COVID-19, Smoking, Drinking and the Anti-TB Champion

COVID-19, Smoking, Drinking and the Anti-TB Champion

Theme: Do Not Smoke; Do Not Drink

We cannot allow smoking if we also want to live a TB-free life. But, then COVID-19 is threatening the life of those with immune-compromised conditions and TB as well.

So, we have to take TB prevention personal and institutional.  Stay safe. Be secure.

The communities must engage in critical prevention activities to significantly reduce instance of COVID-19 transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic/lockdown.

The health facilities have significantly reduced TB services during the COVID-19 pandemic/lockdown.

The communities must provide all non-stigmatising opportunities and contexts TB-medication taking as well as to significantly reduce instances of COVID-19 transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic/lockdown.

The number of people attending health facilities for TB testing and treatment has decreased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic/lockdown.

 TB medication taking at a personal level must be rigorous so that it reduces on number of routes to the clinic for check-ups, reduces vulnerable to drug-resistance or COVID-19 infection during the COVID-19 pandemic/lockdown.

The capacity to provide TB diagnostic services (e.g. smear microscopy, GeneXpert, culture and counselling) has decreased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic/lockdown.

Local communities must be empowered to take care of people with TB.

Overall the capacity for health facilities to provide care and follow-up to people with TB has decreased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic/lockdown.

People with TB can successfully continue their treatment at home when given TB medicine to cover more months during the COVID-19 pandemic/lockdown.

Most of the resources for TB in-patients (e.g. isolation wards, beds) are being repurposed and used for COVID-19 patients. Also health facilities have experienced a significant increase in stock-outs and/or delays in the delivery or pick-up of TB medicines during the COVID-19 pandemic/lockdown.

It is better to stay home, follow the MoH guidelines, sanitize, don’t drink and do not smoke so that you reduce vulnerability to COVID-19. If we don’t many people may be infected and this will overwhelm the health facilities.

With the likelihood that COVID-19 pandemic is raging; health facilities will run out or lack personal protective equipment (PPE) (e.g. masks) to safely care for both TB and COVID-19 patients.

World No Tobacco Day

World No Tobacco Day 2020

Theme: COVID-19 and World No Tobacco Day

Sub-theme: "The secret's Out"

We encourage everyone to join us in this campaign, spread awareness and create a tobacco-free generation.

This is especially important right now as studies show that smokers have a higher risk for severe case of corona virus.

The World Health Organisation calls on all young people to join the fight to become a tobacco-free generation.

Today, we joined the entire world to share our social skills around not taking the habit of smoking. Remember, today is World No Tobacco Day. We are conscious of the damage smoking can do to one's health. Smoking irritates the entire airway and interferes with the body's ability to clean itself or clear micro waste. This in turn increases chances for infections like TB or COVID-19.

We asked ourselves, what we could do to animate to three sets of habits.

The three specific habits are:

1. The habits to refuse;

2. The habits to adhere to not smoking for those dropping the habit;

3. Not picking up the habit to smoke.

We referred to self-care and social care goals to animate our ideas to engaging in practices showing how one can adopt measures to reduce or avoid smoking. We have collected over 50 pictures which have practices whose impact is to build both one’s contexts in which to avoid smoking and the benefits that accrue from this. These pictures cover 10 themes that we found practical:

1. It is a best practice not to pick up a smoking habit, otherwise one gets addicted. This has detrimental consequences.

2. It is a good habit to avoid social contexts that draw one to smoking. Most times there are other incidental life threatening habits.

3. It is good to adopt practices which in turn show you are engaging in activities that do not endanger your life. Smoking cigarettes is a danger to your life.

4. It is good practice to engage in self-examination into what best practices put in you danger. The habit of smoking puts your life in danger by making you vulnerable to lung and blood infection.

5. Seek the support of someone who is more qualified than you if you want to adopt healthy living practices.

6. Recognise there are factors around which you can avoid being lured into smoking habits. Such factors may include: exposure and peer pressure.

7. Recognise there are factors around which you can utilise to stop smoking. Such factors may include: counselling, guidance and a drastic change of habits.

8. Seek to learn other skills which will keep you occupied so that you may not find time for cigarette smoking.

9. Find time to seek counselling and guidance on how you can cope with stress so that it helps you to navigate life without intoxication or inhalation habits.

10. There ways you can engage communities to participate in self-care, influencing others positively and remaining true to positive commitments.

We hope through this pictorial story you will be able to share our sentiments.

#TobaccoExposed

#NoCovid19

#Covid19Loser

#StopTB

Nature Network Animates World No Tobacco Day With Facebook Tailored Educative Skits

COVID-19, Smoking, Drinking and the Anti-TB Champion

Theme: Do Not Smoke; Do Not Drink

We cannot allow smoking if we also want to live a TB-free life. But, then COVID-19 is threatening the life of those with immune-compromised conditions and TB as well.

