ELEVEN Forres Academy students who are members of the Friends of Luchenza Action Group (FLAG) are hoping to travel to Malawi next summer.
The students will help with a project to try and make living and studying conditions better for children from the Luchenza orphanage.
Forres Academy has been involved in the project with Malawi since Miss Liz Stewart, who is a home economics teacher at the school, went to the country as part of a teachers' study tour organised and funded by the Scottish Executive to strengthen the bond between Scotland and Malawi in 2007.
Since then, Ms Stewart, has had a keen interest in helping the children of Luchenza, which is in a deprived part of Malawi, and has worked tirelessly to raise funds.
As part of the ongoing fundraising drive, Forres Academy are sending four members of staff to Luchenza with the students next July.
The four: Mrs Mcrae, Mr Alan Donnelly, Mr Pott and Miss Liz Stewart said they were looking forward to the trip.
Group members are raising £1,600 by themselves to pay for the trip and a new school block in Luchenza.
As well as Forres Academy, Mallaig High School, another member of FLAG, and residents of Luchenza are also taking part in the visit and will be raising funds, for the Mulanje mission in Malawi.
This classroom at the Luchenza community school will be significantly upgraded thanks to a project being organised by Forres Academy.
The Luchenza community have so far raised £600 towards their community project, which is a significant figure for a country said to be the eighth poorest country in the world.
The project to improve classroom and community facilities will make a great difference to the lives of the people living there. Meanwhile, the pupils going to Malawi also hope to gain some valuable experience during their visit, learning about the culture and way of life of the African country. As well as raising funds, the students have to devise a lesson that they can teach to the children or the teachers in Luchenza, as well as producing a resource pack to promote awareness of the challenges and opportunities of life as an African student.
The Forres community have also got on board with the project. John McCruden from the Chapter One restaurant has already contributed some funds towards the project by selling pizza with a topping invented by academy students. He is planning a sponsored run from Inverness to Forres accompanied by some of the pupils from Forres Academy and Mallaig High on November 7 to further boost the fund.
Students going to Malawi are also taking their own entertainment with them, taking a variety of musical instruments to entertain the community and are hoping to learn a little about Malawian music while they are there.
Another aim of the trip is for the FLAG group to help the Luchenza community school start an enterprise project, which would enable the school to generate their own funds for the orphans in the community where the majority of people are under 16 years of age.
Construction of a new classroom, which is part of the academy project, means that class sizes can be cut from 100 to 50 pupils, signficantly improving the learning experience.
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
Mozambique: Business Complain about Trade Barriers
Maputo — Mozambican businesspeople are complaining about tariff barriers in the trade of some products with the neighbouring Malawi, despite an existing bilateral trade agreement that effectively removes all tax barriers between the two countries.
According to Tuesday's issue of the daily paper "Noticias", the processing companies are complaining against a ten percent tax imposed on the export of wheat flour, which they consider an unfair treatment for products manufactured in Mozambique.
It is in this context, that representatives from both countries are to meet in Malawi next month, to reassess the implementation of trade under the bilateral agreement in force since 2001.
Malawi is one of the 14 member countries from the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), but is to join the region's Free Trade Area, which came into force last year.
Therefore, trade between Mozambique and Malawi is made through bilateral agreements. This is a more flexible tool compared to the SADC Trade Protocol, especially regarding certification of origin.
The issue of the of 10 percent tax on wheat flour manufactured in Mozambique was one of the matters discussed by a technical meetings held during the recent three-day official visit of the Malawian President, Bingo Wa Mutharika to Mozambique.
No major developments came from the meeting due to lack of evidence on discrimination of Mozambican products exported to that neighbouring country.
Therefore, both parties agreed to meet again next month, this time in Malawi, where the parties will also will discuss a proposal made by the Malawian for the expansion of export products to be exempted from taxes in the trade between the two countries.
The range of products proposed by the Malawians for exemption include packaging, such as cement bags, paper packaging and cardboard boxes, among others for export.
'To that end we have to work together with Mozambican companies to identify those manufacturing these packaging materials and those who import from Malawi, to find out if the reasons are price related. All these elements must be brought to the negotiation table for discussion, because we must give an answer to Malawi", said Cerina Banu, Director of International Relations at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
Banu, who speaking on the sidelines of a meeting involving businesspeople from the milling industry in Mozambique, representatives from the Mozambique Tax Revenue Authority and from the Industry and Commerce Ministry, she added that the meeting in Malawi would cover other trade related issues, especially the movement of goods from one country to the other.
According to Tuesday's issue of the daily paper "Noticias", the processing companies are complaining against a ten percent tax imposed on the export of wheat flour, which they consider an unfair treatment for products manufactured in Mozambique.
