United African Congress, Give Them a Hand Foundation and The International Association of Applied Psychology have been hosting events together for several years, focusing mostly on Africa and helping communities to achieve some measure of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, primarily on health care, education, and gender equity.
Our group of organizations was the first to hold a forum in the USA on the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa in the UN ECOSOC Chamber in August 2014. We were the only non-member state to host a major event in the UN General Assembly Hall to encourage member states to honor their pledges and deliver on the funds promised to help Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea in their struggle against Ebola. At that time, we considered it our duty to get ahead of any future epidemic and help to prepare the continent of Africa to meet the impending challenge.
Thus, we began to organize webinars focusing on “The Coronavirus in Africa,” with each of the ten so far hosted addressing a different aspect of its potential impact on the countries in Africa and making suggestions intended to protect individuals and communities against the virus. These webinars feature African Ambassadors in the USA, African ministers of Government, officials from UN Agencies, leaders of prominent NGOs and representatives of the African media.
The first event, which took place on 9 April 2020, was geared towards helping to change people’s behavior in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic and reducing the level of panic that had already affected most of the world and was beginning to find a foothold in Africa. Speakers at this event were H.E Ambassador Sidique Wai, Ambassador of Sierra Leone to the United States; Ambassador Taye Atske Selassie Made, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Ethiopia to the United Nations; Honorable Dr Christopher Tufton, Minister of Health and Wellness of Jamaica; Mr. Tarek Ben Youssef, Charge d’Affaires, African Union mission to the United States. The resident panelists whose responsibility was to pose questions to the guest panelists were, Dr Judy Kuriansky, UN Representative of IAAP, Professor, Department of Psychology at Columbia University Teachers College; Milton Allimadi, Publisher, Black Star News; Katson Maliro, Radio Victoria Horizon, Democratic Republic of the Congo; Mohammed Nurhussein MD, National Chairman, UAC; Tamar Tchelidze, MD, MPH, Senior Policy Advisor University of California School of Medicine. More than seven hundred people attended this webinar which was moderated by Gordon Tapper, President of the United African Congress, and founder of Give Them a Hand Foundation.
This second Webinar took place on 30 April 2020 under the sub-theme of Racism, Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Human Rights and was inspired by the treatment experienced by Africans in China, in Italy, and in other quarters. Unfortunately, Africans in these countries were scapegoated as carriers of the virus and were beaten and thrown out of their apartments to become homeless. The United African Congress, Give Them a Hand Foundation and IAAP were concerned about this development and decided to highlight this situation to an international audience in the hope that pressure could be brought to bear on the governments to rein in this type of behavior.
Speakers at the webinar included H.E Ambassador Arikana Chihombori-Quoi, Former Ambassador of the African Union Mission to the United States; Mr. Richard Towle, Deputy Director UNHCR Liaison Office in New York; Ms. Yaqui Wang, Human Rights Watch, China, and Ms. Isabella Alexander-Nathani, PhD, Professor at Emory University, Filmmaker, Cultural Anthropologist. Also participating were our Resident Panelists, Dr Mohammed Nurhussein, Dr Judy Kuriansky, Milton Allimadi as well as Stephanie Evans, Director of Education at Touro College. The event was moderated by Gordon Taper, President of United African Congress, and Founder of the Give Them a Hand Foundation. An international audience of more than five hundred people attended this event.
The fourth webinar hosted by the partnership took place on 4 June 2020 and focused on the Economic Impact of the Lockdown on Food Security. This webinar focused on the challenge of food production and distribution in African countries in general. We had been seeing disturbing videos and reading reports of people fighting each other for the food that was being distributed by authorities in several countries, including Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa.
Panelists included H.E. Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Minister of Food and Agriculture for Ghana; Ms. Anuradha Mittal, Founder and Executive Director of the Oakland Institute in California; Mr. Timothy Wise, Senior Advisor to the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy; Mr. Njati Kabui, Chief anthropologist farmer along with our resident panel of experts.
This Webinar Sought to identify any homegrown innovations and technology available to health care facilities in Africa. Panelists included Professor Kelebogile Shirley Motaung, Assistant Dean, the Faculty of Science at Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa; Pradeep Kakattil, Director of Innovations at UNAIDS; Dr George Kimathi, Director of AMREF’s Institute of Capacity Development; Jennifer Samboy, Digital Transformation Leader at Philips, and our resident panel of experts.
