Sauti Sol Celebrate Big Win @ AFRIMA Gala

Traversing African boarders musically is an art they have mastered over time, and last week was yet another proud moment for Kenyans as Sauti Sol won the Best African Group at the All African Music Awards, AFRIMA.

Having been nominated for many other major categories including the BET Awards, MTV MAMAs and EMAs, fans waited with bated breath hoping that the boys would bring an award home before the end of the year.

The Sauti boys did not disappoint and thanked their fans

Best African Group, All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) 2015. A big thank you to the organizers but most of all, our no. 1 supporters ; the SOL GENERATION. Your reward is in heaven! #ThankYou #Greatness

Tanzanian star Diamond was the big winner of the night bagging 3 awards among them Artist of the Year and Song of the Year awards.  

More Register To Attend Pope Francis' Mass In Nairobi

More Register To Attend Pope Francis' Mass In Nairobi

Standard, Kenya

Catholic faithful from 40 parishes within Nyeri will attend Pope Francis’ mass that will be held at the University of Nairobi grounds. At the same time, a number of priests, also from the archdiocese, have been booked to offer the Holy Communion during the service.

The priests are this week scheduled to attend rehearsals ahead of the Pope’s visit. Speaking on Sunday, Father Peter Githinji of the Nyeri Archdiocese said hundreds of youths and other parishioners will attend the event. “We have been registering faithful who are willing to attend the event, and so far, 100 people will attend the youth conference where they will interact with the Pope,” said Father Githinji. It is expected that more than 1,000 faithful from the 40 parishes within the archdiocese will attend the Papal mass at the UoN grounds.  

Another batch of 800 faithful have also shown interest to attend the mass, although they will not go through the archdiocese. “They will go on their own means, and we have information they have booked private vehicles, matatus and even buses belonging to schools,” said Githinji. Githinji, who is also the chaplain of various tertiary institutions, said students from Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT), Kenya Medical Training Institute (KMTC) in Nyeri, Outspan Medical College and Consolata Nursing School in Mathari, Nyeri, will also attend.

Each of the institutions will send at least 30 students. “We are happy people from Nyeri keen about Pope Francis’ visit and have indicated interest in attending the mass. We are very sure that more people will register with us while others will travel on their own,” said Githinji.

Benue Journalists Task Ortom On Salary, Pension Matters

Benue Journalists Task Ortom On Salary, Pension Matters

Uzo Chikere

The Benue Journalists Forum of Nigeria (BJFN) has called on the Executive Governor of Benue State, Dr. Samuel Ortom, to treat issues of salary and pension with deserved urgency as 99 per cent of the state’s workforce relies wholly on salary for survival.
President of the forum, Comrade Joseph Saater Undu, made this call at a plenary meeting of the executive members held in Lagos recently. According to him, prompt payment of salaries and pensions would alleviate the plight of every citizen of the state as all the economic forces, which are mostly agro based, depend largely on salaries.
Undu urged the state government to remove bottlenecks that will slow down the disbursement process of the bailout provided by the federal government. He commended the governor for seeking to ensure transparency and judiciousness in the disbursement process through committees, but pleaded that the process be hastened, considering the fact that workers have been starved of their salaries for too long.
“I sincerely urge the governor to give priority to prompt payment of salaries and pensions of retirees. That’s the only way economic activities in the state will be stabilized or improved to a greater degree. Since all the market forces in the state depend largely on salaries, including the rural farmers, I am of the opinion that the state government should treat salary and pension issues with urgency.
“And now that the state has gotten its own share of the bailout provided by the federal government, I suggest that the process of disbursement be hastened because many are already overstretched, having starved too long of their salaries,” Undu said.   
Worried by the dwindling agricultural activities in the state and other parts of the country due to climate change, the comrade sought the governor’s bidding on the federal government to initiate projects through the Ministry of Agriculture to salvage the situation.
He also appealed to political gladiators in the state to sheath their swords and embrace peace in order to move the state forward. He said focus must now be on developing the state after it almost crashed with harsh politicking, full of rivalry, thuggery, slander and sedition.
Also speaking, the Vice President of the forum, Mr. Godwin Anyebe, urged the governor to appoint youths into key positions of his cabinet. According to him, the youths are leaders of tomorrow “and there is every need to give them roles in the government so as to prepare them ahead,” Anyebe said.
He also called on the youths to desist from violence and stop abusing the social media by using it to castigate prominent citizens of the state.

SA Kids Get Poor Even Before They Leave The Womb

SA Kids Get Poor Even Before They Leave The Womb

Sowetan Live

More than half of all young South Africans live in poverty, according to a new report released on Tuesday which is a stark reminder that not even the “born free” generation is free of poverty’s shackles.

For about half of all young South Africans today, the future is likely to be marked by low levels of poor education, high unemployment and restricted access to social grants, according to University of Cape Town’s  (UCT) 2015 Child Gauge report.

The report paints a disturbing picture of the many varied and deep ways poverty continues to prejudice young people’s access to the quality education and by extension jobs. It is a scenario that leaves many to replay cycles of poverty that have marked families for generations.

It all starts in the womb

And the spectre of poverty begins to haunt us even before we’ve left the womb, its fingers shaping the way we are formed, the families we are born into and the way we will relate to society.

“Development really stars in the womb and what happens in the womb… really does set a child up for success or failure in life,” said UCT psychologist Catherine Ward who co-authored a Child Gauge chapter on poverty’s affects on families.