So, we have to take TB prevention personal and institutional.  Stay safe. Be secure.

The communities must engage in critical prevention activities to significantly reduce instance of COVID-19 transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic/lockdown.

The health facilities have significantly reduced TB services during the COVID-19 pandemic/lockdown.

The communities must provide all non-stigmatising opportunities and contexts TB-medication taking as well as to significantly reduce instances of COVID-19 transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic/lockdown.

The number of people attending health facilities for TB testing and treatment has decreased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic/lockdown.

TB medication taking at a personal level must be rigorous so that it reduces on number of routes to the clinic for check-ups, reduces vulnerable to drug-resistance or COVID-19 infection during the COVID-19 pandemic/lockdown.

The capacity to provide TB diagnostic services (e.g. smear microscopy, GeneXpert, culture and counselling) has decreased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic/lockdown.

Local communities must be empowered to take care of people with TB.

Overall the capacity for health facilities to provide care and follow-up to people with TB has decreased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic/lockdown.

People with TB can successfully continue their treatment at home when given TB medicine to cover more months during the COVID-19 pandemic/lockdown.

Most of the resources for TB in-patients (e.g. isolation wards, beds) are being repurposed and used for COVID-19 patients. Also health facilities have experienced a significant increase in stock-outs and/or delays in the delivery or pick-up of TB medicines during the COVID-19 pandemic/lockdown.

It is better to stay home, follow the MoH guidelines, sanitize, don’t drink and do not smoke so that you reduce vulnerability to COVID-19. If we don’t many people may be infected and this will overwhelm the health facilities.

With the likelihood that COVID-19 pandemic is raging; health facilities will run out or lack personal protective equipment (PPE) (e.g. masks) to safely care for both TB and COVID-19 patients.

International Day Of UN Peace Keepers

COVID-19 and Peace Keeping

Theme: Communities that participate in peace, create societies that benefit from healthy and peaceful outcomes.

They had a grand plan of saving future generations from the scourge of war. It is a motivation behind the creating the United Nations.

Having lived through the devastation of two world wars, the founders had seen the consequences of indecision too. Since its creation, the UN has often been called upon to prevent disputes from escalating into war, or to help restore peace following the outbreak of armed conflict, and to promote lasting peace in societies emerging from wars. But, then COVID-19 is threatening to reverse all the achievements. So communities need to participate in following COVID-19 pandemic response restrictions. The states have to ensure they are providing all necessary anti-COVID-19 protection.

For all of us to successfully engage in Anti COVID-19 response we need to participate in mechanisms entrenching conflict prevention; preventive diplomacy; preventive dis-armament; preventing violence, genocide and a responsibility to protect; peace-keeping; peace-building. However, we must have specially trained personnel to do this. This is why amidst this COVID-19, we must set aside time to acknowledge the UN Peace Keepers for the commendable work they do. According to their website they engage in the following in order for the world to be a more peaceful place.

Conflict Prevention

The main strategies to prevent disputes from escalating into conflict, and to prevent the recurrence of conflict, are preventive diplomacy and preventive disarmament. Preventive diplomacy refers to action taken to prevent disputes from arising or escalating into conflicts, and to limit the spread of conflicts as they arise. It may take the form of mediation, conciliation or negotiation.

Preventive diplomacy

Early warning is an essential component of prevention, and the United Nations carefully monitors developments around the world to detect threats to international peace and security, thereby enabling the Security Council and the Secretary-General to carry out preventive action. Envoys and special representatives of the Secretary-General are engaged in mediation and preventive diplomacy throughout the world. In some trouble spots, the mere presence of a skilled envoy can prevent the escalation of tension. These envoys often cooperate with regional organizations.

Preventive disarmament

Complementing preventive diplomacy is preventive disarmament, which seeks to reduce the number of small arms in conflict-prone regions. In El Salvador, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Timor-Leste and elsewhere, this has entailed demobilizing combat forces, as well as collecting and destroying their weapons as part of an overall peace agreement. Destroying yesterday’s weapons prevents their use in tomorrow’s wars.

Preventing Genocide and Responsibility to Protect

Prevention requires apportioning responsibility and promoting collaboration between the concerned States and the international community. The duty to prevent and halt genocide and mass atrocities lies first and foremost with the State, but the international community has a role that cannot be blocked by the invocation of sovereignty. Sovereignty no longer exclusively protects States from foreign interference; it is a charge of responsibility where States are accountable for the welfare of their people. This principle is enshrined in article 1 of the Genocide Convention and embodied in the principle of “sovereignty as responsibility” and in the concept of the Responsibility to Protect.

The Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide acts as a catalyst to raise awareness of the causes and dynamics of genocide, to alert relevant actors where there is a risk of genocide, and to advocate and mobilize for appropriate action. The Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect leads the conceptual, political, institutional and operational development of the Responsibility to Protect. The efforts of their Office include alerting relevant actors to the risk of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, enhancing the capacity of the United Nations to prevent these crimes, including their incitement.

Peacekeeping

United Nations peacekeeping operations are a vital instrument employed by the international community to advance peace and security.

The first UN peacekeeping mission was established in 1948 when the Security Council authorized the deployment of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) to the Middle East to monitor the Armistice Agreement between Israel and its Arab neighbours. Since then, there have been more than 70 UN peacekeeping operations around the world.

Over 70 years, UN peacekeeping has evolved to meet the demands of different conflicts and a changing political landscape. Born at the time when Cold War rivalries frequently paralyzed the Security Council, UN peacekeeping goals were primarily limited to maintaining ceasefires and stabilizing situations on the ground, so that efforts could be made at the political level to resolve the conflict by peaceful means. 

Within the United Nations, peacebuilding refers to efforts to assist countries and regions in their transitions from war to peace and to reduce a country's risk of lapsing or relapsing into conflict by strengthening national capacities for conflict management, and laying the foundations for sustainable peace and development.

Building lasting peace in war-torn societies is a daunting challenge for global peace and security. Peacebuilding requires sustained international support for national efforts across the broadest range of activities. For instance, peacebuilders monitor ceasefires, demobilize and reintegrate combatants, assist the return of refugees and displaced persons, help to organize and monitor elections of a new government, support justice and security sector reforms, enhance human rights protections, and foster reconciliation after past atrocities.

Peacebuilding involves action by a wide array of organizations of the UN system, including the World Bank, regional economic commissions, NGOs and local citizens’ groups. Peacebuilding has played a prominent role in UN operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Kosovo, Liberia and Mozambique, as well as more recently in Afghanistan, Burundi, Iraq, Sierra Leone and Timor-Leste. An example of inter-state peacebuilding has been the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea. 

Even as we battle with COVID-19, it is pacifying to know that an institution like the UN is still able to go on with all the work they do. Meanwhile communities should go ahead and that participate in all necessary activities to prevent COVID-19 transmission. This alone is a peace activity. It in turn creates societies that are able to prevent COVID-19, benefit from healthy and peaceful outcomes.

Marketplace Whose Currency Is Citizenship

Marketplace Whose Currency Is Citizenship

I met a deep voiced woman,

breast feeding in public,

accompanied by her,

soft voiced husband,

with really big-sized buttocks,

the man,

was shorter

the wife,

whole and taller,

we were in a park,

the grass,

verdant and manicured,

the flowers,

a profuse of clashing colours,

the diversity,

created a unity,

purpose and beauty,

the people in the park,

of whatever extract,

those from,

valleys and hills,

priests and parents,

saints and sinners,

cleaners and litterers,

wasters and repurposers,

the washrooms,

gender neutral,

gendered,

the water fountains,

stained by,

undiscriminating and

abiding love,

they were accessed by,

all people and animals,

men with no beards,

women with hairy bodies,

admiring the beauty,

with no exclusivity,

it was a park,

that included all,

body types of all versions

were the reason,

for admittance,

body types were the,

pass key to this park,

the means of exchange,

the marketplace

it accommodated all,

this park,

whose citizenship,

was claimed by all.

Picture by Jordan Zeus

CIVICUS 2020 Report Is Out!

A report we helped develop.

In Our Case Advocacy amplifies narratives that drive action and greater experiences of life.

The report highlights:

1. The 2020 State of Civil Society Report is out now! In its analysis of the last years, the report found: The pandemic has accelerated major economic, political and social problems; Civil society has proven its value by winning key breakthroughs over the last year; The fight is now on to build a better post-pandemic world – civil society is in the forefront of this battle. 

Read the report at: web.civicus.org/SOCS2020 #SOCS2020

2. The report describes the massive people’s mobilisations to demand democracy, urge fairer economic policies, challenge inequalities, call for more accountable global governance and insist on urgent action on the climate crisis. Read the report at: web.civicus.org/SOCS2020 #SOCS2020

3. In 2019, civic action proved its value from Sudan, where a longstanding dictator was ousted and military rule resisted, to Chile, where consultative processes to write a new constitution are now underway, all as a result of mass mobilisation.

4. “Civil society ideas – such as the green new deal to ensure sustainable jobs, a universal basic income and debt cancellation for global south countries, among many other civil society solutions advanced in recent years – must be an essential component of a socially just and rights-respected recovery,” @LysaJohn web.civicus.org/SOCS2020Summary #SOCS2020

Find time to read it please: