Society

The Minister of Social Affairs handed over financial assistance worth 9 Million FCFA to 30 former street children in Yaounde on April 7, 2016.

Activities of the Vulnerable Persons’ Integration and Socio-professional Reintegration Support Programmes were launched in Yaounde on Thursday April 7, 2016. The event saw the handing over of financial support worth 9 Million FCFA to 30 former street children by the Ministry of Social Affairs to enable them begin micro income generating projects.

Minister Pauline Irène Nguene said the socio-economic integration and reintegration of socially vulnerable people is a major priority of her ministry. She called on beneficiaries to be responsible and assured them of continuous psychosocial support from the ministry. She promised that the ministry will continue to liaise with their respective families to ensure successful social reintegration, appealing to stakeholders to support the socio economic inclusion of vulnerable people.  

In a bid to fight juvenile delinquency, the Ministry of Social Affairs and the National Employment Fund (NEF) signed an agreement in 2006 on implementing the Vulnerable Persons’ Integration and Socio-professional Reintegration Support Programmes (PAIRPPEP).

The programme offers socially vulnerable people opportunities for direct integration, training, promotion of self-employed projects, monitoring of projects and training. The Ministry of Social Affairs is targeting 5,000 vulnerable people for the period 2016-2018. The next project will cost 100 Million FCFA.

(CT)

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Elangwe Pauline

12.Apr.2016

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Kwake Gerald Azamah, a Cameroonian teacher who participated in the Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program at Winthrop University in spring 2016, made an important impact on the local community in Rock Hill South Carolina. After a feature about the program in the local newspaper, Mrs. Judy Coffey contacted the university and donated a whiteboard, laptop, speakers, and a microscope to Gerald’s class in memory of her husband, Mr. Wayne McIntosh.  

This will be the first whiteboard in his school, in Yaoundé, Cameroon. In addition, Ms. Kelly Reynolds Chavis, Gerald’s partner teacher, and her students at Northwestern High School in Rock Hill are contributing a projector. Gerald writes via Facebook, “My students and I are very grateful for all these gifts. You will forever remain in our hearts. God bless you all, God bless America .

At-a-Glance: The Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program (TEA) provides outstanding secondary school teachers of English, social studies, math, science, and special education with unique opportunities to develop expertise in their subject areas, enhance their teaching skills and increase their knowledge about the United States.

Teachers come to the United States from all world regions for a six-week academic program at a U.S. university graduate school of education, including intensive training in teaching methodologies, lesson planning, teaching strategies for their home environment, teacher leadership, and the use of instructional technologies. The program also includes field experience at a secondary school to engage participants with American teachers and students.

(US Embassy Yaounde)

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Elangwe Pauline

11.Apr.2016

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Ibrahim Sanou, 27, was chained by the neck to a container by his Italian supervisor, Manlio Maggiorotto, for allegedly failing to complete a job-related task on time. The victim pleaded with the supervisor to release him, but in vain. He had to wait 50 minutes before his workmates eventually came and rescued him.

Sanou had to endure this ordeal under a burning hot sun. "The time he was putting the chain on my neck I asked him to stop, he didn't listen to me. He got a padlock and tied me to the container and locked me there," Sanou said.

Ibrahim Sanou, who works for Gateway Logistics in the Free Zone Enclave in Western Ghana, was traumatized by the experience and is considering quitting his job. "I am not comfortable. Seeing the chain, it's like something is wrong with me," Sanou told DW. "I don't know why he did that to me," he added.

Calls for protection

One of the problems facing the Ghanaian labor market is the absence of reliable unemployment figures. But Ghanaians still can be heard complaining about the lack of jobs. Some may have to put up with poorer and poorer working conditions just to remain in employment. In privately owned companies, there is often no labor union available to which an aggrieved employee could turn.

According to a survey undertaken by the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) in Ghana, many foreign employers have been abusing their Ghanaian employees. The General Secretary of the ICU, Solomon Kotei, said the Chinese, Lebanese and Indian companies were worst abusers and many workers had no written contracts with their employers.

"Most of them are not even given letters of employment to state what their situation is," he said.

Labor rights activist Francis Sallah said Sanou's case shows that a lot needs to be done to improve working conditions in Ghana. There have been similar abuses in the past and they have gone unpunished. "I think there should be clear-cut policies. The laws should be spelt out to investors explaining that, yes, Ghanaians will welcome you, but abuses will not be tolerated," Sallah said.

The country's trade minister and other government officials say they are investigating Sanou's case.

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Elangwe Pauline

09.Apr.2016

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French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says adherents to the radical Saudi-backed Salafi ideology have gained the upper hand in France as they push to attract followers. Speaking at a round-table in Paris on Monday, the premier warned that Salafists were “winning the ideological and cultural battle” in France. “Their message — their messages on social networks — is the only one we end up hearing,” he warned. 

Salafism is often equated with Wahhabism, the radical ideology dominating Saudi Arabia and freely preached by clerics in the Arab country. Wahhabism is also the ideology of the Daesh terrorist group, which claimed responsibility for last year’s deadly terrorist attacks in the French capital. The November 13, 2015 attacks targeting several areas in Paris killed some 130 people dead and injured over 350 others.

Daesh has also claimed responsibility for bombings in the Belgian capital, Brussels, last month, which took the lives of 34 people. Most European governments, however, are close allies of the Saudi regime and main suppliers of arms along with the US to Riyadh which is backing militants to topple the Syrian government. According to a US intelligence report from August 2012, "the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in eastern Syria" was "exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime.”

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Presstv

05.Apr.2016

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The Nigerian army says it has arrested the leader of an al-Qaeda linked militant group, Ansaru, known for kidnapping and murdering Westerners. Khalid al-Barnawi was captured in Lokoja, capital of the central state of Kogi on Friday, military spokesman Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar said on Sunday. “He is among those on top of the list of our wanted terrorists,” he added.

Al-Barnawi has been one of the three Nigerians listed by the US in 2012 as “specially designated global terrorists.” The US had placed a $5 million bounty on his head. A-Barnawi has “ties to Boko Haram” and “close links to al-Qaeda,” according to the US State Department. A Nigerian army officer said his arrest was “a huge success and will have a profound effect on counter-terrorism operations in Nigeria and beyond.” 

Ansaru is a splinter group of Boko Haram which claimed responsibility for the December 26, 2012 attack on a facility in Abuja, where the army held captured militants. They killed two policemen and freed 40 detainees. The group also said it was responsible for another attack in 2013 on a convoy of Mali-bound Nigerian troops in Kogi state.

The terrorists killed two soldiers and seriously wounded five others. Boko Haram has so far claimed the lives of over 17,000 people since the start of its insurgency in Nigeria in 2009. The violence has also forced over 2.6 million others to flee their homes since then. The terror group has pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri group.

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Presstv

04.Apr.2016

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The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has adopted a resolution that allows the deployment of unarmed UN police to Burundi in a bid to help contain the escalating unrest gripping the landlocked African country. The 15-member council unanimously passed the French-drafted motion on Friday after days of tough negotiations over its wording. 

The resolution asks UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to draw up within 15 days a list of options for the proposed police force in coordination with the African Union and consultations with the Burundian government. It provides for the “deployment of a United Nations police contribution to increase the United Nations capacity to monitor the security situation, promote the respect of human rights and advance rule of law” in the violence-wracked state.

The resolution further expresses concerns about “the persisting political impasse” in Burundi and underlines the need for convening “a genuine and inclusive inter-Burundian dialogue.”

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Presstv

02.Apr.2016

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