It is in this context, that representatives from both countries are to meet in Malawi next month, to reassess the implementation of trade under the bilateral agreement in force since 2001.
Malawi is one of the 14 member countries from the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), but is to join the region's Free Trade Area, which came into force last year.
Therefore, trade between Mozambique and Malawi is made through bilateral agreements. This is a more flexible tool compared to the SADC Trade Protocol, especially regarding certification of origin.
The issue of the of 10 percent tax on wheat flour manufactured in Mozambique was one of the matters discussed by a technical meetings held during the recent three-day official visit of the Malawian President, Bingo Wa Mutharika to Mozambique.
No major developments came from the meeting due to lack of evidence on discrimination of Mozambican products exported to that neighbouring country.
Therefore, both parties agreed to meet again next month, this time in Malawi, where the parties will also will discuss a proposal made by the Malawian for the expansion of export products to be exempted from taxes in the trade between the two countries.
The range of products proposed by the Malawians for exemption include packaging, such as cement bags, paper packaging and cardboard boxes, among others for export.
'To that end we have to work together with Mozambican companies to identify those manufacturing these packaging materials and those who import from Malawi, to find out if the reasons are price related. All these elements must be brought to the negotiation table for discussion, because we must give an answer to Malawi", said Cerina Banu, Director of International Relations at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
Banu, who speaking on the sidelines of a meeting involving businesspeople from the milling industry in Mozambique, representatives from the Mozambique Tax Revenue Authority and from the Industry and Commerce Ministry, she added that the meeting in Malawi would cover other trade related issues, especially the movement of goods from one country to the other.
A new species of mosquito discovered Sapa September 02 2009 at 07:27AM
Scientists are abuzz with the discovery of a new species of malaria mosquito identified by researchers from Wits University and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.
The relative of the Anopheles funestus mosquito was found by researchers in tyres outside a reed hut during studies in northern Malawi in the rural villages around Karonga, on the shoreline of Lake Malawi.
The male specimens were dry-preserved on silica and 63 female specimens were brought to laboratories in Joburg for egg laying.
The survivors and their progeny were reared into adulthood in the laboratory, and studies done on them include sequence analysis, primer design and cross-mating examination. "The results indicate that the Anopheles funestus belongs to a group of similar species (similar in structure and function) that are commonly distinguished from one another through the use of chromosomal and molecular techniques," the university explained.
"Using the unique mosquito breeding facilities at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, we were able to carry out a range of experiments to show that the mosquitoes from Malawi were not the same as Anopheles funestus, and that we were dealing with a species new to science," Wits Professor Maureen Coetzee said.
"The results have implications for malaria vector control, particularly any attempt to use genetically modified mosquitoes.
"They also demonstrate how little we know about the malaria mosquito vectors in Africa despite over 100 years of research on this important disease."
Coetzee's husband Professor Richard Hunt said he had a feeling there was something different about the mosquitoes when he saw them in the course of anti-malaria work.
"It's great particularly when you find out something that has been worked on for so many years, and to come across a new one is really great and exciting," said Hunt.
The newly identified species is not a malaria transmitter, but it looks exactly the same as one of the most important vectors of malaria.
The relative of the Anopheles funestus mosquito was found by researchers in tyres outside a reed hut during studies in northern Malawi in the rural villages around Karonga, on the shoreline of Lake Malawi.
The male specimens were dry-preserved on silica and 63 female specimens were brought to laboratories in Joburg for egg laying.
The survivors and their progeny were reared into adulthood in the laboratory, and studies done on them include sequence analysis, primer design and cross-mating examination. "The results indicate that the Anopheles funestus belongs to a group of similar species (similar in structure and function) that are commonly distinguished from one another through the use of chromosomal and molecular techniques," the university explained.
"Using the unique mosquito breeding facilities at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, we were able to carry out a range of experiments to show that the mosquitoes from Malawi were not the same as Anopheles funestus, and that we were dealing with a species new to science," Wits Professor Maureen Coetzee said.
"The results have implications for malaria vector control, particularly any attempt to use genetically modified mosquitoes.
"They also demonstrate how little we know about the malaria mosquito vectors in Africa despite over 100 years of research on this important disease."
Coetzee's husband Professor Richard Hunt said he had a feeling there was something different about the mosquitoes when he saw them in the course of anti-malaria work.
"It's great particularly when you find out something that has been worked on for so many years, and to come across a new one is really great and exciting," said Hunt.
The newly identified species is not a malaria transmitter, but it looks exactly the same as one of the most important vectors of malaria.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
