

Un nouveau cas d'Ebola, un garçon de 10 ans, a été confirmé au Libéria qui avait été déclaré exempt du virus le 3 septembre dernier pour la deuxième fois. Il est mort le 23 novembre, quatre jours après un contrôle positif. Il s’agit du premier décès lié au virus Ebola au Libéria depuis le mois de juillet. Le père et le frère du garçon sont également traités pour le virus. 158 contacts sont sous surveillance. La Guinée et la Sierra Leone n’ont signalé aucun cas.

Highlights

• On 23 November in Liberia, a 15-year-old boy who was diagnosed with Ebola died four days after being tested positive. His brother and father were also tested positive and are receiving treatment at an Ebola treatment unit in Monrovia.

• Ebola virus transmission was declared over in Sierra Leone on 7 November.

• In Guinea, the last patient with EVD tested negative for the second time on 16 November.

• The UN Special Envoy on Ebola released the Overview of Needs and Requirements III.

• WHO has updated the surveillance strategy for Phase 3 of the Ebola response.

• In Liberia, more than 1,300 health care workers participated in the Integrated Disease Surveillance Reporting (IDSR) county roll-out to develop knowledge and capacity to detect, report and respond to epidemic-prone diseases.

• In view of educating people about the need for continued vigilance and de-stigmatization of Ebola survivors,
  IOM has started producing a mini-series on television with the National Guinean Theater Association.

Epidemiological status

• On 23 November in Liberia, a 15-year-old boy who was diagnosed with Ebola died four days after being tested positive. His brother and father were also tested positive and are receiving treatment at an Ebola treatment unit in Monrovia.

• Investigations into the possible source of infection are ongoing. As of 21 November, 158 contacts have been identified, including 10 health care workers at high risk. All contacts are being monitored. These are the first new Ebola cases in Liberia since the country was declared free from the disease a second time on 3 September 2015.

• Ebola virus transmission was declared over in Sierra Leone on 7 November, following 42 days with no new cases.

• In Guinea, the last patient with EVD, a baby born to an EVD-positive mother and confirmed to have EVD on 29 October, tested negative for the second time on 16 November. As the baby was born in an Ebola treatment centre, she is considered to have no contacts. The last 69 contacts in Guinea, including 60 high risk contacts, that were followed up in Forécariah, completed their 21-day follow-up period on 14 November.

L'essentiel

• Poursuite des précipitations à l’ouest de la région avec le risque de perte de production par pourrissement des cultures déjà récoltées.
  
• Plus de 300 000 personnes affectées par les inondations dans la région.
  - Légère hausse de l’indice FAO des prix des produits alimentaires.
  - Détérioration de la sécurité alimentaire dans les régions nord du Mali.
  

Le mois d’octobre est marqué par la réduction des précipitations dans la région indiquant la fin de la principale saison des pluies à travers l’Afrique de l’Ouest et le Sahel. Des déficits pluviométriques sont toujours observés dans les parties sud des pays du golfe de Guinée (Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Bénin, Nigeria) et au Tchad. Au niveau de la région, les cultures sont en général au stade de maturation et les premières récoltes sont en cours.

La situation alimentaire du bétail est caractérisée par un bon développement et une régénérescence du couvert végétal à l’exception du centre du Tchad, en Guinée Bissau, au nord du Sénégal et dans le sud de la Mauritanie. L’état d’embonpoint des animaux est globalement bon.

Avec des prévisions positives pour la récolte, les prix des céréales secondaires sont restés stables en septembre au Burkina Faso, au Mali et au Niger, après deux mois consécutifs de baisse.

Chez les ménages producteurs de cajou en Guinée Bissau, plus de la moitié de ceux qui exploitent moins d’un hectare sont en insécurité alimentaire.

La situation alimentaire s’est davantage détériorée dans les régions nord du Mali. En Mauritanie, la bonne pluviométrie et un développement normal des pâturages et des cultures pluviales offriront aux ménages pauvres une disponibilité alimentaire meilleure que celle de 2014, excepté les zones ayant connu un retard d’installation des pluies comme dans les régions sud-ouest du pays (Gorgol, Trarza et Brakna).

SUMMARY

• A cluster of three confirmed cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) were reported from Liberia in the week to 22 November. The first-reported case was a 15-year-old boy who tested positive for EVD after admission to a health facility in the Greater Monrovia area on 19 November. He was then transferred to an Ebola treatment centre along with the 5 other members of his family. Two other members of the family – the boy’s 8-year old brother and his 40-year-old father – subsequently tested positive whilst in isolation. In addition to the family, 149 contacts have been identified so far, including 10 health workers who had close contact with the 15-yearold prior to isolation. Investigations to establish the origin of infection are at an early stage. Liberia was previously declared free of Ebola transmission on 3 September 2015.

• On 7 November WHO declared that Sierra Leone had achieved objective 1 of the phase 3 framework, and the country has now entered a 90-day period of enhanced surveillance scheduled to conclude on 5 February 2016.
  As of 22 November it had been 6 days since the last EVD patient in Guinea received a second consecutive EVDnegative blood test. The last case in Guinea was reported on 29 October 2015.

• The recent cases in Liberia underscore the importance of robust surveillance measures to ensure the rapid detection of any reintroduction or re-emergence of EVD in currently unaffected areas. In order to achieve objective 2 of the phase 3 response framework – to manage and respond to the consequences of residual Ebola risks – Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone have each put surveillance systems in place to enable health workers and members of the public to report any case of illness or death that they suspect may be related to EVD to the relevant authorities. In the week to 22 November, 29 176 such alerts were reported in Guinea, with alerts reported from all of the country’s 34 prefectures. Equivalent data are not currently available for Liberia.
  In Sierra Leone, 1420 alerts were reported from 14 of 14 districts in the week ending 15 November (the most recent week for which data are available).

• As part of each country’s EVD surveillance strategy, blood samples or oral swabs should be collected from any live or deceased individuals who have or had clinical symptoms compatible with EVD. In the week to 22 November, 9 operational laboratories in Guinea tested a total of 670 new and repeat samples from 16 of the country’s 34 prefectures. 85% of all samples tested in Guinea were swabs collected from dead bodies. By contrast, 82% of the 930 new and repeat samples tested in Liberia over the same period were blood samples collected from live patients. In addition, all 15 counties in Liberia submitted samples for testing by the country’s 4 operational laboratories. 1240 new samples were collected from all 14 districts in Sierra Leone and tested by 8 operational laboratories. 92% of samples in Sierra Leone were swabs collected from dead bodies.

• 793 deaths in the community were reported from Guinea in the week to 22 November through the country’s alerts system. This represents approximately 35% of the 2248 community deaths expected based on estimates of the population and a crude mortality rate of 11 deaths per 1000 people per year. Equivalent data are not yet available for Liberia. In Sierra Leone, 1282 reports of community deaths were received through the alert system during the week ending 15 November (the most recent week for which data are available), representing approximately 62% of the 2075 deaths expected each week based on estimates of the population and a crude mortality rate of 17 deaths per 1000 people per year.

Author: Kieran Guilbert

DAKAR, Nov 25 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The world's worst recorded Ebola outbreak and militant violence in West Africa may have shut down schools across the region but governments should see conflict and crisis as an opportunity to reform and improve education, an expert said on Wednesday.

Read the story on the Thompson Reuters Foundation

By Indrias Getachew Kassaye

After losing his parents and siblings to the Ebola virus, a boy longs to get back to school – even if his school uniform has grown too short.

PATE BANA MARANK, Sierra Leone, 25 November 2015 – John Kamara is growing fast, as he should be at 13 years old. But as the delayed second school term resumes across Sierra Leone, the one school uniform John owns no longer fits.

John lives in Pate Bana Marank, one of the villages in Sierra Leone most heavily affected by the Ebola outbreak. At least 119 people in the village died – not counting those who, at the height of the epidemic, went off to the bush and have not been accounted for.

