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COVID-19: ADDRESSING VACCINE HESITANCY AND RESISTANCE IN JAMAICA, WI.

October 16th, 2021

COVID-19: ADDRESSING VACCINE HESITANCY AND RESISTANCE TO TAKING THE VACCINATION IN JAMAICA, WI.

Give Them a Hand Foundation is painfully aware that the Covid-19 pandemic has affected lives all around the world and has taken a toll on almost every aspect of society. Jamaica is no exception, and in fact has one of the highest levels of vaccine hesitancy and resistance in the world. We are committed to doing something to correct that.

Our plan is to host a Vaccine Health and Wellness event on November 19, 2021. It will be streamed on YouTube and Facebook and the GTAH website. We are also discussing the possibility of partnering with one or more TV outlets.

Presently, with our Jamaican partners, we are developing a program which we believe has an excellent chance of attracting the masses that will give us the opportunity to inform and educate. Our partners on the ground are the Medical Association of Jamaica, the Lions Clubs of New Kingston and Mandeville, and several University of the West Indies chapters in North America as well as a number of noted infectious disease specialists in the Caribbean

We are very aware that the Jamaican Government wants at least 70% of the population to be vaccinated. However, we do not expect people to turn out to hear scientists and health professionals speak about the pandemic and the vaccines. The intelligentsia may turn out to listen and view, but not hundreds of thousands of the general public which are the numbers we are expecting to attract.

We will have some popular artistes to entertain people and speakers with whom they are familiar. Speakers will deliver short, targeted messages. No statement will be longer than 4 minutes. PSA’s will be 60 seconds. We will record Man-in-the-Street interviews in Half-Way-Tree, Mandeville and May Pen and play the myths and misinformation that they repeat, rebutting each as they appear. The entire program will be pre-recorded.

Speakers who have confirmed are Dr. Morais Guy, MP and Shadow Minister of Health; Professor Peter Figueroa, University of the West Indies; Professor Swinburne Augustine (Dominica); Professor Winston Davidson, as well as Speakers from Sierra Leone and the World Health Organization (WHO); Harold Lovell, Former MP, Antigua, and Barbuda, and Dr. Joy St. John (CARPHA). Mr Leachim Semaj, Faith leader, Rev Newton Dixon and Dr Abrahams are all on board as well. We have invited Dr. Christopher Tufton, Minister of Health, and hope to have him on board shortly.

The following artists have agreed to perform in the event: Nadine Sutherland, Christopher Martin, Ding Dong, Fab5, Menace Da General (Sierra Leone), and Daphne (Cameroonian superstar). Frankie Campbell is the musical director for the event. The Mighty Sparrow and Patrick Ewing have agreed to record PSA’s in support of vaccination. Fab5 will be the musical director; Phase 3 Productions will do the video recording and Big Yard Studios will be the venue for the artistes to perform.

We are still in need of funding, and we are asking concerned global citizens who are reading this to assist by donating to cover the costs of production, which will amount to US$25,000. Working together we can save lives and improve health outcomes for COVID-19 in Jamaica and the Caribbean.

Africa Rise! 2020 – A FREE VIRTUAL FUNDRAISING EVENT

August 27th, 2020

Give Them a Hand Foundation and partners – Earth Rights Institute, Inc., the United African Congress along with Black Star News, Cool and Kosie Productions and the International Association of Applied Psychology – have been concerned about the poor health care infrastructure in most African countries for several years now.

The lack of dependable, easily accessible hospitals and medical centers has been put in the spotlight recently by the Covid-19 pandemic and spurred many well-meaning organizations to take action to help governments and the people in their fight against the pandemic.

As far as we know most of those organizations are providing masks and other PPE for vulnerable populations. Those are very much needed today. However, our coalition has decided on a project that will benefit the continent on a permanent basis and be able to address not only communicable diseases but those like malaria and yellow fever and also reduce the number of maternal and infant deaths that occur.

To realize this goal, GTAH and partners will host a virtual fundraising concert on 5 December 2020 to raise funds for the purchase of mobile clinics and to build medical centres in the more remote and underserved rural communities in the countries in Africa most in need.

In this first year of our effort, we will focus on a limited number of countries in each of the five regions of Africa. Note that a mobile clinic functioning from an anchor-base hospital can serve a number of villages within a wide area. They will also be equipped to facilitate telemedicine services.

