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International Overdose Awareness Day – 31 August

31 août 2017
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Uncategorized
Mots-clés: Australia, awareness, crimes, death, drugs, overdose, Penington Institute, substance abuse, symptoms

International Overdose Awareness Day is a global campaign that works towards preventing overdose, reducing the stigma associated with it, and providing support to families and loved ones of overdose victims. The unofficial awareness day is observed every year on August 31.

The day was established in 2001 by Australians Sally J. Finn and Peter Streker as a way to commemorate those who have lost their lives to overdose, and to support the loved ones whose lives have been affected by drug abuse.

Since 2012, the responsibility of organizing International Overdose Awareness Day has been taken over by the Penington Institute, an Australian non-profit health organization. Despite its Australian roots, the day is now observed all over the world.

Recognizing Symptoms of Overdose

Medical professionals define overdose as the accidental or intentional use of a drug or a substance such as alcohol or a narcotic beyond the recommended dosage. An overdose can have serious consequences, with effects ranging from mild disorientation to seizures, brain injury, and death.

Part of International Overdose Awareness Day’s agenda is to spread information about how to detect signs of substance abuse and overdose, and what to do when encountering a person who may be having an adverse reaction to a drug. Disorientation, agitation, difficulty in breathing, and vomiting can be signs of overdose and should not be ignored.

A Global Problem

Overdose is an increasing global problem. A 2014 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that about 183,000 people succumb to overdose around the world every year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an American public health organization, drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental deaths in the United States.

A vast majority of overdose deaths occur due to opioid abuse. Opioids are a class of drugs that reduce the intensity of pain by interacting with proteins called opioids found in the human brain, spinal cord, and other organs. Opiates include illegal substances like heroin, as well as legally prescribed medication such as oxycodone, codeine, and morphine.

Serious Consequences

Overdose is not the only consequence of drug dependence. In many parts of the world, the shared use of needles and drug injecting equipment can make users vulnerable to hepatitis C and HIV. According to UNODC, an estimated 13% of all drug users globally live with HIV.

Drug trafficking and drug-related illnesses and crimes can also negatively affect families and communities. One of the main purposes of International Overdose Awareness Day is to help reduce the stigma surrounding overdose by talking about it and by bringing attention to the fact that substance abuse and drug overdose is preventable.

Source: Text: time and date.com Image: The Globe and Mail

21st Sunday of the Year, A

24 août 2017
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: answers, awareness, Good Shepherd, Jesus, Mt.16:13-20, questions, realize, Redeemer, relationship, Saviour, Son of God

Questions, questions!
Our world is full of them, our lives are full of them – we can’t escape them!
Our minds search and struggle to find the answers – the correct answers, of course.

“What is this?”
“Where did you go?”
“Whom did you meet?”
“How did you manage?”
“Why did you do this?”

Some questions may be important, very important in themselves.
Others may become so because of the person addressing them to us.

And what if it is… God himself who questions us?
This is what happens in the gospel of this Sunday (21st Sunday of Year A – Mt.16:13-20) where Jesus (God-wit-us) asks his apostles:

“You, who do you say I am?”

This question is over 2000 years old and yet… very actual because we know that – in a mysterious way – it concerns us as well!
As you read these words your mind may be already at work.
If you ask yourself who Jesus is for you, the answer coming may be one of those memorized long ago:

  • He is the Son of God, the second Person of the Holy Trinity.
  • He is our Saviour, our Redeemer.
  • He is the Good Shepherd.
  • He is…

And if I stopped you there and asked as Jesus did: “Who is he for you?”
 
This Sunday provides us with a good opportunity to become aware of this – aware of who he is for us, in our lives, from moment to moment.
Aware of what he wants to be and what kind of very personal relationship he wants with each one of us.
Yes, this is a unique occasion to REAL-ize this!

Source: Image: Free Bible Images

World Hepatitis Day – 28 July

28 juillet 2017
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: awareness, diagnosis, disease, elimination, goal, health, hepatitis, infection, movement, priorities, progress, thème, treatment, vaccination, WHO

ELIMINATE HEPATITIS
The elimination of viral hepatitis has now been firmly put on the map. At the 69th World Health Assembly in Geneva, 194 governments adopted WHO’s Global Strategy on Viral Hepatitis, which includes a goal of eliminating hepatitis B and C in the next 13 years. The community responded by launching NOhep, the first ever global movement to eliminate viral hepatitis by 2030.

On WHD 2017, we can build on this momentum and accelerate progress towards achieving the goal of elimination by 2030. 

ELIMINATE HEPATITIS is a simple call to action that everyone can get behind. Regardless of your priorities, the theme can be easily adapted for local use; to achieve elimination, greater awareness, increased diagnosis and key interventions including universal vaccination, blood and injection safety, harm reduction and treatment are all needed. Every activity that addresses viral hepatitis is a step towards eliminating it. 

