Login to BlackFacts.com using your favorite Social Media Login. Click the appropriate button below and you will be redirected to your Social Media Website for confirmation and then back to Blackfacts.com once successful.
Enter the email address and password you used to join BlackFacts.com. If you cannot remember your login information, click the “Forgot Password” link to reset your password.
Jamaican senior citizens age 75 years and older received their first monthly payout of $3,400 under the new Social Pension Programme on July 22. Some $800 million has been allocated in this fiscal year to implement the programme, which targets...
Nationwide protests have taken place since October 7 despite the disbanding of the controversial Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) police unit.
The demonstrators have been accused of attacking police stations and personnel.
The rallies which are mostly attended by young people have become avenues to vent against corruption and unemployment.
Rights groups say at least 15 people have been killed the demonstrations began in early October.
Yet the federal correctional institution that housed Manafort had no coronavirus cases, and Manafort had served fewer than two years of his more than seven-year sentence.
Nearly forty percent of those incarcerated in federal prisons are African American, many serving very long sentences for drug-related crimes.
But Manafort, citing “fear of coronavirus,” ended up serving less than a quarter of his sentence.
Manafort had a lot less to fear, at his minimum-security prison, than a Black inmate might.
Other countries have reacted to coronavirus crowding by releasing inmates in the tens of thousands.
News24 understands that questions have arisen over the apparent stranglehold by the Department of Health on access to spatial data (geo-located confirmed coronavirus cases), data around testing, screening, contact tracing and hospitalisation data - which includes availability levels of medical supplies and high care beds.
This follows a turbulent 48 hours in which:
- Dr Glenda Gray, head of the South African Medical Research Council, one of the country's foremost HIV/Aids researchers and a member of the MAC, slammed the government's lockdown, calling much of it \"unscientific\" and \"nonsensical\";
- She was supported by other scientists and clinicians, as well as various members of the MAC, who said the MAC was not consulted on some aspects and details of the lockdown;
- An after-hours meeting of the MAC on Saturday night, during which Gray was reprimanded by Anban Pillay, acting director general of health; and
- Health Minister Zweli Mkhize, in late night phone calls to reporters, defending the government and his department's actions, denying that, among other things, information is being withheld.
He was responding to a News24 query sent last week, in which access to numerous data sets around Covid-19 was requested, and the Department of Health was asked to address the apparent cloak of secrecy around some types of data.
Van den Heever, the chair in the field of Social Security Systems Administration and Management Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand's School of Governance, told News24 in a wide-ranging interview the reasons given for withholding data, specifically around the location of confirmed cases as well as testing and contact tracing data, were illogical and unscientific.
So far, the Department of Health has not released modelling data or projections, reports over progress made to identify hotspots through testing and screening, contact tracing, testing data per region, and testing data that shows the growth rate of the epidemic (rate of positive and negative cases found per tests done), as well as data that shows time delays and backlogs in testing.
TEEN Rescue Mission (TRM), a non-profit organisation founded by gospel musician Abraham Matuka recently partnered the Indian embassy, a development that will see its members getting job opportunities at Pepsi Zimbabwe and scholarships in India. BY KENNEDY NYAVAYA The deal comes at a time TRM has been making efforts to keep young people off the streets and from immoral activities through various art competitions and training programmes. In an interview with NewsDay Life & Style yesterday, Matuka said the opportunities facilitated by the embassy would enable them to fulfil their objectives of getting rid of idleness among local youths. “This opportunity helps us to achieve our purpose. We cannot effectively influence youths to do the right thing while leaving them with nothing to fill the void of idleness since most of them are very active at this age,” he said. “We would like to thank our sponsors and the Indian embassy for their unwavering support to our activities. Such support motivates us to achieve part of our mission to make young people responsible and reduce crime.” Matuka said under the scholarship programme, young people would be sent to India to train in different vocations that would assist them to become entrepreneurs. Outgoing Indian ambassador Rungsung Masakui pledged more and applauded TRM for making an attempt to keep teenagers away from deviant conduct. “Most of the young people he (Matuka) has been interacting with are actually of a productive age, but because of the conditions that are prevailing in the country, and also for other reasons I think they have been distracted. “He (Matuka) has been assisting to bring them back to the mainstream to make them more productive again, so we are quite excited about that,” he said. Founded in 2018, Teen Rescue Mission assists teenagers and youths to abstain from drugs, crime and early sex, thereby moulding better citizens and future leaders.
However, Digicel Foundation has reached out to to ease that burden through the donation of 1,000 tablets to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.
During a handover last Thursday at Digicel's global headquarters in downtown Kingston, CEO Charmaine Daniels explained that they are focused on enabling students with disabilities.
“We engaged both ministries to enable our students with disabilities to better access distance learning.
“Over the years, the foundation has continued to take on disabilities as part of its agenda,” said Colette Roberts Risden, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.
The Digicel Foundation has proven over the last fifteen years that they care about their corporate social responsibility and I would like to thank them for this donation of 1,000 tablets to children who are in need,” said Terrelonge.
… films detailing the lack of African Americans in astronomy and photography capturing … to police-involved killings of African Americans, have underscored the importance of …
HEAD of the Jamaica Association of Principals of Infant and Primary Schools Violet Thomas-Thompson has commended the education ministry for the distribution of tablets to students, but says she is concerned that the devices are not outfitted with SIM cards.She says students and parents will still face a challenge, in instances where there is no access to broadband connection at home.
According to Satterberg, social distancing, the changes in our daily routines, working at home, virtual education, and the inability to connect with friends and family all contribute to the anxiety in our youth, escalating conflicts into more serious and violent outcomes.
The post King County Prosecutor Looks To Non-Profits To Help Curb Gun Violence appeared first on The Seattle Medium.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness made the announcement at a virtual press conference from Jamaica House yesterday evening as the Government continues to reconfigure protocols for entry and re-entry to the island in its push to fully reopen the country in spite of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Holness said that after a month of the controlled re-entry programme, the projected 2.5 per cent positive rate or 851 cases of COVID-19 has instead seen an outturn of 0.7 per cent, or 82 positive cases since June 1.
Thirty-one thousand applications have been processed for Jamaicans and visitors who wish to come to the island, which includes 23,000 residents and 8,000 non-residents, while approximately 14,600 people have arrived in the island since the controlled re-entry began — including 9,300 residents and 5,300 non-residents.
We did that very high-level control protocol so that we could establish, using very stringent criteria, what is the risk that the population faces from the re-entry programme,” Holness emphasised, adding, “We now know what the risk is... What it means is that we can reconfigure the limited resources that we have.”
He said with the health ministry now having the benefit of testing for entry for over a month, protocols can be reconfigured to allow for more efficient use of limited resources for testing and surveillance at ports and within the island
[Daily News] AS the country inches to the General Election on 28th next week, religious leaders have been urged to abstain from engaging with people, who preach and plan chaos.
Each year, Jamaica celebrates National Youth Month in November. This year, the theme for the month is ‘RETHINK Youth: Resilient through Entrepreneurship, Training, Hope, Innovation, Networking and Knowledge’. To celebrate National Youth Month 2020...