Africa was home to 25% of the world’s disease burden, but only 3% of the world’s healthcare task force and 2% of the world’s health care expenditure. AMREF reported a technology-driven solution called LEAP, a smart learning platform for community healthcare workers, bridging the gap between healthcare providers and communities in Africa. However, it was pointed out that lack of internet service and inconsistent service was a challenge to LEAP and other tech solutions that relied on the internet. Professor Kelebogile spoke of recent breakthroughs in medicinal plant biotech that can regenerate bone and cartilage tissue. She highlighted the native flora and traditional knowledge surrounding plants with medicinal value.
Noting that the Covid-19 Pandemic had a greatest negative impact on women and girls, the webinar sought to explore the reasons for this and to see how women could get greater support to enable them to continue caring for their families and themselves.
The Partners brought together an extended panel comprising mostly women. They were Professor Shahana Rasool, Department of Social Work, University of Johannesburg; Dr Sophie Chirongoma, Senior Lecturer, Midlands State University, Zimbabwe and Vice President of Association of Schools of Social Work in Africa; Ms. Nonhlanhla Jiyane, African Renaissance and Diaspora Network; Ms. Clarisse Mefotso Fall, Executive Director of Africa Hope Committee; Ms. Aissata Camara, ZCO-Founder and Executive Vice President of THERE IS NO LIMIT FOUNDATION; and Ms. Amino Ramarosan, Regional Coordinator For Africa, Huariou Commission, along with Mr. Eric Dentor, Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF, as well as the resident panel of experts.
United African Congress, Give Them a Hand Foundation and IAAP noting the toll that Covid-19 was taking on Africa, not necessarily by the number of deaths and infections experienced, but by its impact on society in terms of food security and production, a slowdown in tourism and other visitors etc., began to look towards the future and how African countries could build a sustainable future for its people.
Panelists were as usual carefully chosen to provide their knowledge and expertise in this area. They included Mr. Mamo Mihretu, Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia; Abiy Ahmed and Chief Trade Negotiator for Ethiopia; Mr. Kuben Naidoo, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of South Africa; Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of Sustainable Development in the Earth Institute at Columbia University; Mr. Neil Cole, Executive Secretary at the Collaborative Africa Budget Reform Initiative (CABRI), as well as our resident panel of experts.
Taking note that Africa has/had the most available arable land of any continent, and the fact that it has not been fully exploited for the benefit of the continent, the partners were of the view that the youth could be motivated to see farming as an honorable and viable source of income. It is well known that young men from rural/farming areas do not find farming attractive and move to the cities in droves, often remaining unemployed and becoming hustlers.
Our view was to promote farming as agripreneurship – young entrepreneurs getting some funding from respective governments and development agencies to acquire a few acres of land, get training, be part of a cooperative and become young agriprenueurs. To promote this view, the partners brought together two qualified persons, Mr. Chimimba David Phiri, FAO Subregional Coordinator for East Africa, and FAO
representative to the African Union; and Mr. Emmanuel Parsimei Sakuda, Advocate and Trainer for Agripreneurship in the Rift Valley in Kenya, along with our resident panel of experts, Judy Kuriansky, Mohammed Nurhussein, Milton Allimadi and Stephanie Evans.
Mr. Sakuda, though from the Massai people who , traditionally, are constantly on the move with their cattle, started to cultivate vegetables and other items using drip irrigation to water his crops. His initiative has proven to be successful. The webinar, moderated by Gordon Tapper, attracted an audience of some six hundred people from a wide range of countries.
At this point, in May 2020 the pandemic had spread to 53 African Countries, and we wanted to hear from the journalists and other media persons who were on the front lines covering the impact of the virus on their constituents. Panelists included Ms. Cecelia Ologunagba, P.M. News Nigeria, News Agency of Nigeria; Komla Klutse, TV3 Accra, Ghana; Dr Ralph Mathega, News24 South Africa; Billy Ntaote, Center for Investigative Journalism, Lesotho; as well as our resident panel of experts.
This webinar expanded our focus from the pandemic in Africa to its impact on Latin America and the Caribbean and the Developing countries. This was due to our concern that the developing countries were not receiving an equitable distribution of vaccines. The UN Secretary-General had pointed out that in the West, 1 in 4 persons took the vaccine, but in developing countries, it was only 1 in 500.
