Global Initiative Bi-weekly site updates
September 16th - September 26th, 2024
Rwanda
Rwanda, in partnership with the UN refugee agency (UNCHR), on Thursday, September 26, received the nineteenth group of 119 refugees and asylum seekers from Libya. This was under a memorandum of understanding to set up an emergency transit mechanism (ETM) for evacuating refugees and asylum seekers out of Libya. The ETM aims at providing life-saving protection, assistance and long-term solutions to extremely vulnerable refugees trapped in detention in Libya, through temporary evacuation to Rwanda. The latest group of arrivals comprises five nationalities: 41 Sudanese, 36 Eritreans, 12 Somalis, 17 Ethiopians, and 13 South Sudan nationals. They will be accompanied and hosted at Gashora Transit Centre in Bugesera District, according to the Ministry in charge of Emergency Management (MINEMA) Philippe Habinshuti, the Permanent Secretary at MINEMA, said that upon their arrival, priority is ensuring that they feel safe after the struggles they endured in Libya.
Schools in Rwanda will join islanders in Jersey on a virtual 19-mile (30.6km) walk to raise money for girls' education in east Africa. The Virtual North Coast Challenge is set to take place on Sunday from St Catherine's to Grosnez.
The walk is partnered with Hands Around The World Jersey, a charity which helps vulnerable people in five different countries. Nine schools in Bugarama in Rwanda will join people in Jersey to walk a similar distance to "show their appreciation" after 12 Jersey teachers provided a summer school for 400 marginalized children earlier this year. Hands Around The World Jersey has visited Bugarama in south west Rwanda for the past 15 years and carried out school improvement projects, such as building and renovating classrooms, toilets, school kitchens and sports facilities.
Kenya
Staff in 35 public universities began their strike yesterday complaining about low pay, delayed slaries, non-remittance of statutory deductions and failure by the government to implement a comprehensive medical cover.
The strike by members of the Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) and the Kenya Universities Staff Union (Kusu) paralysed learning in the universiteis. Last evening, however, the Inter-Public Universities' Councils Consultative Forum, which brings together the management of the public universities, obtained a court order temporarily stopping the strike. The Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) is temporarily restrained from calling, instigating, or inciting other to take part in any strike or other form of industrial action. Parties to continue negotiating with a view to resolving the disputed issues consensually," ruled Judged Dr Jacob Gakeri of the Employment and Labour Relations Court.
A new report by Usawa Agenda has highlighted disparities in educational resources favouring boys’ schools in Kenya, which negatively impacts girls' educational outcomes. The assessment shows that 61.5 per cent of boys’ schools, 42 per cent of girls’ schools and 20.6 per cent of mixed schools have chemistry laboratories. Additionally, 51.3 per cent of boys’ schools, 35.7 per cent of girls’ schools and 12.3 per cent of mixed schools possess biology laboratories. The report, which includes data from a survey of 1,342 secondary schools and an assessment of 39,298 children aged 6 to 15, underscores the resource inequalities. For example, it reveals that 4.7 per cent of students in boys' secondary schools received over Sh30,000 in scholarships, compared to 3.7 per cent in girls' schools.
Lebanon
The death toll from an Israeli air attack in Beirut’s southern suburbs has risen to 45 people, including three children and seven women, Lebanese authorities say.
“The number of dead has risen to 45 people,” Lebanon’s health ministry said on Sunday, updating an earlier toll of 38 from the Friday attack. It said “work continues to remove the rubble for the third day in a row” and that DNA sampling would be used to determine the identities of some of the bodies. The strike, which wrecked two buildings in the Lebanese capital’s Dahiya district during rush hour on Friday, also injured about 60 people. The three children killed were aged four, six and 10, according to Abiad. Emergency personnel was still searching for 17 people under the rubble.
Israeli air raids hitting mostly southern and eastern Lebanon have killed at least 274 people and wounded at least 1,024, according to the country’s health minister, in the deadliest day of conflict in Lebanon since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
Firass Abiad said the death toll on Monday included 21 children, 39 women and two medics as the bombardments hit homes, medical centres, ambulances and cars of people trying to flee. Thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and the main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading towards Beirut in the biggest exodus since the 2006 fighting.
South African
The Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Nobuhle Mkabane on Monday announced that South Africa will send over 100 students to China next year to study “scarce and critical skills of the future” to address the country’s current skills mismatch.
Mkabane was providing feedback on the Ministerial Stakeholder Engagement programme which was held on 12 September and ended on Sunday. She was part of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent delegation to the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation.“What we should understand is that we have a long-standing cooperation with the People’s Republic of China in various areas of higher education and training which continues to grow and support South Africa’s knowledge and skills development,” she said.
