YUVA Celebrated Xmas with Retired, Old People

We, at YUVA, feel blessed and privileged to have celebrated our second anniversary, Christmas and end-of-year this afternoon with grandpas residing at Hospice home.

Here are some photos clicked during the event:

Press Release: Young Trees, Clothes & School Materials Distribution

YUVA wishes to inform the members of the public that in the last 2 months, we have distributed 8,000 young trees, 12,682 cloth materials and 3,000 school supplies to families and children in need.

YUVA is guided by Strategy 2025 – our collective plan of action to tackle the major humanitarian and development challenges present in Mauritius. We will continue  ‘empowering and changing minds’ by focusing our work in the 12 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that we have adopted. YUVA directly mobilizes more than 10,000 YUVANs nationally. They help to organise and run local and regional events and support a large number of projects.

YUVA thanks everyone who has donated the materials. The #iPlantATree, #NoPoverty and #EducationForAll projects are ongoing until March 2017.

No Povery Goal: 75 Needy Families of Cité EDC, Pamplemousses Receive Clothes

Today morning, YUVANs distributed clothes to 75 needy families of Cité E.D.C., Pamplemousses.

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3 weeks left in 2016. Get out of the house. Check on people. Lot of people are going through silent pains.

YUVA has launched its anti-poverty mission by collecting new and used clothes from individuals, civic and corporate organisations, then distributing those clothes to poor and disadvantaged people.

We’re happy to announce that today’s event was also successful, as earlier. Thanks to all for their support and dedication to conduct this program, even in their busy schedule.

Volunteers are most welcome; contact us on 57086868.

YUVA Anniversary to be Celebrated with Retired, Old People in Home

This year, YUVA is celebrating its second anniversary with retired, old people of the Hospice Home (Pamplemousses) on 25 December 2016 at 13:00hr.

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Why retired, old people?

It is the experience of retired persons that they dedicated their lives to the well-being of society and of the nation. All their lives, whatever their profession, they worked every day and all the time to do some service to society through their field of activity and also in their personal lives. They dedicated their energy, thought, and creativity to support and nourish society and to improve the quality of life in their nation. Then, after so many years of hard work and dedication, society rewards and respects them with retirement. Society says ‘Now you should rest, society will take care of you.’ The rest is well deserved. After a lifetime’s work the body now needs to rest.

But because the whole focus of life and activity was in terms of service to society, it is natural for a retired person to think ‘What can I do now, to be useful to society?’ Society does not expect activity from a retired person, but he still feels that he should do something to make a contribution to society’s welfare. All his life, he worked so many hours a day; now what should he do?

Retired people are concerned about everything that happens in society, on the individual level and on the collective level. They are concerned about all aspects of their nation. If society is not ideal they sit brooding over society’s failure. What else can they do because their bodies are tired and now society wants them to rest and to enjoy their retirement.

Society respects retired people, but when they see things going wrong in the lives of people around them, they feel sad within themselves.

Hospice Saint Jean De Dieu at Pamplemousses

Hospice Saint Jean De Dieu at Pamplemousses on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean is a retirement home for people above 60 years of age. It was started by St. John of God Brothers of the French Province in 1976.

There are 75 beds and all the beds are occupied. Residents are men over 60 years (with a few exceptions).

Among the 75 residents 62 are social security (having as a unique resource the old-age pension of Rs. 3,048 per month) & and 13 are private. In the year 2010 there were 21 new admissions, 16 residents died and 4 residents returned back to their families.

Main diseases of Mauritius are diabetes and hypertension and the residents wear traces: hemiplegic etc.

The sources of revenue for the running of the Hospice are the social security contributions, a few private residents and donations from Mauritian benefactors.

The social security Department of Mauritius Government provides the services of a doctor once in a week for 3 hours, one nurse for two days in a week for 16 hours, one occupational therapist for six hours a week and a physiotherapist for three hours a week.