Give Them a Hand Foundation, Earth Rights Institute (ERI), the International Association of Applied Psychology and The United African Congress (UAC), have a well-established history of hosting awareness-raising campaigns on behalf of Africa and the Diaspora. For example, ERI facilitated the creation of Eco-Villages in Nigeria, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory-Coast and Senegal. GTAH and UAC hosted a major awareness-raising forum and concert at the United Nations during the Ebola epidemic that plagued West Africa 2014-2015.

In addition, GTAH and UAC provided humanitarian relief for Hurricane Sandy victims in New York, Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans as well as for earthquake victims in Haiti. The collaboration continues to host an annual World Interfaith Harmony event in the United States of America.

CONCERT: The free virtual global concert “Africa Rise! 2020” has already engaged a number of top artists from the Caribbean, Africa, the USA and the UK. There will be stars from Broadway, Grammy winning tap dancers as well as a prominent dance troupe and familiar figures in cinema and fashion. In addition, we have brought on board dozens of sports stars from the world of football/soccer, cricket, the NBA, the NFL, and cycling.

EVENT TIMELINE AND DURATION: The date for the concert is 5 December 2020 for a duration of three hours.

LOGISTICS: The concert will be broadcast and live streamed on several platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, African digital streaming channels and other social media outlets.

CONTRIBUTIONS AND DONATIONS: The concert will be interspersed with appeals for contributions, interesting features about Africa, and educational material. Donations will be made via mobile phone and website payment platforms as well as through direct interfaces during the live broadcast of the virtual show.

ORGANIZERS: Event conveners will be supported by a multi-talented team of music producers and authorized streaming providers with technological capacity to access rural community participation, and global viewers and donors.

GLOBAL TEAM:

Gordon Tapper, Founder, Give Them a Hand Foundation

Annie Goeke, Earth Rights Institute

Mohammed Nurhussein, Chairman, United African Congress

Stephanie Evans, Give Them A Hand Foundation

Judy Kuriansky, International Association of Applied Psychology

Milton Allimadi, Black Star News

GTAH, UAC, IAAP and Black Star News host Webinars on ‘The Coronavirus in Africa’

August 9th, 2020

Give Them a Hand Foundation and Partners Remain Committed to Improving the Medical Infrastructure of African Countries

The Give Them a Hand Foundation (GTAH) and its partners, United African Congress (UAC), International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP) and Black Star News, have always had as their main focus the development of Africa and its 54 countries, and facilitating the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This includes an emphasis on socio-economic development, gender equality, education for youth, and healthcare services for all, with special attention to remote rural, underserved communities.

In 2014, we were among the organizations first to sound the alarm about the impending Ebola outbreak in West Africa and its potential to become a worldwide pandemic. As a result, we hosted the first forum held at the United Nations on the subject, bringing together the Ambassadors of the three most-affected countries – Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea – with representatives from civil society, WHO, the UN, and the medical profession. An impressive outcome was that expatriate organizations mobilized to send over a million-dollars-worth of medical equipment and supplies to those affected countries. We followed that forum with a major awareness-raising event in the UN General Assembly Hall featuring speeches by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power and the Ambassador of the AU Observer Mission.

In 2019, GTAH, UAC and IAAP joined the fight against the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that was claiming thousands of lives. We partnered with Friends of the Congo here in the USA and held a forum in New York City with panelists from CDC, WHO, Harvard University, and other organizations. We also reached an agreement with the University of Butembo in North Kivu to provide training for students in psychology, communications and pastoral studies, community leaders, and faculty members on risk communication, psychosocial support, and community engagement, including a community service element. The project will be revived when the COVID-19 pandemic ends.

However, our partnership to help the people of the DRC continued, to date, with our partners on the ground in South Kivu. The current project combats COVID-19 in the region through the elements of entrepreneurship (hiring local women to sew masks distributed free to the community), and health and psychosocial skills education, about mask-wearing, hand-washing and psychosocial activities. We provide handwashing stations in key locations and infographics to inform the community on good sanitation and building psychological resilience. Success of the project is anecdotally reported, and data is being evaluated.

As with Ebola, we were the first to raise the alarm about the COVID-19 threat to Africa at the UN. In response, we have been hosting webinars on the overarching theme “The Coronavirus in Africa.” All have included experts from various disciplines, as well as drawn large numbers of registrants and garnered positive feedback from an audience of a wide cross-section of the diplomatic community, government ministers, NGOs, health professionals, advocates, media, and others.