“The children of women who do not get access to good nutrition are really being compromised in a number of ways,” she added. “They may have learning disabilities, they may have lower IQs, they may be more impulsive and more inclined to take all kinds of risks…”

According to Ward, poverty may not only prejudice a child’s intellectual development but also the early, close relationships that will help prepare them for the working world.

“People who live in poverty also experience an extraordinary amount of stress,” she added. “In many neighbourhoods, especially in South Africa, poverty is coupled with violence and so parents are often frightened for their children.”

For many parents, these fears are real.

According to the Institute for Security Studies, Cape Town has recently charted more murders than Johannesburg and Pretoria combined. Most Cape Town murders took place in just 10 of the metro’s 60 police precincts, including Nyanga, Mitchellsplain and Khayelitsha.

Desperate to keep children safe

Ward adds that parents’ fears about their children’s survival may lead them to opt for more severe punishments like spanking or hitting when children break household rules. She stresses that this is not because parents are bad people but because they are desperate to keep children safe.

Ward’s current research is beginning to show that as a result of this fear, many children experience high levels of praise for achievements and severe punishment for mistakes – which can make for anxious children.

The way a child relates to mom, dad or gogo can also become a template for their relationships with partners and even bosses later in life.

“The reaction we have to our early caregivers really gives us a model for and ideas about how relationships are supposed to be,” she explained.

Is love is associated with violence?

“If these relationships are inconsistent, we learn other people can’t be trusted,” Ward added. “If that relationship is violent, we learn that love is associated with violence and these relationships and children in these kinds of relationships are much more likely later on to form abusive relationships wither they are the victims or perpetrators and sometimes both.”

According to Ward, research has shown that children who have good social and emotionally competencies are more likely to do better at school because they can have the relationship skills to resolve conflict, work together and also draw on resources like peers and teachers.

Ensuring good nutrition for pregnant women, access to early childhood development services and parenting programmes can help families to combat poverty’s affects, according to Ward. She also added that policies – both in the public and private sector – had to become more family-friendly.

“We have families in which fathers will leave the family to go in search of work. For instance, leaving the family behind in rural Eastern Cape and this places increased stress on the parent left behind,” said Ward who applauded recent agreements by the mining sector and government to cover old single-sex hostels into family housing.

“If hostels were built to accommodate whole families, we do away with what at the moment is an inevitable separation of families.”

SA Kids Get Poor Even Before They Leave THE Womb

SA Kids Get Poor Even Before They Leave The Womb

Sowetan Live

More than half of all young South Africans live in poverty, according to a new report released on Tuesday which is a stark reminder that not even the “born free” generation is free of poverty’s shackles.

For about half of all young South Africans today, the future is likely to be marked by low levels of poor education, high unemployment and restricted access to social grants, according to University of Cape Town’s  (UCT) 2015 Child Gauge report.

The report paints a disturbing picture of the many varied and deep ways poverty continues to prejudice young people’s access to the quality education and by extension jobs. It is a scenario that leaves many to replay cycles of poverty that have marked families for generations.

It all starts in the womb

And the spectre of poverty begins to haunt us even before we’ve left the womb, its fingers shaping the way we are formed, the families we are born into and the way we will relate to society.

“Development really stars in the womb and what happens in the womb… really does set a child up for success or failure in life,” said UCT psychologist Catherine Ward who co-authored a Child Gauge chapter on poverty’s affects on families.

“The children of women who do not get access to good nutrition are really being compromised in a number of ways,” she added. “They may have learning disabilities, they may have lower IQs, they may be more impulsive and more inclined to take all kinds of risks…”

According to Ward, poverty may not only prejudice a child’s intellectual development but also the early, close relationships that will help prepare them for the working world.

“People who live in poverty also experience an extraordinary amount of stress,” she added. “In many neighbourhoods, especially in South Africa, poverty is coupled with violence and so parents are often frightened for their children.”

For many parents, these fears are real.

According to the Institute for Security Studies, Cape Town has recently charted more murders than Johannesburg and Pretoria combined. Most Cape Town murders took place in just 10 of the metro’s 60 police precincts, including Nyanga, Mitchellsplain and Khayelitsha.

Desperate to keep children safe

Ward adds that parents’ fears about their children’s survival may lead them to opt for more severe punishments like spanking or hitting when children break household rules. She stresses that this is not because parents are bad people but because they are desperate to keep children safe.

Ward’s current research is beginning to show that as a result of this fear, many children experience high levels of praise for achievements and severe punishment for mistakes – which can make for anxious children.

The way a child relates to mom, dad or gogo can also become a template for their relationships with partners and even bosses later in life.

“The reaction we have to our early caregivers really gives us a model for and ideas about how relationships are supposed to be,” she explained.

Is love is associated with violence?

“If these relationships are inconsistent, we learn other people can’t be trusted,” Ward added. “If that relationship is violent, we learn that love is associated with violence and these relationships and children in these kinds of relationships are much more likely later on to form abusive relationships wither they are the victims or perpetrators and sometimes both.”

According to Ward, research has shown that children who have good social and emotionally competencies are more likely to do better at school because they can have the relationship skills to resolve conflict, work together and also draw on resources like peers and teachers.

Ensuring good nutrition for pregnant women, access to early childhood development services and parenting programmes can help families to combat poverty’s affects, according to Ward. She also added that policies – both in the public and private sector – had to become more family-friendly.

“We have families in which fathers will leave the family to go in search of work. For instance, leaving the family behind in rural Eastern Cape and this places increased stress on the parent left behind,” said Ward who applauded recent agreements by the mining sector and government to cover old single-sex hostels into family housing.

“If hostels were built to accommodate whole families, we do away with what at the moment is an inevitable separation of families.”