We, at YUVA, feel blessed and privileged to be celebrating our 2nd anniversary, Xmas 2016 and the end-of-year with these grandpas.

YUVA and Nigeria’s Dopachris Trust Foundation sign MoU to Endorse Poverty Alleviation

YUVA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nigeria’s Dopachris Trust Foundation (DTF) with the aim to endorse poverty alleviation in the continent of Africa.

Mr Krishna Athal, National President of YUVA and Mr Okereafor Emmanuel, chief executive officer of DTF have signed the MoU today.

About Dopachris Trust Foundation

DTF organisation is a foundation for Development of orphanage youths and poverty alleviation designed for skill training and secondary education of an orphanage youths. DTF helps in organising free Adult youths secondary education, empowerment to entrepreneur scheme, assisting the Development of Rural communities on the same empowerments and promoting youth’s sensitisation. Many orphanage homes only exist in rendering a Business forum with a personal interest on profit making through child labour.

DTF assists only Helpless and Hopeless youths, dropped from schools, orphanage homes, and Helpless youths become useful tools to the society. The organisation trains them in different profession like sewing, shoe making, carpentry, Driving, making Blocks and Building design, computer Repairs, photography and secondary education.

This foundation was designed to meet up the urgent needs in the life of our young leaders of today, and tomorrow.

Aim and Objectives

  • Provision of assistance to children in need /drop out of school in orphanage home
  • It seeks participation and help from like-minded people/ other related organisations in creating greater base for the foundation to give a true shape and substances to the objectives envisage.
  • Management and support for orphanages/schools or other education institutions for young people.
  • Helping other orphanage/Destitute Homes.
  • To enable them acquire proper social services and make them completely free from any abuse and be equal to the privilege peer groups in the physical, emotional, social, mental and spiritual dimensions, so as to attain full development.

Vision

The vision of the orphanage project is to have a self-sustaining Community Consisting of Youths, Orphanages, Training Centre, and other facilities that helps a community to succeed.

Mission

To provide secondary education, Vocational training, and assistance to those who become orphans, to enable them give all rounded supportive services, so as to be effective and useful citizens of the country.

Education For All: Donate School Materials to Needy Children

Thank you for your interest in making a school or office supply donation. YUVA welcomes your desire to help us make a difference.

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Many children in Mauritius are in dire need of school supplies. The parents are unfortunately not in a position to provide the quality and quantity of supplies needed. The lack of school supplies negatively affects the quality of the education that the children receive.

YUVA has responded to this need and is facilitating the donation of school supplies to needy and deserving [targeted] children.

Please note that we particularly welcome your donations of school, office and related supplies.

Donate: If you already have school and office supplies that you do not need (regardless of the quantity), please send them to us.  We welcome new and gently used materials of all types.

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Recommended Items:

  • Netbooks / Laptops / Kindles / iPads / eReaders
  • Spiral bound, composition and other notebooks
  • Uniforms
  • Shoes
  • Backpack and other book bags
  • Calculators
  • Filler paper
  • Coloured pencils, crayons and markers
  • Ruler with English and metric measurements
  • Coloured pens
  • Erasers
  • Pencil boxes / cases
  • Glue sticks
  • Graph paper
  • Pens and pencils
  • Pencil sharpeners (individual and classroom)
  • Pocket dictionaries
  • Reams or boxes of paper

If you wish to send materials by post, forward them to:

YUVA Head Office
C/o Krishna Athal, National President
Royal Road, Petit Raffray, Mauritius

For more information, call us on (+230) 57086868.

YUVA and World Youth Foundation sign MoU to Promote Research, Development & Youth Programmes

YUVA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Malaysia’s World Youth Foundation (WYF) with the aim to promote research, development and documentation of youth programmes beneficial to youths worldwide.

Mr Krishna Athal, National President of YUVA and Hon Senator Tan Sri (Dr.) Mohd Ali Rustam (former Chief Minister of Melaka), chairman of WYF have signed the MoU today morning.