Source: Texte: www.worldhepatitisday.org/en/2017  Image: whdcanada.org

World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought – 17 June

17 juin 2017
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: awareness, deserts, drought, Earth, environment, international cooperation, land, NGOs, sun, UN, urgent need

The United Nations’ World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought is annually observed on June 17 to highlight the urgent need to curb the desertification process. It also aims to strengthen the visibility of the drylands issue on the international environmental agenda.

Background
In December 1994, the United Nations General Assembly declared June 17 the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. The assembly acknowledged that desertification and drought were global problems because they affected all regions of the world. The assembly also realized that joint action by the international community was needed to combat desertification and drought, particularly in Africa.

States were invited to devote the World Day to promoting awareness of the need for international cooperation to combat desertification and the effects of drought, and on the implementation of the Convention to Combat Desertification.  Since then, country parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), non-governmental organizations and other interested stakeholders celebrate this particular day with outreach activities worldwide on June 17 each year.

Symbols
In March 2005 the UN agencies involved in celebrating the 2006 International Year of Deserts and Desertification organized a logo competition for that particular year. Krishen Maurymoothoo, a graphic designer from Mauritius, won the contest. The winning design featured three elements: a tree, which covers the logo as a protective roof; the Sun, which acts as a symbol of warmth and life; and the dunes, which were formed of several colors relating to the Earth’s land.

The current UNCCD logo, although different in some aspects, shares some similarities with Maurymoothoo’s logo: trees that protect the Earth; the Sunlit sky, which brings about warmth in the background; and the land. Both logos use earth-based colors, which include green and brown.

Source: Text: timeanddate.com  Image: UNCCD

 

International Day of the African Child – 16 June

15 juin 2017
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: awareness, challenges, education, empowerment, equal opportunity, governments, improvement, language, need, NGOs, OAU, opportunities, organisations, protextion, rights, students, sustainable development, thème

The Day of the African Child has been celebrated on June 16 every year since 1991, when it was first initiated by the OAU Organisation of African Unity. It honors those who participated in the Soweto Uprising in 1976 on that day. It also raises awareness of the continuing need for improvement of the education provided to African children.

In Soweto, South Africa, on June 16, 1976, about ten thousand black school children marched in a column more than half a mile long, protesting the poor quality of their education and demanding their right to be taught in their own language. Hundreds of young students were shot. More than a hundred people were killed in the protests of the following two weeks, and more than a thousand were injured.

On June 16 every year, governments, NGOs, international organisations and other stakeholders gather to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the full realization of the rights of children Africa. For 2014, the theme chosen returns to the roots of the movement: A child-friendly, quality, free, and compulsory education for all children in Africa

Source: Text: Wikipedia  Image: Day of African Child

The Day of the African Child (DAC) 2017 will be commemorated on the theme “The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development for Children in Africa: Accelerating protection, empowerment and equal opportunity”.   (The African Child Information Hub)

 

International Albinism Awareness Day – 13 June

12 juin 2017
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: albino, awareness, dignity, discrimination, heriditary disease, inhuman degrading treatment, pigmentation, prejudices, security, social exclusion, UN

On the 13th of June 2017 is International Albinism Awareness Day. It had been proclaimed by the United Nations (UN) to spread information about albinism and to avoid mobbing and discrimination of albinos. The International Albinism Awareness Day aims to increase the global attention to human rights. Albinism is a pigmentary abnormality which leads to an extremely light hair skin and eye color.

Especially among dark skinned civilizations the risk of discrimination and social exclusion is very high whilst among light-skinned people the risk is rather low. In some cultures the so called “albino” are considered as hoodoos. International Albinism Awareness Day aims to clear people’s minds of such prejudices and inform the public about this hereditary disease. The UN-day has been initiated in 2014 but is firstly being realized in 2015.

Source: Text: www.cute-calendar.com

The Right to Dignity
International Albinism Awareness Day was adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 18, 2014. The resolution “encourages UN Member States to continue their efforts to protect and preserve the rights of persons with albinism to life, dignity and security, as well as their right not to be subject to torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and to continue their efforts to ensure equal access for persons with albinism to employment, education, justice and the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health.”

Source: Text: Timeanddate.com  Image: International Albinism Day

 

 

 

 

International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression – 4 June

4 juin 2017
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: aggression, awareness, child refugees, commitment, conflict, emotional abuse, leadership, physical abuse, rights of children, UN

The United Nations’ (UN) International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression is observed on June 4 each year. The purpose of the day is to acknowledge the pain suffered by children throughout the world who are the victims of physical, mental and emotional abuse. This day affirms the UN’s commitment to protect the rights of children.

What Do People Do?
The International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression celebrates the millions of individuals and organizations working to protect and preserve the rights of children. For example, the Global Movement for Children, with leadership from Nelson Mandela and Graca Machel, is an inspiring force for change that involves ordinary people and families worldwide. The ‘‘Say Yes for Children » campaign, endorsed by more than 94 million people, calls for 10 positive actions to be taken to improve the lives of children.

