(UN News)* — Handwashing with soap and water has been identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an extremely important way to reduce the spread of COVID-19 but, in many countries, even basic facilities are hard to come by. On Hand Hygiene Day, marked on Tuesday [5 May 2020], we look in-depth at the work that one US-based NGO is doing, providing soap in shelters supported by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), in Mexico.
ILO Photo/John Isaac | An employee at Clean the World collecting the completed recycled bars (the finished product for distribution) of soap coming off of the conveyor belt.
In Tijuana and Mexicali, close to the border with the US, some 30 shelters house refugees and migrants, including thousands of Nicaraguans; part of an exodus of people in Central and South America, claiming asylum from persecution and human rights abuses.
UNITED NATIONS, New York, 4 April 2020 (UNFPA)* – Around the world, May is a time to celebrate mothers and the health workers who help them enter motherhood. Dozens of countries observe Mother’s Day in May and, on 5 May, the International Day of the Midwife honours the life-saving work of midwives everywhere. Yet this May, as the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps through the world, these celebrations arrive on a sombre note.
If we connect our contemplative practices with social realities we can fashion a healthier present and a better future.
Pixabay/Alexandra_Koch. Pixabay licence.
3 May 2020 (openDemocracy)* — Over the past 12 months Transformation has been running a special series on “Mindfulness and social change,” designed to explore the relationships between contemplative practices like meditation, individual experiences of stress and strength, and structural issues in society like racism, sexism and inequality.
4 May 2020 (UN News)* — A new UN report finds that some 19 million children were displaced within their own countries due to conflict and violence in 2019, more than in any other year, making them among the most vulnerable to the global spread of COVID-19.
Using its fora such as the World Economic Forum – see ‘Strategic Intelligence’ – and its agents (particularly the World Health Organization, the pharmaceutical industry, governments, the medical industry and corporate media) the global elite continues to tighten its grip on the human population, bombarding us with COVID-19 propaganda to heighten people’s fear while introducing new and/or extending existing restrictions to conceal the many measures being taken to execute their ongoing coup against humanity. See ‘The Elite’s COVID-19 Coup Against a Terrified Humanity: Resisting Powerfully’.
UNITED NATIONS, New York (UNFPA)* – A clear view of the toll of the COVID-19 pandemic is only beginning to take shape, but experts estimate the human cost could be extraordinary. The economic and physical disruptions caused by the disease could have vast consequences for the rights and health of women and girls, a new analysis by UNFPA and partners shows.
SANA’A/ADEN (UNICEF)* – Over 5 million children under the age of five in Yemen are facing a heightened threat of cholera and Acute Watery Diarrhoea (AWD) as the country continues to experience increased heavy rains since mid-April. More than 110,000 cases of suspected cholera have been recorded across 290 of Yemen’s 331 districts since January 2020. Children under the age of five account for a quarter of these cases.
From predation to saving the life of all the inhabitants of the Earth
Three scourges are devastating the life of the earth’s inhabitants. | Image from Wall Street International.
The COVID-19 pandemic (more than 230,000 deaths). The explosion and spread of the coronavirus are, according to almost all scientists, closely linked, among other things, to the environmental devastation of recent decades and the deterioration of hygiene and health conditions in most countries of the world.
KATHMANDU, May 1 2020 (IPS)* – This year’s World Press Freedom Day on 3 May falls during COVID-19 lockdowns in many of our countries. Restriction on movement means journalists all over the world are facing obstacles in getting interviews and data, and verifying stories before publishing.
In addition, the global pandemic has been used by many governments to control not just the people’s movement but also their right to information. Journalists have been intimidated or attacked, and photojournalists and videographers on the frontlines often risk getting infected while documenting stories.
1 May 2020 (UN News)* — The UN Secretary-General is calling for greater protection of journalists who are providing the “antidote” to what he has characterized as a pandemic of misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 crisis.
UN Photo/Mark Garten | UN Secretary-General António Guterres, on screen, holds a virtual press conference (file photo).
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António Guterres made the appeal in a video message for World Press Freedom Day, observed this coming Sunday [3 April 2020], in which he underscored the crucial role media has in helping people make informed decisions.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 