HIV/AIDS PROJECT DONATES 25M EQUIPMENT TO MUFINDI

The US President`s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)

The US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) being implemented in the country under the 'Tunajali' project has donated working items worth 25,160,000/-.

The Obama administration, through US Agency for International Aid (USAID), plans to reach a total of 5,408 people living with HIV/Aids in Mufindi District, Iringa Region.

The project manager for Iringa region, Edna Diallo, said at a brief ceremony to hand over the donated equipment that 148 home-based service providers would be using them, adding that the move by the US government had helped to change people's mindsets in Iringa Region who believed that donor support never reached the targeted people in rural areas.

The arrangement to make physical contacts and provide services in rural areas has exposed some urban-based civic organisations that mismanage donations and support targeting rural-based people living with HIV and those living in difficult environments.

"In its programme to improve the provision of quality HIV and Aids services, the Tunajali programme being funded by PEPFAR has handed over bicycles, boots and rain coats, all worth 25,160,000/-, thus helping people do away the misconceptions," said Diallo.

Earlier, District Executive Director Limbakisye Shimwella said that the commitment of President Obama's programme was a big challenge to civic organisations which have been receiving lots of resources but very little of it reached the targeted groups.

“You witnesses this right here. The Tunajali programme has demonstrated that it is possible to take the donations down to the targeted people. We want other organisations to learn from this initiative," emphasised Shimwella.

Some service providers who spoke to this paper were optimistic that the initiative will help to improve Iringa Region's HIV status.

“I think under such initiatives, we may find ourselves doing better in our ranking on HIV/Aids issues. Having 400 people offering home-based services to victims is a big step forward," said one An

AFRICAN SCHOLARS IN KIGALI TO DISCUSS REGIONAL CONFLICTS

POLICY analysts, scholars and researchers from Africa and beyond are converging in Kigali today to explore and understand the root causes and possible solutions to the persistent conflicts in the Great Lakes Region and their effect on governance.
The two-day high event that is organised by the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) is held under theme, "Governance and Security in Africa: Assessing the Imperatives of Peace and Stability in the Great Lakes Region."
Addressing a news conference yesterday, Prof. Anastase Shyaka, Chief Executive Officer of RGB said the event will provide a platform to find a solution to ongoing insecurities in the region.
"The high level policy dialogue is of an academic nature seeking to find scholarly solutions to the challenges of regional insecurity and instability. We hope to come up with alternative approaches to pacifying the region, not to succeed the ongoing political, diplomatic and military efforts, but to supplement them," he explained.
Shyaka observed that, inter-state diplomatic dialogue, joint military operations, intervention of regional bodies and international peace keeping missions have not yielded sustainable solutions to the conflicts in the Great Lakes region.
The forum brings together eminent academics, researchers, political leaders, representatives of international organisations, university students and youth community representatives and the media among others.
The region continues to face persistence of conflicts mainly in the eastern DRC
Rwanda has been at the receiving end of repercussions resulting from the conflict and instability that has plagued the eastern DRC.
"Regional member states have not been in total agreement as to how the insecurity threat should be tackled. Failure to fully understand the nature of the challenge makes it impossible to come up with workable remedies," he stressed.
Shyaka added: "Over the last twenty years several efforts have been made using varied approaches, still lasting peace is not about to be realised. The Conference is not intended as an end in itself but rather an opportune moment to come up with the new shared generated ideas and knowledge to find a lasting solution to the conflicts in the region."
The forum will examine the possibility of pursuing the fundamental solutions to the regional conflicts in the face of a worsening insecurity and instability in the Great Lakes region.

IS IT OBAMA OR MCCAIN?

Obama, Romney predict victory on eve of election

 

US President Barack Obama (Left) greets Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Barack Obama and Mitt Romney both confidently predicted victory on Monday, as they rallied supporters in the dying hours of a bitter White House race, which the US president leads by a whisker.

The foes, drained by fatigue, charged through the swing states that will dictate their fates, taking final shots hours before polls open in an election that will decide whether Obama wins a second White House term.

"We need to have new leadership and new vision for the country," said Romney, the Republican nominee, at his penultimate campaign event in an aircraft hangar in Columbus in the potentially pivotal swing state of Ohio.

"President Obama promised change, but he couldn't deliver it," Romney told thousands of cheering supporters, who chanted "One More Day, One More Day" under a huge banner that read "Victory in Ohio."

Earlier, Romney -- despite trailing in polls of the battleground states that will decide the election -- forecast he would win, and urged supporters in Virginia to help get out the vote on Tuesday.

"We thank you and ask you to stay with it all the way until we win tomorrow night," Romney said, sparking wild cheers.

The Republican candidate was holding his final rally in New Hampshire, though scheduled get out the vote stops in Ohio and Pennsylvania on election day.

Obama, barnstorming with rock legend Bruce Springsteen and rapper Jay-Z, delivered a similar message in the liberal college town of Madison, Wisconsin, pleading with supporters to stick with him in a final push to the finish.

"If you're willing to work with me again, and knock on some doors with me, make some phone calls for me, turn out for me, we'll win Wisconsin. We'll win this election. We'll finish what we started," he said.

Obama is hoping to defy historic precedents which suggest that presidents who preside over shaky economies and high unemployment fail to win re-election.

Later, the president held his last rally of the campaign in Ohio, and repudiated Romney's claim to be a candidate of change.

"You know that I know what real change looks like because you've seen me fight for it," Obama said.

