Black women must rise up
RECENTLY, I was honoured to meet Arikana Chihombori- Quao, the Africa Union Ambassador, at the World Conference of Mayors at Tuskegee University. She delivered a masterpiece that those of us in attendance will never forget.
The event was led by Mayor Johnny Ford, founder of the World Conference of Mayors.
The ambassador provided a roadmap for us in Africa and in the Diaspora to follow in joining forces and ending domination of our lands and our resources by foreign powers, so they can be used to benefit people of African descent.
Her inspiration and vision resonated so much that we returned home with our marching orders, ready to go to work to help make her vision a reality.
Ambassador removed
Upon our return we received the devastating news that the ambassador had summarily been relieved of duty! The unorthodox removal was led by those who’ve obviously never been weaned from their mental slavery.
If they thought they could get away with this, they are sadly mistaken. As I write this, petitions are being circulated throughout Africa, the Caribbean, the United States, and anywhere the Diaspora lives.
Her removal was clearly a strike to silence her after her criticism of France for continuing to colonise and rip off funds from the French-speaking African countries charging more than 85 percent in taxes, fees collecting a US$500 billion every year, while the people of Guinea, Chad, Cameroon, Senegal and other countries live in abject poverty.
She not only pointed this practice out, but called for ending the practice and returning the lands. Their response was to try to silence her by removing her from her post without due process.
Rise up
We can’t let them get away with this! We must take a stand as we’ve taken a stand on so many issues all over the world. Whether you’re in a sorority, church organisation, educator, parent, or elected official you can help.
We must take heed of the biblical verse from Isaiah 32:9 that says, “Rise up ye women who are at ease; hear my voice ye careless daughters; give ear unto my speech.”
Let’s show our support for our sister, for the liberation of our African brothers and sisters and for the unification of those of us in the Diaspora worldwide.
Ambassador Chihombori-Quao has consistently exhibited her ability to galvanise our people even before her address to the World Conference of Mayors.
From her participation in the Congressional Black Caucus, interfacing with other African American leaders, as well as leaders throughout Africa, who’ve had the good fortune to work, she has left a lasting impression and vision of what Africa can become under her leadership.
Take a stand
It’s this leadership of which they are trying to deprive us.
As soon as it was learned she’d been dismissed, a firestorm of anger and consternation arose. Petitions were drawn up and circulated in support of returning the ambassador to leadership of the Africa Union.
In the first couple of days of this dastardly act of dismissing her, about 50 000 people signed the petition. That number is steadily growing. Keep the momentum up. Keep the pressure on.
The organisation spearheading the move to reinstate the ambassador is the African Diaspora Congress.
They were formed for the Diaspora and anyone of African descent having at heart the social, cultural, economic promotion of Africa wherever they live. Daytona Times
◆ Dr E. Faye Williams is national chair of the National Congress of Black Women, Inc. Contact her via www. nationalcongressbw.org.
SICKLE cell disease (SCD) and HIV are major burdens on health in low-resource communities around the world. In most Third World countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, HIV/AIDS has had a negative impact on human development.
Stories and facts on how it has shredded health and demographic indicators that include life expectancy at birth, health care assistance, age and sex distribution, economic indicators like income, workforce, and economic growth, education and knowledge, among others, are there for all to see.
Approximately 95 percent of the 38 million people living with HIV globally are in the developing world, with 67 percent in sub-Saharan Africa, half of whom are living untreated.
Sickle cell disease a group of disorders that affects haemoglobin, the molecule in red blood cells that delivers oxygen to cells throughout the body is also wreaking a havoc of its own.
The sad reality is that 15 million babies will be born with SCD globally over the next 30 years, with about 75 percent of those births occurring in sub-Saharan Africa.
Of concern is that an estimated 50-90 percent of infants born with SCD in low-income countries will die before their fifth birthday and SCD is identified as the underlying cause of about one in 12 newborn deaths in sub-Saharan Africa.
This calls for urgent attention.
Last week, the United States-based National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it would invest at least US$100 million over the next four years towards an audacious goal: develop affordable, gene-based cures for SCD and HIV.
On the same day, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation also disclosed that they would invest US$100 million towards the same goal.
The NIH is a medical research agency which includes 27 institutes and centres, conducts and supports basic clinical and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments and cures for both common and rare diseases.
In announcing the new funding, NHI said the intention of the latest development was for the cures to be made globally available, including in low-resource settings, sub Saharan Africa included.
Ultimately, the goal is to scale up and implement these treatments globally in areas hardest hit by these diseases.
NIH director Francis S. Collins said: “This unprecedented collaboration focuses from the get-go on access, scalability and affordability of advanced gene-based strategies for sickle cell disease and HIV to make sure everybody, everywhere has the opportunity to be cured, not just those in high-income countries. We aim to go big or go home.”
Dramatic advances in genetics over the last decade have made effective gene-based treatments a reality, including new treatments for blindness and certain types of leukaemia.
Yet, accessibility of these breakthroughs by most of the world — by virtue of the complexity and cost of treatment requirements, which currently limit their administration to hospitals in wealthy countries — remains a distant dream.
To reduce the gaps, and make these treatments effective and available for SCD and HIV, which disproportionately affect populations living in Africa or of African descent, new investment is needed to focus research on the development of curative therapies that can be delivered safely, effectively and affordably in low-resource settings.
The collaboration between the NIH and the Gates Foundation sets out a bold goal of advancing safe, effective and durable genebased cures to clinical trials in the United States and relevant countries in sub-Saharan Africa within the next seven to 10 years.
It will also align aggressive, high-reward research efforts to accelerate progress on shared gene-based strategies to cure SCD and HIV.
Both organisations will continue to invest in other parallel research efforts on cures for SCD and HIV outside of this collaboration.
“In recent years, gene-based treatments have been ground breaking for rare genetic disorders and infectious diseases,” said Trevor Mundel, president, Global Health Programme, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
“While these treatments are exciting, people in low and middle-income countries do not have access to these breakthroughs. By working with the NIH and scientists across Africa, we aim to ensure these approaches will improve the lives of those most in need and bring the incredible promise of gene therapy to the world of public health.”
First, the collaboration will identify potential candidate cures for SCD and HIV for pre-clinical and clinical evaluation, co-funded by the NIH and Gates Foundation
Second, it will define long-term opportunities to work together and with African partners on advancing promising candidates to late-phase clinical trials, with funding to be determined as candidates progress
Though SCD, a genetically inherited disease, and HIV, an acquired infectious disease, present significantly different scientific challenges, gene-based treatments hold promise for both, and many of the technical challenges for gene-based cures are expected to be common to both diseases.
To achieve the goals of the collaboration, both projects will require new delivery systems that can get prospective therapies to the right places in the body and optimise treatments to target the cells involved in the respective diseases efficiently and specifically.
For SCD, that would mean repairing or compensating for the mutations in haemoglobin that cause SCD in hematopoietic stem cells. For HIV, that would mean targeting the reservoir of proviral DNA that continues to lurk inside a small number of cells, even after many years of effective antiviral treatment.
Such treatments that happen entirely within the body, known as in vivo treatments, would be a major step forward from current treatments, which apply genetic therapies to cells taken outside the body (ex-vivo) and then re-infused.
World Health Organisation regional director for Africa Dr Matshidiso Moeti said too much of Africa’s future is being lost to sickle cell disease and HIV.
“Beating these diseases will take new thinking and long-term commitment,” she said. “I’m very pleased to see the innovative collaboration announced today, which has a chance to help tackle two of Africa’s greatest public health challenges.”
◆ Read the full article on www.herald. co.zw
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