Within 12 months, John lost both parents and five of his siblings to the deadly virus. Now he lives with his younger brother and sister under the care of an aunt, Adamse Koroma. She has tried her best to patch the holes in his trousers, but there is nothing she can do about the rising hemline.

As John joins a group of children crossing the village to school, his trousers ride up his calves. This problem, however, hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm for school.

“I am alive today because the doctors helped me, and they were good to me,” John says. “I want to be a doctor when I am big, because I love the doctors and I want to treat people well. I need to study if I am going to do that, so I don’t want to miss school. I have a uniform, but it is from last year and it is torn everywhere. My aunty was sewing it for me yesterday, so I can go to school, but it is too small. I will wear this old uniform until my aunt can buy me a new one.”

Survivor

“Ebola came to my village last year and killed many people,” says John. “Out of these Ebola victims were my father, my mother, my brothers and my sisters. Even my uncle and two aunties died.

“I got the virus from my brother, and it hurt a lot. I was feeling pain in my joints. My head hurt. My body was feeling so hot. I was vomiting and going to the toilet frequently. I was thinking that I would die. But God helped me to get back up,” John says. “I was the only one in my family that caught the virus and survived.”

John is hopeful he will get a new uniform soon, but it is not yet clear when his aunt Adamse will be able to afford it.

“I am responsible for 24 people now,” Adamse says. “I have seven children of my own. I am taking care of four of my sister’s children. Then my brother had five children – he passed away, and I am taking care of them. Another sister left four children. And I have my father here, as well.”

Adamse has taken on 3 million Leone (about US$600) worth of goods on loan to sell in the stall she has set up on the veranda of their home. She will use the profits to take care of the family, but business is slow, she explains. She also grows cassava and groundnuts on her small farm.

“After harvesting the cassava, if I get good sales, I will be able to buy a new uniform for John,” she says.

Economic setback

Sierra Leone is among the poorest countries in the world, with 53 per cent of the population living below the poverty line. The Ebola crisis has reversed many economic gains achieved after the devastating civil war that ended in 2002.

While public schools do not charge school fees, associated costs like uniforms and supplies such as exercise books, pens and pencils are the responsibility of families. Schools are not supposed to turn away students who come to school without a uniform, but many children prefer not to attend rather than stand out as a child whose family can’t afford a uniform.

In 2010, an estimated 22 per cent of primary school-age children, roughly 233,000 girls and boys, were out of school in Sierra Leone, largely as a result of socio-economic challenges. Although assessments are still incomplete, Ebola is believed to have taken a heavy economic toll on communities.

As part of its response to the Ebola crisis, UNICEF Sierra Leone facilitated the training of more than 34,000 teachers in Ebola prevention, safety guidelines and psychosocial support. UNICEF is also supplying 24,300 hand washing stations, enough for three in every school, as well as cleaning equipment to prepare school buildings.

In addition, 1.8 million school kits containing pens, pencils, exercise books, geometry sets, rulers, sharpeners erasers have been distributed to all learners. Some 34,000 solar radios are also being distributed to less privileged children in rural communities. Since October 2014, UNICEF has supported the government in running daily emergency radio education programmes to enable children to continue learning at home during the Ebola crisis.

“I need help to continue with school, so I am happy that I got the books and pencils,” John says.

Crowded classrooms

Overcoming challenges faced by students and their families to send their children to school is one challenge, but another is addressing the inadequate infrastructure once they get there.

Michael M. Koroma is the head teacher of Pate Bana Marank Primary School, where he has been teaching for the past two years.

“We have two classrooms for 250 children – and they house six classes,” Mr. Koroma says. “Those classrooms are congested, and some of the children have to sit on the floor because we don’t have enough seats for them. We also lack adequate teaching staff. We have seven teachers here, including the head teacher. Imagine, we have nearly 100 pupils in class one. How can one teacher take care of nearly 100 pupils?”

As the country emerges from a crisis that closed schools for eight months, training and dispatching sufficient teachers to ensure all children have access to quality primary education is among the priorities of the UNICEF-supported Education Programme in Sierra Leone.