"I've got the scars to prove it. I've got the gray hair to prove it."

Obama was later to wind up his re-election bid with his last-ever campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, the city where his unlikely quest for the presidency began in early 2007.

Then, he was headed home to Chicago for election day.

Election eve polls cemented the impression that Obama has the slightest of leads after a campaign that has cost billions of dollars, but cannot take victory, and the historical validation of re-election, for granted.

The final national polls showed an effective tie, with either Romney or Obama favored by a single point in most surveys, reflecting the polarized politics of a deeply divided nation.

Obama however led by three points in national polls conducted by Pew Research and by the Washington Post and ABC News, suggesting that if either candidate could boast of 11th-hour momentum, it was the 44th US president.

MISS TANZANIA IS NOW OFFICIAL

before 4th nov either of these beautiful girls was sure or somehow optimistic that it could be her to grab the tittle of miss redds Tanzania but now everyone knows...............

Arrested over 'racist' gesture at Chelsea game

 

PHOTO | GLYN KIRK Manchester United's Mexican striker Javier Hernandez (L) celebrates scoring their second goal with English striker Danny Welbeck during the English League Cup Fourth Round football match between Chelsea and Manchester United at Stamford Bridge in London, on October 31, 2012. Several British newspapers have printed a picture appearing to show a fan making a monkey gesture at striker Welbeck during the game

 

• Several British newspapers last week printed a picture taken during Chelsea's dramatic 5-4 League Cup win over Manchester United at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday which appeared to show a fan making a monkey gesture at striker Danny Welbeck
• Chelsea said last Thursday that they were holding their own separate investigation into the incident and appealed for anyone who could identify the fan to contact the club

KAGAME TALKS AGAIN THIS TIME FOR AFRICA

nsform natural wealth into development, Africa told

Wednesday, 31 October 2012 23:29

MR PAUL KAGAME, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF RWANDA. By Veneranda Sumila The Citizen Reporter Kigali. With an annual turnover of about $0.5 trillion from its natural resources, Africa needs to invest just five per cent of the bulk on key development sectors for the continent to kiss goodbye foreign aid dependence, it has been said.African Development Bank (AfDB) president Dr Donald Kaberuka said on Tuesday – during the ongoing Africa Economic Conference here -- that investing five per cent of Africa’s natural resource returns in sectors like agriculture and infrastructure will hasten the pace of the continent’s economic development. “It is a shame for African countries to beg for assistance from countries whoes natural resources cannot not match with those of Africa,” Dr Kaberuka said in his opening remarks at the Economic Conference here. He urged African countries to cooperate and stop working individually. “Among the reasons why we don’t achieve economic growth is because countries concentrate on solving their individual problems and they forget to focus on continental ones, which if they were to jointly solved them, they would do so with a bigger impact in the continent’s economic development,” argued Dr Kaberuka. He urged Africans to own their continent’s decision-making mechanism, saying the solution to African problems rests in mobilisation of internal resources. He said governments must invest in sectors that employ the majority of the population. Earlier, officiating the conference, Rwandan President Paul Kagame called upon Africans to learn a thing or two from their failed past economic development initiatives, urging countries to build confidence over home-grown economists and other experts. “If countries were to work on advice given by their own economists, the continent would reach far. Let Africans talk and find solutions to their problems because they know their continent a lot better than anyone else,” said Mr Kagame. For her part, Ms Helen Clark, an administrator with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said leadership transformation is key to attaining economic development in the continent. “Despite the challenges we face in the economic growth, Africa also needs to work on the challenge of leadership transformation. Countries must also invest adequately in the education of the young,” she said.

BRIGITTE ALFRED IS 2012`S HOTTEST DIVA

SINZA’S BRIGITTE CROWNED MISS TANZANIA 2012

Monday, 05 November 2012 10:38

Brigitte Alfred who won the Miss Tanzania 2012 edition. The much anticipated contest was held at the Blue Pearl Hotel in Ubungo, Dar es Salaam, on Saturday night. Dar es Salaam. Glitz and glamour filled the Blue Pearl Hotel on Saturday night as Brigitte Alfred from Sinza got crowned the new Miss Tanzania for 2012 at a hotly contested final. Brigitte, who walked home with a Toyota Noah and Sh8 million, outsmarted other 29 contestants at the colourful gala. Eugene Fabian from the lake Zone emerged the first runner up, and bagged Sh6 million while the third spot went to Edda Sylvester from Temeke, who walked away with Sh4 million. “I’m so happy and excited for the award, I promise not to let Tanzanians down in the Miss World event,” said the elated queen as she stood in front of her grand prize. Brigitte could not hide her joy, as the outgoing Miss Tanzania, Salha Israel relinquished the crown to her. Brigitte becomes the eighteenth contestant to take the Miss Tanzania crown since its re-inception in 1994. Brigitte’s mother Verdiana Mashingia, who accompanied her daughter during the contest, could not hide her joy as she told The Citizen of how honoured she was to witness her daughter making her and the country proud. “We are all happy tonight, Brigitte has done us proud and I’m certain that she will do just the same for her country,” said the emotional mother. The director of Miss Tanzania organising committee, Dr Ramesh Shah, told the ecstatic audience that it was yet another night of proving how the country was ready to produce a talent to battle it out in the global arena, later this year. “We have been staging this event for the past 18 years and it is evident that we all want to have the best for the Miss World contest and make our country proud,” noted Dr Shah, amid a round of applause.