This day is a time for individuals and organizations all over the world to become aware of the impact of monstrosity of abuse, in all its forms, against children. It is also a time when organizations and individuals learn from or take part in awareness campaigns centered on protecting children’s rights.

Background
On 19 August 1982, at its emergency special session on the question of Palestine, the General Assembly, appalled at the great number of innocent Palestinian and Lebanese children victims of Israel’s acts of aggression, decided to commemorate June 4 of each year as the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression. According to the United Nations in China, the statistics of child abuse include:

  • More than two million children killed in conflict in the last two decades.
  • About 10 million child refugees cared for by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
  • In the Latin America and in the Caribbean region about 80 thousand children die annually from violence that breaks out within the family.

Child abuse is now in the spotlight of global attention and the UN is working hard to help protect children around the world. One key factor is the process of international negotiation and action centered around the Convention on the Rights of the Child

Source: Text: www.timeanddate.com Image: human rights watch blogger

World Day of Biodiversity – 22 April

22 mai 2017
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: awareness, business, community engagement, contribution, devlopment, ecosystems, habitat restoration, integration, mobilization, resource, sustainability, sustainable tourism, targets, threats, values, wildlife

Biodiversity and Sustainable Tourism
This theme has been chosen to coincide with the observance of 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development as proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in its Resolution 70/193 and for which the United Nations World Tourism Organization is providing leadership.

Biodiversity, at the level of species and ecosystems, provides an important foundation for many aspects of tourism. Recognition of the great importance to tourism economies of attractive landscapes and a rich biodiversity underpins the political and economic case for biodiversity conservation. Many issues addressed under the Convention on Biological Diversity directly affect the tourism sector. A well-managed tourist sector can contribute significantly to reducing threats to, and maintain or increase, key wildlife populations and biodiversity values through tourism revenue.

Tourism relates to many of the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets. For some Targets (for example 5, 8, 9, 10 and 12) this is primarily about ensuring greater control and management to reduce damage to biodiversity from tourism. For others (1, 11, 15, 18, and 20) this is about pursuing the positive contribution of tourism to biodiversity awareness, protected areas, habitat restoration, community engagement, and resource mobilization. A further dimension is the better integration of biodiversity and sustainability into development policies and business models that include tourism, thereby supporting Aichi Biodiversity Targets 2 and 4.

Source: Text & Image: Convention on Biodiversity 2017, Ottawa

World Telecommunications Day – 17 May

17 mai 2017
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: awareness, évolution, goal, information, internet, invention, satellite, telephone

World Telecommunications Day celebrates the constant evolution of one of the most important factors of our lives: communication. The main goal of World Telecommunications Day (WTD) is to highlight the importance of communication and how information travels across the world. It also aims to increase awareness of how crucial communication is in our lives, and stimulate the development of technologies in the field.

The World Telecommunications Day is in tight connections with the International Telegraph Union (ITU), the committee formed in 1865 to support the emerging communication methods of the time. ITU was present throughout all the great breakthroughs in communication – the invention of the telephone in 1876, the launch of the first satellite in 1957 and, ultimately, the birth of the Internet in the 60s. Even though The International Telegraph Union has since changed its name to International Telecommunications Union, it still remains the most important entity in the field of communications, thus remaining in the spotlight at World Telecommunications Day.

Source: Text & Image: DAYS of the YEAR   TESSCO parabolic antenna

 

World Lupus Day – 1 May

10 mai 2017
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: antibodies, autoimmune disease, awareness, body, cure, fatigue, inflammation, kidney problems, pain, rash

Imagine being bothered by sunlight, being covered in a rash, suffering fatigue, mouth sores, kidney and joint problems, as well as experiencing substantial hair loss and the swelling of lymph nodes. Sounds awful, doesn’t it?

World Lupus Day was created to help us understand that this seemingly random grab bag of symptoms is actually a debilitating, chronic autoimmune disease suffered by approximately 5 million people worldwide, with 1.5 million of them living in the United States alone. In short, lupus causes the immune system to become overactive, creating antibodies that attack healthy tissue causing pain, inflammation and damage in a given part of the body.

Although lupus can be fatal, there is currently no known cure. Sadly, a large majority of people have little to no idea about lupus, often confusing it with arthritis, a much less serious disease. Many people have no idea lupus even exists until they themselves or somebody they know is diagnosed with it. This is the problem World Lupus Day was created to combat.

The History of World Lupus Day

World Lupus Day was created by Lupus Canada in 2004 to raise awareness of this little-known disease that can have devastating effects on sufferers and their families. It was organised by lupus organisations from thirteen countries, who called for their governments to increase funding for research, provide better patient services, increase epidemiological data and raise awareness.

Ever since then, the day has been observed in an increasing amount of countries all over the world. A high profile supporter of World Lupus Day is musician and philanthropist Julian Lennon, who is a Global Ambassador. Other celebrities who have made sizable contributions to the Lupus Association of America are Daniel Radcliffe, Lady Gaga and Ian Harding.

Source: Text: DAYS of the YEAR  Images: Journée Mondiale, Dreamstime.com