The first webinar, on 9 April, addressed the topic “Coronavirus in Africa: Stopping the Spread and the Panic”. Speakers included the Ambassador of Sierra Leone to the United States, the Ambassador of Ethiopia to the United Nations and the Chargé d’Affaires of the African Union Mission in Washington, DC.

The second webinar on 30 April was entitled, “Coronavirus in Africa: Racism, Discrimination, Xenophobia and Violations of Human Rights in the Era of the Covid-19 Pandemic”. Speakers included the former AU Ambassador in Washington, DC, Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao, UNHCR Deputy Director Richard Towle, Ms. Yaqui Wang from Human Rights Watch, and human rights activist and professor at Emory University, Isabella Alexander-Nathani.

For our third webinar, on “The Impact of the Lockdown from Reporters on the Ground”, leading journalists from South Africa, Lesotho, Nigeria, and Ghana reported on the current state of the crisis in their respective countries.

The fourth webinar, held on 4 June, focused on “The Impact of the Lockdown on Food Security” and featured as the main speaker H.E. Dr. Owuso Afriyie Akoto, the Minister of Food and Agriculture for Ghana.

Our fifth webinar focused on “The Economic Impact of Covid-19 on Africa: Building a Sustainable Future”. Speakers included Mr. Mamo Mehritu, Chief Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Mr. Abiy Ahmed, and Professor Jeffrey Sachs of the Sustainable Development Institute at Columbia University.

The 6th webinar addressed “Innovations and Technology in Health Care in Africa” and the 7th webinar focused on “Gender Disparities: Its Impact on Women and Girls”.

The format usually involves three speakers, presenting for 10-12-minutes, followed by a 20-minute Q&A session with our resident panel of experts, and another 20-minute Q and A with attendees.

Our resident panel of experts comprises Dr. Judy Kuriansky, the main representative of the IAAP at the United Nations and Professor of Clinical Psychology at Columbia University Teachers College; Dr. Mohammed Nurhussein, Professor Emeritus of Medicine from SUNY Downstate Medical Center; Mr. Milton Allimadi, Professor of African History at John Jay College; and Ms. Stephanie Evans, Director of Medical Imaging at Harlem Hospital.

Stephanie Evans, Executive Director, Give Them a Hand Foundation

Gordon Tapper, Founder, Give Them a Hand Foundation

Following see the invitation flyers for the webinars

WEBINAR #1 – 9 April 2020: “Stopping the Spread and the Panic”

WEBINAR #2 – 30 April 2020: “Racism, Discrimination, Xenophobia and Violations of Human Rights in the Era of the Covid-19 Pandemic”

WEBINAR #3 – 14 May 2020: “Impact of the Lockdown from Reporters on the Ground”

WEBINAR #4 – 4 June 2020: “Impact of the Lockdown on Food Security”

WEBINAR #5 – 18 June 2020: “Economic Impact of Covid-19: Building a Sustainable Future”

WEBINAR #6 – 9 July 2020: “Technology and Innovation in Healthcare in Africa”

WEBINAR #7 – 23 July 2020: “Gender Disparities: Its Impact on Women and Girls”

GTAH and the UAC – amongst the first to declare the Ebola Crisis in Africa to be an international disease!

October 12th, 2014

Ebola Forum — Amb. Mamadi Toure,
Amb. Marjon Kamara, Amb. Vandi Minah
(afrikanspot.com)

Ebola Forum, United Nations ECOSOC Chamber – 27 August 2014

A meeting dubbed the “New York City Ebola Forum”, jointly organized by the Give Them a Hand Foundation (GTAH) and the United African Congress (UAC), was held in the United Nations ECOSOC Chamber on 27 August 2014. (See Forum programme below)

Gordon Tapper
(afrikanspot.com)

Mr. Gordon Tapper, the MC of the Forum and Founder and Chairman of GTAH, brought the meeting to order, stating that the EBOLA epidemic could not be defeated by the three most affected countries alone – Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea – but that it would take a concerted effort by the world community to halt the spread of the disease, to beat it back and to find a cure. He added that many countries considered themselves insulated from the disease by distance but that every city in the world was just a plane ride away from the virus.

Participating in the Forum were Ambassadors from the Permanent Missions to the United Nations of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, the Permanent Representative of the African Union Observer Mission to the UN, the WHO, the EU, prominent individuals from the medical profession, leaders from faith-based communities and various expatriate African communities here in the United States.

