The weekly
Newsletter VOL. 2: ISSUE. 48, 13th December,2016
Bolivarian Government of Venezuela
Ministry of People’s Power for Foreign Affairs office of the Deputy Minister for Africa
Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Kenya concurrent to Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Somalia
Permanent Mission of Venezuela to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat).
BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA MINISTRY FOR PEOPLE'S POWER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMUNIQUÉ
The Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela expresses its deepest sorrow to the Government and People of the Republic of Kenya for the tragic event that took place last Saturday, the 10th December, 2016, in Karai area near Naivasha county on the Nakuru - Nairobi highway. The Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela regrets this sad event that engulfed the families of this noble country. We send our condolences to the relatives of the deceased for the sorrow in the face of such an unfortunate and tragic accident. Nairobi, 13th December, 2016
WHATS INSIDE
1. Communiqué
2. Kenya celebrates 53 years of Independence
3. Russia thanks Venezuela on agreement among crude oil producers
4. Venezuela achieved five UNESCO patrimonial Declara�ons in four years
5. Promo�ng the unknown about Africa
Ministry of People’s Bolivarian Government Power for Foreign Affairs of Venezuela Office of the Deputy Minister for Africa
Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Kenya Concurrent to Rwanda,Uganda, Tanzania and Somalia
Permanent Mission of Venezuela to the United Nations Environment programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat).
Congratulates the Republic of Kenya ON THE 53RD INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATIONS
12th December ‘‘ Kenya, country that fought emblematic battles to achieve its independence.’’
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RUSSIA THANKS VENEZUELA FOR EFFORTS TO REACH AGREEMENT AMONG CRUDE OIL PRODUCERS OPEC AND NON- OPEC COUNTRIES
On Saturday the 10th December, 2016 Russia's energy minister Alexander Novak thanked Venezuela and Algeria for their efforts to reach an agreement among oil producers, Petrรณleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) for its Spanish acronym, as informed in its twitter account. These statements were offered by Minister Novak during the strategic meeting between member countries of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Non-OPEC in Vienna, Austria. This meeting, which managed to bring together 25 OPEC and non-OPEC countries, aims to consolidate the agreement reached by this bloc on the 30th November. The agreement that was unanimously arrived at on the 30th November, provides for the reduction of oil extraction to 1.2 million barrels per day. On that occasion, OPEC President Mohammed Al-Sada said during a press conference that the agreement was by unanimous consensus, and will come into effect from January 1, 2017, for a period of 6 months and can be renewable. He explained that the alliance is subject to the reduction of 600
thousand barrels per day by countries that are not members of OPEC, of which 300 thousand are from Russia. The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has maintained its position of working tirelessly in search for an agreement to recover the stability of crude oil prices, due to the considerable drop it has registered in recent months. This proposal was sent to organizations like OPEC and PetroCaribe, as well as in the various international visits that have been made by representatives of the National Government. In February 2016, Venezuela requested an extraordinary meeting with OPEC member countries: "We are proposing that we reach an equilibrium price, which is possible to sustain investment levels and that the energy demand of 94 million barrels is made in a balanced way," said Minister Eulogio Del Pino. He also stressed that the oil block must be faithful to its fundamental principles of defense of a fair price on the natural resource of hydrocarbons: "Since its founding in 1960 this Organization has always contributed to price stability."
www.vtv.gob.ve
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A cultural example to the world
VENEZUELA ACHIEVED FIVE UNESCO PATRIMONIAL DECLARATIONS IN FOUR YEARS
Venezuela is at the head of the world as the country that has achieved five declarations of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in a period of four years, which began in 2012 until 2016. During the program Kiosko Veraz, broadcasted by Venezuelan Television, the president of the Center for Cultural Diversity, Benito Irady, highlighted this Sunday Venezuela's achievement, which is part of the policies of the Bolivarian Revolution to defend and protect the Venezuelan cultural heritage . "With this new declaration we have been at the head of the world, there are two countries in the planet, Venezuela and Uganda which have the largest number of declarations in the period of 2012 to 2016. Uganda has all of them on a list, that is the list of safeguard, but Venezuela has them not only in the safeguard list but also in the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity," he said. He explained that the Urgent Safeguard List and the Register of Good Practices are a set of special measures to protect and preserve cultural expressions, which require attention; however the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity refers to the memories of the identity of a town that has the characteristics of a great fortress.