South Africa has a new law governing education. The Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act changes several aspects of how schools are managed.
It was introduced to address inequalities in the school system by standardising rules on admissions, language policies, discipline, and even the operation of homeschooling. But it has sparked controversy. Education professor Wayne Hugo answers questions about the act. The act shifts some control such as language policy from local school governing bodies to provincial education officials, changes rules on how schools manage student admissions and on language of instruction, and sets new guidelines on discipline and homeschooling.
Malawi
Malawi received $80 million from the UN High Commissioner for the Refugees (UNHCR) toward the construction of a second refugee camp in the northern region, an official told Anadolu on Tuesday.
The southern African nation currently hosts 53,000 refugees and asylum seekers at its only refugee camp, Dzaleka, in the central region. Refugees from Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia have been at the camp since the early 1990s. Homeland Security Minister. Zikhale Ng’oma, told Anadolu that the donation would help construct a second camp that “would ease out congestion at Dzaleka which currently hosts more than what it requires.”
With thousands of Malawian girls missing school every month due to menstruation-related challenges, a groundbreaking initiative, Rise For Girls has been launched to address this pressing issue, ensuring girls stay in school and pursue their dreams.
Illovo Sugar Malawi launched the Rise For Girls Program on Saturday in Chikwawa, where the Nchalo Estate General Manager Ricky Pillay, disclosed that the program aims to ensure girls in the district don’t miss school due to menstrual cycles. Pillay said the initiative focuses on Improving water, hygiene, and sanitation facilities, providing menstrual hygiene management training, educating girls about menstrual health, fostering community engagement and distributing sanitary products.
Vietnam
Typhoon Yagi has left many serious consequences in the northern region with flooding not just claiming lives but also destroying livelihoods and it happened in many diverse areas, regardless of whether they were in the mountains or on lower ground.
Experts said that climate change was becoming more and more complex and flooding in large cities was occurring more frequently, both in the rainy and dry seasons, affecting people’s life. In spite of many flood prevention projects worth trillions of đồng (VNĐ1 trillion equals US$40.5 million) those plans were not able to save the city from being submerged when heavy rains last for a long time.
The signing ceremony, held at UEF’s headquarters, was attended by Dr. Nguyen Thanh Giang, president of UEF, and Le Dinh Luc, CEO and founder of DOL English.
Through this partnership, UEF seeks to help students meet the university’s English language requirements – specifically, an IELTS score of 5.5 or higher – in a streamlined and efficient manner. As per the agreement, DOL English will provide high-quality IELTS training programs, supply qualified teaching staff, and ensure that students achieve the required language proficiency. The collaboration will also make use of cutting-edge technology to track students' progress and manage course enrollment.
A free Vietnamese class in Ho Chi Minh City, run by volunteers, has attracted a diverse group of learners, from long-time expats aiming to deepen their connection to the country to newcomers seeking to travel with ease.
Florian Aubert, a 27-year-old Swedish biology student, is somewhere in between. Aubert, who had previously visited Vietnam twice as a tourist, returned for a third time in August, captivated by the country’s culture, people and language. This time, his goal was clear: learn Vietnamese. "I plan to spend a month learning basic Vietnamese before heading back to Sweden for my new term," Aubert said.
India
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on September 26 held a workshop on ‘Parenting for Students’ Well-being’. The workshop was hosted at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya in New Delhi.
The CBSE workshop was aimed at equipping about 150 principals from CBSE schools across Delhi and NCR with strategies to support the emotional and psychological health of school students. The workshop, according to a CBSE statement issued in this regard, featured expert-led sessions focused on the crucial role of parenting in shaping students’ emotional and psychological health. During the workshop’s opening ceremony, Himanshu Gupta, Secretary, CBSE, highlighted the importance of collaborative efforts in enhancing student well-being.
South America
Argentina's poverty rate soared to almost 53% in the first half of the year, official data released on Thursday showed, the first hard evidence of the painful impact of libertarian President Javier Milei's tough austerity measures.
That marked a steep jump from 41.7% at the end of last year and more than double the 26% just seven years ago, underscoring the severe cost to regular Argentines of repeated economic crises that have hammered the South American nation. The data underscores how Milei's spending cuts, aimed at overturning a deep fiscal deficit, have caused major short-term pain. The country is in a deep recession and inflation remains in triple digits, though there are signs things are improving. "Since this government came to power, jobs have dropped away," said Irma Casal, a 53-year-old in Buenos Aires, who works three shifts as a garbage recycler, cardboard collector and bricklayer, but still struggles to stay afloat.
Comments
Post a Comment