Sidique Wai
(afrikanspot.com)

Following opening prayers by the Reverend Loune Rouse, pastor of the United Methodist Church in Long Island, and by UAC President, Sidique Wai, representing the Muslim faith, UAC Chairman Dr. Mohammed Nurhussein made his welcoming statement. Dr. Nurhussein commented on the lethargy of the international community to get involved in the fight against Ebola, noting that the first incident of this current outbreak had occurred in Guinea as far back as December 2013. As the blood samples from Guinea had to be sent to France for testing, it was not until 14 March this year that the sickness was diagnosed as Ebola. In those 90 days the disease had spread to the three countries which shared common borders. Dr. Nurhussein attributed this spread to the lack of an adequate health care infrastructure, especially in Liberia and Sierra Leone which had only just emerged from more than a decade of debilitating civil wars. Dr. Nurhussein added that one of his objectives was to see established an AFRICAN CDC to serve as a center for diagnosis and research and to direct the fight against any future health crises that might arise on the continent. He also wanted to see a rapid reaction health task force that could move into challenged areas without delay.

H.E. Ambassador Mamadi Toure, Guinea, acknowledged the weakness of the health infrastructure in his country and said that the traditions and culture of the people, which held that any sick person or dead body had to be cared for and handled by family members, had contributed to the spread of the disease. He urged that doctors and health care workers be trained with those cultural mores in mind.

CDC/Sally Ezra
phil.cdc.gov

H.E Ambassador Marjon Kamara, Liberia, commented on how the epidemic had damaged the economy of her country. She added that with the focus now on Ebola, with hospitals and clinics being overrun, and the population fearing that they may actually become infected in the hospitals, persons suffering from other diseases such as malaria, diabetes, and high blood pressure were also dying through lack of care, adding to the already heavy burden.

H.E Ambassador Vandi Minah, Sierra Leone, said that there was both a health care crisis and an economic crisis taking place in Sierra Leone. He suggested that there should be a “health-keeping mission” to his country and to the others badly affected, in the manner of UN Peace-keeping Missions.

Amb. Tete Antonio
(afrikanspot.com)

H.E. Ambassador Tete Antonio, head of the Permanent Observer Mission of the African Union to the UN, commented on the economic effect of the epidemic which had resulted in a 1.5 loss in GDP in the three countries.

Impassioned statements were made by many speakers, but one of the most moving was by Dr. Tomislav Prvulovich, a three-time nominee for the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his contribution to eradicating smallpox, and a veteran of the fight against the earlier Ebola outbreaks in the Congo and Uganda. Dr. Prvulovich expressed anger at how slowly the world was reacting to the Ebola epidemic dismissing it as just an African problem. He did not spare the WHO and other international organizations from criticism. He suggested that scientists should use the blood of those who have survived Ebola to create a serum to fight the disease. Dr. Prvulovich and some of his colleagues had actually injected themselves with the blood of survivors when they were in the Congo in 1976 to give themselves some kind of immunity while tending to the sick and trying to find a cure. (See video statements below)

Dr. Julius Garvey sent regrets that he was unable to attend but the key points of Dr Garvey’s message, read in his absence, were that the medical community needed to find a way to build trust with the local communities and those infected by the disease. He felt that prevention education was important and that what was needed at the moment was not necessarily more doctors and nurses but trained health workers in vast numbers. The expansion of primary care in the future was essential in the rural areas.

Dr. Dexter McKenzie, President of the Provident Medical Society, commented that a communicable threat to health anywhere would be a threat everywhere.

Reverend Loune Rouse spoke about the PIT approach he had proposed, and which was adopted by GTAH and UAC, highlighting that efforts should be directed at Prevention, Information and Training.

WHO

CDC/Daniel DeNoon

The leaders of the Sierra Leone community in the Tri-State area and from the Liberian and Guinean communities pledged to work collaboratively with GTAH and UAC in finding solutions for their respective countries, including collecting medical supplies, food items and funds to support local communities.

The Ambassadors closed by stating that they would like to see this spirit carried over into positive outcomes.

Mr. Gordon Tapper informed the Forum that they would be planning a major concert in the near future to be held at the United Nations to both raise awareness and mobilize the donation of resources for the stricken countries.

Ambassador Mamadi Touré – statement

Dr. Mohammed Nurhussein – statement

Dr. Tomislav Prvulovich – statement

Forum Programme