“Ebola was very much disastrous here,” Mr. Koroma says. “There were students who caught the virus from each other here in the school. They sit close together and they are interacting, so they got the virus through that. This was in the past when this thing started. Now, we don’t have any cases of Ebola.”

Regional Highlights

• The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Sierra Leone Ebola-free on 7 November.
• As of 1 November, the ET Cluster is no longer mobilised in Sierra Leone - consultations carried out with all major stakeholders showed that ET Cluster services were no longer required by the response community to support their Ebola operations.
• The ET Cluster is supporting 24x sites across Liberia and Guinea. As part of the ET Cluster demobilisation plan, the Main Logistics Base (MLB) at Monrovia’s International Airport was decommissioned on 9 November.

PROJECTED FOOD ASSISTANCE NEEDS FOR MAY 2016

This brief summarizes FEWS NET’s most forward-looking analysis of projected emergency food assistance needs in FEWS NET coverage countries. The projected size of each country’s acutely food insecure population (IPC Phase 3 and higher) is compared to last year and the recent five-year average and categorized as Higher ( S), Similar ( X), or Lower ( T). Countries where external emergency food assistance needs are anticipated are identified. Projected lean season months highlighted in red indicate either an early start or an extension to the typical lean season. Additional information is provided for countries with large food insecure populations, an expectation of high severity, or where other key issues warrant additional discussion. Analytical confidence is lower in remote monitoring countries, denoted by “RM”. Visit www.fews.net for detailed country reports.

1 BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION FOR EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE

1.1 Background – Floods and the Emergency Crisis in Sierra Leone

1.1.1 On 16th September 2015, Sierra Leone was struck by unusually heavy rains of about 145 mm. The worst hit areas were Freetown in the Western Area and Bo, Pujehun and Bonthe in the Southern Province. Many houses and properties were destroyed as a result of flooding caused by the heavy rains and many families from mainly slum areas along the coast of Freetown and in riverine communities in Bo, Pujehun and Bonthe were displaced. Since the flooding started, the government, United Nations (UN) agencies, NonGovernmental Organizations (NGOs) and private businesses have been providing assistance to approximately 24,000 people that have been registered in Freetown and the validation of registration is ongoing. In the case of Bo (3,500 persons) Bonthe (500 persons) and Pujehun (1,951 persons) the affected persons were relocated to nearby communities. Due to the destructive impact of the floods on the communities, the GoSL also declared a Military Assistance to Civilian Communities (MACC) and a Level 2 emergency in Freetown.

1.1.2 The response is being coordinated by the Office of National Security (ONS) with the support of other government ministries, the National Ebola Response Centre (NERC) and other humanitarian partners. With the mass movement of people in large numbers from the affected areas, the grave concern is on how to put surveillance measures in order to avoid any further potential case of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). Another area of concern is the potential threat of Cholera outbreak due to damaged water points and water contamination due to flood water.

1.1.3 This proposal for emergency assistance for the victims of the floods in Freetown and affected communities in Bo, Pujehun and Bonthe is justified as it fulfills the three criteria required to qualify for Bank Group assistance in that: (i) the emergency situation is of a scale which is clearly beyond the capacity of the Government of Sierra Leone to handle alone; (ii) the proposed activities can be carried out expeditiously and effectively within the required time frame; and (iii) the emergency relief assistance aims at restoring a degree of normalcy in both the social and economic life of the affected populations as quickly as possible and addresses corrective measures for future flood related disasters. The proposal is thus in compliance with the provisions of the Revised Policy Guidelines and Procedures for Emergency Relief Assistance, and General Regulations of the Special Relief Fund(ADB/BD/2008/211/rev.1)

1.2 Justification for Emergency Assistance

1.2.1 The flooding situation wreaked massive damage to an estimated 112 communities in Freetown and 12 communities/ villages in Bo, Pujehun and Bonthe. Continuous rains also left an estimated 30,000 people affected, the number of homes destroyed is estimated at 3,000 and an estimated 25 deaths were recorded across the country.

