Wednesday, September 21, 2022

$25.00 Gift Card for Survey. Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference

The Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference has partnered with the Gilead COMPASS Faith Coordinating Center at Wake Forest University’s School of Divinity to better understand faith-inspired inclusive communities and the services they offer.   
 
They are providing a $25.00 gift card if you complete a short 15-20 minute survey about your organization/institution/faith community’s provision of or willingness to provide educational programming and/or support services for people vulnerable to or living with HIV/AIDS.  
  
The purpose of this proposed project is to develop a dynamic, searchable database of faith based organizations, such as nonprofit organizations with a faith-based initiative or mission and faith communities (e.g., church, synagogue, mosque, temple, etc.) across religious traditions, that minister to people vulnerable to or living with HIV, to be added to the www.AIDSVu.org Service Locator. 
  
To complete the survey, we would like individuals aged 18 years and older and affiliated with the organizations mentioned in the above categories to respond.

**People vulnerable to HIV do not have HIV but may experience life circumstances that increase their likelihood of being exposed to the virus. 
  

Grant Opportunities: Philanthropy News Digest September 21, 2022

 RFP alert

Conservation Alliance invites applications for Confluence Program

Posted: September 21, 2022
Deadline: October 2, 2022
Through the program, the Conservation Alliance aims to intentionally connect to historically racially excluded people to protect natural places....

Annie E. Casey Foundation issues RFP for emerging professionals in the juvenile justice system

Posted: September 21, 2022
Deadline: October 4, 2022 (Intent to apply)
The foundation will award grants of up to $100,000 to three organizations to create paid positions for emerging professionals with experience in the juvenile justice system....

Charlotte Mecklenburg Community Foundation invites applications for Social Capital Grants cycle

Posted: September 21, 2022
Deadline: October 14, 2022 at 12 noon ET
The grants program is designed to support organizations and programs focused on building social capital networks, relationships, and access to opportunities – through the lens of increasing economic opportunity for all children, youth, and families within Charlotte- Mecklenburg....


View all RFPs

Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Youths are being denied. DOJ charges 47 people with stealing $250 million from pandemic program meant to provide meals to needy children

                                    “We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice.”

 Youths in communities are denied even basic needs from shelter, water, and food due to fraud and embezzlement.

The focus of the CNN article is on Minnesota.  Fraud, embezzlement, kickbacks are prevalent in all major cities in the U.S., not just South-to-South nations when we think of island nations, the continent (Africa), and other nations globally.  This is a global issue. 

Our credibility and trust are being eroded with our youth that are looking for direction and guidance, and our “leading by example”.  This is the example that we are setting.

For similar types of programs that submitted fraudulent claims, and other federal or state illegal activities that arose during the COVID-19 crisis.  There is still time to recover trust and credibility with our youths, our next generation leaders that are following our example.

CDS
Chair\CEO BEMA International

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/20/politics/doj-minnesota-covid-fraud-scheme-feeding-our-future/index.html

DOJ charges 47 people with stealing $250 million from pandemic program meant to provide meals to needy children

By Hannah Rabinowitz and Omar Jimenez, CNN

Updated 4:41 PM ET, Tue September 20, 2022

CNN)The Justice Department on Tuesday announced charges against 47 people accused of stealing $250 million from a federal program designed to provide meals for needy children during the pandemic.

According to the department, the scheme is the largest Covid-19-related fraud uncovered by investigators to date. The defendants are facing a range of charges, including conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, and paying and receiving illegal kickbacks.

The defendants, prosecutors said, set up a network of shell companies connected to the Minnesota-based nonprofit Feeding our Future, to exploit the federal child nutrition program, which is designed to provide meals to children from low-income families. The program was expanded by Congress at the start of the pandemic to allow more organizations to participate.

"Feeding Our Future employees recruited individuals and entities to open Federal Child Nutrition Program sites throughout the state of Minnesota," the Justice Department said in a release.

"These sites, created and operated by the defendants and others, fraudulently claimed to be serving meals to thousands of children a day within just days or weeks of being formed."
………………………………………………READ MORE at…

 



Charles D. Sharp
Chair\CEO
Black Emergency Managers Association International   
        Cornell University Climate Fellow
        Deputy Chair, Global Health Security Agenda Consortium
Washington, D.C.  20020
bEMA International

Cooperation, Collaboration, Communication, Coordination, Community engagement, and  Partnering (C5&P)

A 501 (c) 3 organization

 

“We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice.  Not in love with publicity but in love with humanity.  Leaders who can subject their particular egos to the pressing urgencies of the great cause of freedom…a time like this demands great leaders.”      Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

 


 

 

African Nations Take Charge. The future of vaccine manufacturing in Africa. Brookings Institute. February 2022

 

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2022/02/14/the-future-of-vaccine-manufacturing-in-africa/

Reminiscent of the 2009 H1N1 Influenza pandemic, the COVID-19 pandemic is perpetuating the stark reality of vaccine insecurity in Africa.

Less than 1 percent of all vaccines used on the continent are locally produced—a statistic that reveals the region’s intense vulnerability and overdependence on foreign supplies. Compounding these challenges are other obstacles such as the high cost of vaccine development, vaccine market fragmentation, and need for building workforce capacity, to name a few. When these challenges are juxtaposed with the absence of a long-term mobilizing vision, paucity of political will to invest in public health goods and technologies, and absence of enabling policies to incentivize investment and maintenance of vaccine manufacturing infrastructure, the skepticism of a bright future for vaccine manufacturing in Africa appears justified. .............................

African Nations Taking Charge. Now is the moment to launch an African vaccine industry. August 2022

 

https://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/the-world-today/2022-08/now-moment-launch-african-vaccine-industry 

The lack of an African vaccine industry has been a glaring concern for decades. Before the pandemic, 99 per cent of Africa’s vaccines were manufactured outside the continent. As well as endangering the lives of millions, this situation has inhibited social and economic progress on the continent.

In response, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has undertaken an ambitious plan, outlined in the Partnerships for African Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM) Framework for Action, to develop the nascent African vaccine manufacturing sector into an end-to-end industry by 2040. The framework aims to raise the share of African-manufactured vaccines used across the continent to 60 per cent by 2040, or the equivalent to up to 1.7 billion doses annually..............................................

African Nations Taking Charge. South Africa Urges Africa’s First COVID-19 Vaccine Plant to Keep Its Doors Open May 4, 2022


https://www.voanews.com/a/south-africa-urges-africa-s-first-covid-19-vaccine-plant-to-keep-its-doors-open/6556650.html

CAPE TOWN — South African health officials are urging COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer Aspen to keep its plant in the Eastern Cape province open. This follows a Reuters article quoting Aspen’s senior director saying they may have to shut down as there have been no orders for their rebranded COVID vaccine………

African Nations Taking Charge. Nigeria to produce vaccines locally with Serum Institute of India September 14, 2022

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/nigeria-produce-vaccines-locally-with-serum-institute-india-2022-09-14/

LAGOS, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Nigeria will partner with Serum Institute of India to start local manufacturing of vaccines used in the country's immunisation programmes, health minister Osagie Ehanire said on Wednesday.