On December 1st of this year, the Carnival of El Callao was recognized as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), during the meeting of its Intergovernmental Committee held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In 2012, the Dancing Devils of Corpus Christi entered the representative list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO; Also in 2013, the Parranda de San Pedro; In 2014, the Oral Tradition Mapoyo and in 2015, knowledge related to the cultivation and processing of Curagua (Plants whose leaves are used to make ropes, fabrics and various craft objects) Songs to harness and Milk Irady reported that in the next UNESCO meeting, which will take place between November and December 2017, in South Korea, Venezuela will present along with Colombia the songs of harness and milking to join the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. "The next meeting will be in 2017, and we are convinced that it will be of equal success, with the songs of work of llanos, a dossier that we have evaluated jointly with the Colombian brothers," Benito Irady said. www.avn.info.ve
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Promoting the unknown about Africa
Tanzania: When giant rats work 'smarter' than hospitals
The giant rats trained to sniff out TB
people in the country are living with TB without identification. This is costly and dangerous because once the disease becomes complicated, among millions of people, the cost of diagnosis, let alone treatment is very high," says Dr Mgode. According to him, a new laboratory for testing potential TB patients in Dar es Salaam has become a reality thanks to the support of around $400,000 from the UK Human Innovation Development Fund (HDIF).
They are regarded as heroes of TB detection-the Apopo Herorats, which exposed the weaknesses of the country's diagnostic facilities in detecting the micro-organismsMycobateria Tuberculae. Mr Fidelis Ghally, the co-ordinator of the giant rats training in the Apopo project says that trainers use a devise known as a Clicker to help the animals communicate what they may have detected. "We have so far trained 40 rats. Some of them are working in Mozambique, India and Ethiopia. The have successfully ended the week for detecting landmines in Angola," says Mr Ghally. He says the rats have proved to be very creative, dynamic and flexible in knowledge acquisition for rapid innovations to solve various problems in societies. When a rat detects any TB strain, he says, it hovers over the sample for at least three seconds, and the animal can carry out the same process on 100 samples in less than 15 minutes, whereas the same procedure could take as long as two days in conventional methods at health facilities. Saviours and not enemies The Apopo Project Manager from SUA, Dr Georges Mgode says that training rats for detection of landmines and TB, which actively started in 2014 has already detected over 10,000 TB patients in Tanzania and out of them, 6,000 were identified as positive. According to Dr Mgode the technology is cheap and useful, because it uses less time and money than the normal testing methods used in health facilities across the country. "Our recent research findings have indicated that at least 60 per cent of 5
And, in September this year, the HDIF provided $30 million for financing a programme to attract young innovators into such projects in the country, known as Mawazo Challenge. "The Apopo rodents are cost effective in detecting TB. Their level of efficiency in terms of sensitivity is around 80 per cent and specificity 90 per cent depending on cut-off point; that is number of rats used in the calculation. They are normally useful in crowded areas such in the mines and big hospitals with many outpatients," he says. According to a 2015 report from the Ministry of Health Community Development, Gender, Children and the Elderly, new cases of TB remained relatively higher last year at 781,936 people up from 83,227 detected in 2014. Heroes on a bigger mission The newly launched HeroRat TB Detection innovation is now expected to develop to go a step further in detecting other diseases, such as cancer. In his recent speech at the launching of the facility, the Director of Health Quality Assurance in the Ministry of Health, Community Development Gender and Children and Elderly, Dr Mohamed Ally Mohamed said that the Government was now working to transform the facility so that it can reach at a stage of detecting cancer, ebola and other diseases. www.allafrica.com