1.2.2 The accumulated impact of the flooding has increased the vulnerability of the affected populations and communities, most of which were seriously affected by the EVD outbreak and has also contributed to exhausting their coping mechanisms. Most of the affected people, in mainly slum areas and squatters in Freetown and in the riverine communities in the southern region were already suffering from extreme poverty and deprivation before the disaster.

1.2.3 The resources of the GoSL are already overstretched by the EVD response and they have clearly indicated to development partners that they will need their timely support and assistance in responding to the disaster to avert further human suffering.

Missing Migrants Project tracks deaths of migrants along migratory routes across the globe. This map shows the different paths with a focus on Niger. #MissingMigrants.

Key messages

• AGIR - the Global Alliance for Resilience Initiative - was launched during the Sahel food and nutrition crisis of 2012 with the aim of achieving 'Zero Hunger' in the West Africa Sahel region by 2032. The EU was closely involved in establishing AGIR and continues to provide support.

• Emergencies and crises have become a permanent reality for many people in West Africa. Humanitarian aid provides vital relief but cannot prevent crises. To break the cycle of emergencies, it is crucial for governments and international aid organisations to build the resilience of the most vulnerable population groups.

• Building resilience is about understanding and addressing the root causes of crises and pushing for durable improvements with a specific target on the most vulnerable people. Making adequate basic services available to mothers and their children and ensuring that aid programmes effectively target the poorest people are essential measures.

• Successful resilience building requires a joint approach to relief, development and governance. It is about bridging the gap between humanitarian and development aid. It is also about encouraging governments to take ownership and supporting them to achieve their resilience agenda.

• The momentum created by AGIR has prompted 16 countries in the region to adopt national resilience priorities. They are seeking comprehensive support from the international aid community to translate these priorities into effective action.

Read the full factsheet

HIGHLIGHTS

• Following the declaration by WHO on the end of the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone on 7 November 2015, UNICEF continues to support the Government of Sierra Leone in ensuring that vigilance is maintained, through social mobilization efforts, systems strengthening in the areas of health, education and WASH, and support to Community Care Centers and Observational Interim Care Centers, amongst others.

• UNICEF continued to support the implementation of Project Shield. In Bombali district, 98 community health centres/peripheral health units able to cater to the needs of survivors, have been identified in the 13 chiefdoms.

• In response to the suspected measles outbreak in Lunsar Township in Marampa Chiefdom and Foredugu in Buya Romende Chiefdom, the Port Loko district Social Mobilization Pillar engaged its partners to support the ring vaccination. Being a previous Ebola hotspot and with a view to reinforcing health promotion messaging, UNICEF partners,
  Sierra Leone Red Cross and Restless Development oriented and deployed social mobilizers to engage with community members, especially women. The intensive mobilization resulted in 8,545 children vaccinated over a period of six days.

• As part of the strengthening of health systems, UNICEF is supporting the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) with the 4th quarter Free Health Care (FHC) mass supply distribution and the deployment of Rapidpro technology to assist in monitoring and reporting on the distribution from the districts to the PHUs.

27 November 2015 – Following the flare-up of Ebola in Liberia 77 days after the outbreak was declared over, the region's top coordinator of the United Nations response to the epidemic said the three West African countries most affected by the deadly disease cannot recover from its ravages on their own.

“The response to Ebola – the national leadership, community engagement, so many people working so hard for such a long period of time with such dedication – if that can be translated into efforts beyond Ebola, then actually all there countries have a bright future ahead of them,” Peter Graaff, the UN Regional Inter-Agency Coordinator on Ebola, told the UN News Centre.

“But they cannot do it alone,” Mr. Graaff said of efforts to end transmission of the virus that has killed more than 11,000 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The interview comes just days after the World Health Organization (WHO) said that a cluster of three confirmed cases of Ebola were reported last week in Liberia, which had been declared free disease transmission on 3 September.

Stressing that the regional epidemic is not over, Mr. Graaff said that the “first reported case in 77 days shows that even when you are able to break the chain of transmission, there is a chance of the disease coming back,” which he noted is “largely due to a persistence of the virus in survivors.”