Areas of collaboration:

  • To raise and administer funds to further the educational, cultural and socio-economic development of youths at national and international level;
  • To identify, encourage, promote and facilitate the expansion of educational, social, cultural, environmental and humanitarian work conducted by youth groups and movements globally;
  • To liaise with local and international governments and non-government agencies, and financing institutions which are actively involved in the field of Youth and human development;
  • To provide finance and support facilities for research and documentation in the area of youth development and related challenges; and
  • To promote and strengthen peace, progress and prosperity among young people throughout the world.

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About World Youth Foundation

The World Youth Foundation (WYF) “an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations” is an international non-governmental organization which was launched in 1994 with the aim to promote research, development and documentation of youth programmes beneficial to youths worldwide.

Our headquarters is located in our own complex, the World Youth Foundation Complex, in the city of Malacca, Malaysia.

Through a variety of our programmes we seek to engage and empower young people on range of issues, as well as give them the opportunity to share best practices, networking and learning through people-to-people exchange.

The Foundation seeks to support the work of the UN and the World Programme of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond, the Millennium Development Goals and the newly endorsed Sustainable Development Global Goals . The Foundation has organized various seminars/meetings, conferences/dialogues for youth in areas such as population,

HIV/AIDS, human rights, education, environment, sustainable development, terrorism, racism, entrepreneurship, globalization, culture, drug and substance abuse, climate change, violence against women, trafficking of women, green growth, youth empowerment and leadership, among others. On February 2007, the Foundation received Civil Society Status from United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), as recognition for raising awareness among young people on the issues affecting our environment. In 2014 the Foundation received Full membership with the Commonwealth Youth Council.

No Poverty Goal: 65 Needy Families Receive Clothes at Impasse Rouillard, Baie Du Tombeau

Today, Sunday 4 December 2016, YUVA has distributed clothes to 65 needy families of Impasse Rouillard, Baie Du Tombeau. 

What a nice feeling to contribute a little time for the distribution of clothes to needy families this morning.

YUVA has launched its anti-poverty mission by collecting new and used clothes from individuals, civic and corporate organisations, then distributing those clothes to poor and disadvantaged people.

We’re happy to announce that today’s event was also successful, as earlier. Thanks to all for their support and dedication to conduct this program, even in their busy schedule.

Volunteers are most welcome; contact us on 57086868.

3 December: International Day of Persons with Disabilities

Today, the world population is over 7 billion people. More than one billion people, or approximately 15 per cent of the world’s population, live with some form of disability. 80 per cent live in developing countries.

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What disability means

A disability is a condition or function judged to be significantly impaired relative to the usual standard of an individual of their group. The term is often used to refer to individual functioning, including physical impairment, sensory impairment, cognitive impairment, intellectual impairment, mental illness, and various types of chronic disease. This usage has been described by some disabled people as being associated with a medical model of disability.

Persons with disabilities, “the world’s largest minority”, have generally poorer health, lower education achievements, fewer economic opportunities and higher rates of poverty than people without disabilities. This is largely due to the lack of services available to them (like information and communications technology (ICT), justice or transportation) and the many obstacles they face in their everyday lives. These obstacles can take a variety of forms, including those relating to the physical environment, or those resulting from legislation or policy, or from societal attitudes or discrimination.

People with disabilities are at much higher risk of violence:

  • Children with disabilities are almost four times more likely to experience violence than non-disabled children.
  • Adults with some form or disability are 1.5 tim es more likely to be a victim of violence than those without a disability.
  • Adults with mental health conditions are at nearly four times the risk of experiencing violence.

Factors which place people with disabilities at higher risk of violence include stigma, discrimination, and ignorance about disability, as well as a lack of social support for those who care for them.