Panelists included, H.E Sidique Wai, Ambassador of the Republic of Sierra Leone to the United States; H.E Mr. Frederic EDdem Hegbe, Ambassador of Togo to the United States; DRr Dr. Hiwote Solomon, Research Scientist and Officer in Charge of CDC Boston Quarantine Station; Dr Rouguiatou Balde, Guinea, and Special Advisor to the African Renaissance and Diaspora Network; Dr Upton Allen, Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases, Hospital for Sick Children and Professor, Institute of Health Policy, University of Toronto; Sara Branco, Legal Advisor to the Center for Studies of Labor Relations and Inequalities CEERT, BRAZIL; as well as our resident panel of experts.
Saturday, 14 February, the coalition for Africa healthcare hosted a major virtual concert streamed live on BET AFRICA, for the purpose of drawing the attention of the international community to the lack of adequate medical facilities and health services in most of Africa and to mobilize resources for the more underserved communities. The coalition for Africa healthcare comprised the United African congress, give them a hand foundation, international association of applied psychology, earths tights institute and Black Star News.
The coalition also hoped to raise funds to be able to purchase mobile clinics for some of the underserved communities. These mobile units would work from a central hub, being a hospital, and visit different communities each day to attend to the sick and women with maternal issues. Unfortunately, although the event was viewed by more than 400,000 people on BET AFRICA live, no funds were raised. However, we believe that the alarm was raised and that the governments of the African countries and the NGO Community took notice.
Performers included Master KG of Jerusalem fame, Nomcebo, Makhadzi, Zanda Zakusa, Julian Marley, Oumou Sangare, Ricky Kej, Rocky Dawuni, and Doug E Fresh.
Give Them a Hand Foundation and United African Congress partnered with the Lions Club of Kingston and Mandeville in Jamaica and several alumni Chapters of the University of the West Indies to host an online edutainment event/concert in the hope that it would educate and encourage Jamaicans and other people in the Caribbean to take the covid-19 Vaccination as the best way of protecting themselves from infection, hospitalization, and possibly death from Covid. We assembled a good mix of entertainers, some from the Caribbean and some from African countries, a group of highly regarded scientists and medical practitioners, and a representative of the church.
At that time Jamaica had one of the lowest vaccination rates in the Caribbean as there was an active and vocal opposition to it. Vaccinations were more accepted by other Caribbean nations, but it was still important to reach out to the entire Caribbean.
The show was MCed by popular Jamaican media personality, Fluffy Diva and the Entertainers included popular Jamaican band, Fab Five and Reggae singer Nadine Sutherland as well as Trinidadian artist xxxxxxxxx. Also participating were Sierra Leoneans, Menace the General and Swadu and Cameroonian singer xxxxx.
From the health services community we had Professor Figueroa from the University of the West indies, Professor Winston Davidson from the University of Technology, Professor Augustine Swinburne, Dr Joy St. John of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), and from the church, Reverend Newton Dixon. The objective of combining entertainment with presentation from the scientist was to have enough entertainment to hold the viewers’ interest long enough to hear the messages from the scientists.
We also aired short interviews with people on the ground who we stopped and asked for their views on the COVID-19 vaccine. Most felt it was in their interest to take the vaccine as Jamaicans were used to being vaccinated from childhood.
United African Congress along with the International Association of Applied Psychology partnered with the Permanent Mission of Sierra Leone to the United Nations and the Permanent Missions of Canada, Mexico Portugal Mali, Ecuador, Lebanon, Sweden, Georgia, Bahrain, Costa Rica, and Qatar in hosting a High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development with a focus on “Building Back Better” after Covid 19. This event, taking place when it did, with countries beginning to emerge from the pandemic and millions of people worldwide experiencing the trauma of illnesses and death of close family members and friends, we focused on addressing their Mental Health and Wellbeing using contributions from psychological science and the practice to Leave No One Behind.
The programme was divided into four segments, the opening remarks by four speakers, the High Level Segment in which twelve Ambassadors from the co-sponsoring missions to the United Nations spoke as well as the Director of the WHO office in New York, next the segment with Scientific experts, and finally Voices from the Field where we heard from people who were in the firing line or who implemented programs to help communities through the pandemic.