The recent cases in Liberia underscore the importance of robust surveillance measures to ensure the rapid detection of any reintroduction or re-emergence of the disease in unaffected areas, he said.

Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone have each put surveillance systems in place to enable health workers and members of the public to report any case of illness or death that they suspect may be related to Ebola to the relevant authorities, according to WHO.

Going forward, the UN coordinator drew attention to the need to make sure that the most-affected countries stay at zero, that survivors can live up to their full potential in society as soon as possible, and ensure that investments take place and are directed not only to the health care sector of the three West African countries but also in other sectors, like education and infrastructure.

Earlier this month, the UN Special Envoy on Ebola, Dr. David Nabarro, underscored that his top priority is to make sure the more than 15,000 survivors and their families across West Africa have access to the support they need.

Saying “they have a tough time” because “they're distressed” and “not trusted,” as well as being “a subject of a lot of stigma,” Dr. Nabarro emphasized that he wants to be sure that every person who survived Ebola can access a comprehensive package of care that helps them, and that help their communities.

FEATURE - ‘Ebola is under control!’ headlines affirmed the other week. The disease has made no new victims in Sierra Leone since the outbreak started in April 2014. But the recovery process will still take a long time: not only have people died, but the economy has been severely disrupted and survivors, especially children, are left without care or protection. Mr Siapha Kamara, CEO of our partner SEND West-Africa, tells us about the struggles of rebuilding and the heroism of his staff.

“The prospect is good now; the Ebola is definitely under control.” Mr Siapha Kamara is rather optimistic. Yet it was less than a year ago that his organization SEND West-Africa (a Cordaid partner active in Sierra Leone, Ghana and Liberia) was in the midst of the Ebola crisis, fighting to save lives.

SEND Sierra Leone works in the district of Kailahun, which is at the border with Guinee and Liberia. It is where the Ebola outbreak started.

Devotion

Kamara recalls the day when Ebola struck. “I was actually in Sierra Leone, going to do a training for women’s groups in Buendu and Koindu, where SEND implements the Cordaid-funded food security program. Then my people called about the first Ebola deaths being reported in those two villages. In the staff meeting, we agreed that since there was no cure for Ebola, we should close the office. The employees who were not from Kailahun left the area.”

But a few days later, the Kailahun staff changed their mind. “They said to me: ‘Our mission is to work in difficult to reach areas and to help people that are most in need, so we cannot close down the office in the midst of this crisis.’ And they were right. From that time onwards, I devoted all my time to mobilizing resources to keep the office open.”

The staff of SEND were among the first to warn people of the disease. “We work with many women groups, all of them come from the local communities. With them, we spread Ebola prevention messages, trained some of them to be contact tracers, provision of sanitary materials to communities, provision of food and non-food items to quarantine communities, while working with them to use local and national media to educate communities about the disease, and calling for government and development partners attention to take practical steps to contain the disease”. Looking back, Kamara is very proud of them: “They were all heroes.”

Helping orphans

One year from the outbreak of Ebola, the already impoverished area of Kailahun is in bad shape. Not just for the people who died, but even more so for their families and communities. “We had our first case of Ebola in May 2014, and by December we had lost more than 524 people. Our livelihoods program lost 25 beneficiaries – most of them women, who were breadwinners for their family. They left behind orphans, widows and widowers.”

Orphaned children often have no means of income, which makes them vulnerable to trafficking and other forms of abuse. Kamara: “Care for orphans is a very big problem. We encourage domestic fostering with family members or women from our network to try and help at least some of them. Our support includes school materials, food aid and in some cases medical support.”

He worries about grandmothers having to take care of their orphaned grandchildren, with little to live on and no control: “We have grandmothers looking after teenagers especially. That’s almost like nobody looking after anybody. These kids need to go back to school. But Kailahun is a very remote area, and even though schools have reopened, they may not get the required complement of teachers.” One immediate solution could be to give the grandmothers livestock that needs little care, such as a goat: “For them to be able to support themselves and the kids.”