Inclusive society and development

Evidence and experience shows that when barriers to their inclusion are removed and persons with disabilities are empowered to participate fully in societal life, their entire community benefits. Barriers faced by persons with disabilities are, therefore, a detriment to society as a whole, and accessibility is necessary to achieve progress and development for all.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) recognizes that the existence of barriers constitutes a central component of disability. Under the Convention, disability is an evolving concept that “results from the interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.”

Accessibility and inclusion of persons with disabilities are fundamental rights recognized by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and are not only objectives, but also pre-requisites for the enjoyment of other rights. The Convention (Article 9, accessibility) seeks to enable persons with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life and development. It calls upon States Parties to take appropriate measures to ensure that persons with disabilities have access to all aspects of society, on an equal basis with others, as well as to identify and eliminate obstacles and barriers to accessibility.

Theme for 2016: Achieving 17 Goals for the Future We Want

Since 1992, the United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) has been celebrated annually on 3 December around the world.

The theme for this year’s International Day is Achieving 17 Goals for the Future We Want. This theme notes the recent adoption of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the role of these goals in building a more inclusive and equitable world for persons with disabilities.

This year’s objectives include assessing the current status of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and SDGs and laying the foundation for a future of greater inclusion for persons with disabilities.

The observance of the 2016 IDPD coincides with the 10-year anniversary of the adoption of the CRPD – one of the most quickly and widely ratified international treaties put forth by the United Nations to date.

Source: UN, 2016

1 December: World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day is celebrated around the world on December 1st each year. It has become one of the most recognized international health days and a key opportunity to raise awareness, commemorate those who have passed on, and celebrate victories, such as increased access to treatment and prevention services.

UNAIDS took the lead on campaigning for World AIDS Day from its creation until 2004. From 2004 onwards the World AIDS Campaign’s Global Steering Committee began selecting a theme for World AIDS Day in consultation with civil society, organisations and government agencies involved in the AIDS response.

Themes run for one or two years and are not just specific to World AIDS Day. Campaigning slogans such as ‘Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise’ have been used year-round to hold governments accountable for their HIV and AIDS related commitments.

2016 Theme: HANDS UP FOR #HIVPREVENTION

In the lead-up to World AIDS Day 2016, the hands up for #HIVprevention campaign will explore different aspects of HIV prevention and how they relate to specific groups of people, such as adolescent girls and young women, key populations and people living with HIV.

A new report by UNAIDS Get on the Fast-Track: the life-cycle approach to HIV shows that countries are getting on the Fast-Track, with an additional one million people accessing treatment in just six months (January to June 2016). By June 2016, around 18.2 million [16.1 million–19.0 million] people had access to the life-saving medicines, including 910 000 children, double the number five years earlier. If these efforts are sustained and increased, the world will be on track to achieve the target of 30 million people on treatment by 2020.

The report was launched on 21 November 2016 in Windhoek, Namibia, by the President of Namibia, Hage Geingob and the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Michel Sidibé.

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GLOBAL HIV STATISTICS

  • 18.2 million [16.1 million–19.0 million] people were accessing antiretroviral therapy (June 2016)
  • 36.7 million [34.0 million–39.8 million] people globally were living with HIV (end 2015)
  • 2.1 million [1.8 million–2.4 million] people became newly infected with HIV (end 2015)
  • 1.1 million [940 000–1.3 million] people died from AIDS-related illnesses (end 2015)
  • 78 million [69.5 million–87.6 million] people have become infected with HIV since the start of the epidemic (end 2015)
  • 35 million [29.6 million–40.8 million] people have died from AIDS-related illnesses since the start of the epidemic (end 2015)

People living with HIV

  • In 2015, there were 36.7 million [34.0 million–39.8 million] people living with HIV.

UNAIDS World AIDS Day event – Moving forward together: leaving no one behind

UNAIDS will host a special event on 30 November 2016 to commemorate World AIDS Day and the commitment to move forward together to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Websites of Previous Observances:

Source: UN, 2016