Abuse of survivors

For orphans and other survivors, getting accepted back into the community is not easy, Kamara says. “Besides the trauma that they face, there is also the stigmatization. Especially for women who have lost members of their household, for example their husband. They were told they were witches. People think that is why their husband died and they survived. So women face particularly bad treatment; they are ostracized from their family.”

What’s more, violence against women and girls has increased enormously. “A huge amount of women are being raped and we have high teenage pregnancy rates,” Kamara sadly confirms. “The explanation is that during the outbreak of Ebola girls did not go to school, but remained in the quarantined communities with little to occupy themselves. Also, some girls’ parents died and they had no resources to support themselves. All of that combined made them vulnerable to sexual violence.”

The Kailahun Women’s Governance Network and SEND organized a demonstration against rape in September, after a 10-year-old girl was assaulted by four men.

Uphill task

“Though the social impact has been great, the economic aspect of the crisis is even more worrying,” Kamara states. “Communities with Ebola were quarantined. This meant that all economic activity was strongly disrupted. Farmers could not get to their fields, so their harvest was lost and it was difficult for them to obtain new seeds for planting. Additionally, the communities lost a lot of their hard-working people.”

“We have supported the communities to revive those economic activities. Cordaid has been working with SEND to develop rice production hubs, infrastructure like drying floors and PICS storage bags.” He adds: “Many of the foster parents are young families. So if we can encourage them to go into small-scale entrepreneurship, then they’ll be able to sustain support for their family and look after the orphan.” To that end, the families are given 200 USD and linked to a credit union, where they can take up a loan to start their business.

But there’s a major funding problem: “Most of the funding that is going to Sierra Leone is purely for health infrastructure, not so much for economic activities.” His concern is visible: “If you don’t revive the economic activities, people will suffer from bad nutrition and all kinds of problems that will make them more vulnerable.”

Rehabilitation will be a big challenge. “I think that‘s going to be an uphill task. Sierra Leone is a post-conflict country and then there was Ebola. The economy has lost a lot of ground and the governance infrastructure in the country is not very strong. I think it will be about five or six years before it will be able to get back to where it was before”. According to Kamara, donor support will be needed for some time to come.

Biting nails

Though Sierra Leone has been declared Ebola-free and people were dancing on the streets of Freetown, chances are that the disease may still recur, as the Ebola prevention measures remain weak. “At the moment, we are biting our nails, hoping that it will not return.”

He explains: “If you go around Kailahun and other parts of Sierra Leone, you still see the buckets they have for washing hands. People have gotten used to some of those new practices. But some of the most important ones are difficult to maintain, for example burials. People in the villages sometimes allow dead bodies to lie for three or four days. Because there are only two or three burial teams that are based in Kailahun, the district capital.”

Actions to prevent the recurrence of Ebola haven’t been taken seriously, he says. “We wanted to train the communities to bury their dead using Ebola-sensitive prevention methods, but unfortunately, we never got resources for it.” What SEND was able to do, however, is constructing shelters for security personnel at posts in border villages, which monitor people coming and going, mobilizing religious leaders to use their power and social respect to educate their constituencies on Ebola, while mobilizing communities to volunteer to complement the efforts of security personnel in monitoring the movement of people and cross-border activities.

Humble leader

Though sometimes critical of the international community in the rebuilding phase, Mr Kamara wants to thank Cordaid: “We really appreciated the help. Cordaid continued to pay our staff, even those of us who had left the district, so that immediately after the crisis our staff went back and started the recovery process. Cordaid also contributed to the Ebola emergency project. To support the farmers with rice production, to build drying floors, to support the blacksmiths. I wasn’t very sure whether those things were going to be done, until I actually went to the communities and saw the platforms and the blacksmiths, and they showed me the tools they made.”

He smiles. “All I want to add is that the SEND staff were the heroes. They demonstrated that the local people in this crisis, even though they were not acknowledged…” He rephrases his point: “We tend to think that the international community is making the greatest sacrifice. Because when something happens to one of them, it gets a splash. But our local people, they actually showed a lot of courage and they took a lot of risk. I am very humble to be their leader.”