AYNI, Tajikistan (TCA) — In the frame of its activities for environmental protection within the EU-funded project “Enhancing Water and Natural Resources Management and Protection in upper catchments of Zarafshon Watershed” the Italian organization Cesvi, being implementing partner of the Welthungerhilfe Consortium, collaborates with the local population in the target area for the establishment of improved waste management systems. The system that was set up and opened for usage in the area of Shome near Shurmashk village links now the four villages Pinyon, Shurmashk, Pasrud and Marghuzor to the final waste disposal site with a capacity for about 400 cubic meters of household waste, the Delegation of the European Union to Tajikistan reported.
Cesvi staff provided trainings for the village population on waste segregation and separate composting of organic waste in the frame of the planning process for the establishment of the improved waste management system, while being also in charge for the supervision of the construction of the waste deposit site in early 2020, aiming at reducing the unplanned disposal of household waste along the river sides and therefore also reducing the negative impact of such waste onto the health of local population.
The population of the four villages with support of Cesvi decided to conduct a public cleaning campaign in each village to initiate the opening and use of the established waste deposit site and the system in general. The population gathered dispersed waste in the villages and along river banks, and partly brought their household waste to be transported to the final disposal site. Approximately three cubic meters of waste was collected in the four villages and disposed at the new disposal site.
JERUSALEM (RNS) — Throughout high school, Adina Levin, 17, dreamed about spending a gap year in Israel studying at an Orthodox Jewish seminary.
Then COVID-19 hit.
“I was worried the seminary would cancel for the coming year, but it hasn’t,” said Levin, a recent high school graduate and resident of Walnut Creek, California.
Despite its continuing entry ban on all but a few noncitizens, in July the Israeli government decided to allow some 17,000 foreign students — including 12,000 mostly American Orthodox yeshiva and seminary students on their gap year — to enter the country, under strict COVID-19 protocols.
Among them is Levin, who starts classes in September.
She’s glad to be in Israel but had worried that the program’s usual field trips and even Shabbat meals with Israeli families may be curtailed due to Israel’s ever-changing COVID-19 restrictions.
After speaking with some students who had been to the seminary under lockdown during the past academic year, she was reassured that things would work out fine.
“They said the experience wasn’t quite the same, but still great,” Levin said.
Allowing students like Levin into the country has been controversial. Israel is struggling to contain the coronavirus and is denying many requests for family reunification.
Some lawmakers accused the government of caving in to pressure from ultra-Orthodox political parties, which threatened to bring down the government if the students weren’t allowed into the country.
“Why are yeshiva students and (other) students allowed over relatives of Israeli citizens?” parliamentarian Merav Michaeli, a member of the opposition Labor party, tweeted.
Aryeh Deri, from the Orthodox Shas party, defended the move.
“A mother does not tell her children that she doesn’t have the strength to host them,” Deri told Channel 12, an Israeli news channel.
Orthodox gap year programs in Israel are a rite of passage for thousands of diaspora high school graduates, who want to immerse themselves in Jewish studies, holy sites and Israeli hummus.
Partitions separate columns of Kerem B’Yavneh yeshiva students in the study hall. Photo courtesy of Kerem B’Yavneh
Seminary and yeshiva students who study in Israel “experience a lot of religious and emotional growth that can’t be replicated anywhere else,” said Suzanne Cohen, director of Israel guidance at the Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls in Teaneck, New Jersey.
Cohen, whose own daughter will be spending the year at an Israel seminary, said she trusts that Israel and the gap year programs will do everything in their power to keep the students safe.
Dov Lipman, a former Knesset member who pushed for the students’ entry, said both Israel and the students benefit from the experience.
Gap year and other youth programs annually contribute $200 million to the Israeli economy, and the students return home “strengthened in their religious faith and supportive of Israel,” Lipman said.
“Of course there have to be strict rules, and if the programs can’t hold students to the highest standard of safety there have to be very strict ramifications, including shutting down the programs,” Lipman said.
Rabbi Shalom Rosner, a leading rabbi at the Kerem B’Yavneh yeshiva south of Tel Aviv, said 83 overseas students there will need to remain in quarantine for 14 days, in groups of six, as soon as they arrive in Israel.
While the overseas students would ordinarily mix with the yeshiva’s Israeli students, that likely won’t happen, at least for a while.
“That’s a pity because both thrive on getting to know each other,” he said.
Dina Blank, executive director of Machon Ma’ayan, a seminary for Orthodox young women from the diaspora in central Israel, said leaders of gap year programs have been working hard on COVID-19 precautions.
“To the parents, I’d say: Everyone in the industry is dedicated and determined to take care of their children. We take the responsibility very seriously,” Blank said.
All of Machon Ma’ayan’s students will arrive on Sept. 2 and quarantine in groups of six, with each “pod” having its own shower and bathroom. Meals will be delivered to and laundry collected outside their door.
The seminary’s staff already has experience teaching during the pandemic. In March, 17 of the of the seminary’s 50 students decided to stay in Israel — under lockdown. The rest returned to their home countries.
Machon Ma’ayan seminary students pose at a farm where they volunteered after COVID-19 lockdown restrictions were eased in Israel. In March, when the Israeli government imposed a COVID-19 lockdown, most of the students at the Machon Ma’ayan seminary in Israel flew to their home countries. Photo courtesy of Machon Ma’ayan
“Running in the midst of COVID had its challenges,” Blank said. “But it also afforded us a great opportunity to learn how to keep students quarantined and social distancing while continuing to learn and grow.”
Last June, when the government lifted restrictions, the seminary managed to take its students on an overnight hike and brought them to a farm, where they picked produce for struggling farmers.
Given the uncertainty caused by the virus, some prospective students took the difficult decision to stay home this year.
“I realized that if I came to Israel now I probably wouldn’t be able to experience 90% of the things I was looking forward to doing and seeing,” said an 18-year-old American who requested anonymity because he is the only one of his friends to cancel his trip. “I know I’ll be coming in a year or two, maybe on a semester abroad at an Israeli university.”
Avi Weinreb, a yeshiva student who flew back to Los Angeles just before Israel sealed its borders in March due to COVID-19, will be spending the coming year – his third – in Israel.
He plans to return this fall to serve as a counselor to first-year students at the Aish HaTorah yeshiva in Jerusalem. Weinreb hopes the time he spends in Israel this year will make up for what he missed out on during the pandemic.
“I feel like last year was cut short, and I feel like I still need to experience some growth and guidance in my life. I know I’ll get this in yeshiva. I love being in Israel and probably see myself having a future there.”
Padmavyuha, a film that aims to explore religious fundamentalism, has received online backlash for targeting Hinduism and the makers have now pulled down the trailer from YouTube.
Director Raj Krishna asserts his film is an exploration of faith at its highest level. The film, that was recently screened at the International Film Festival of Toronto, traces a religion studies professor who receives a mysterious late-night call. The caller leads him onto a mystic path of puzzles and symbols, taking him on a discovery of a global conspiracy that involves the history of Hinduism. Calling it a Da Vinci style religious, mystery murder, Krishna says “It is also an Indian-American co-production. Ninety percent of our cast was from San Francisco and LA. Pooja has the unique honor of being our Bollywood participant.”
The 40-minute film takes a close look at the fundamentalist nature of religion and those using religion to propagate political agenda and gain power. While Padmavyuha names Hinduism, it could be really about any other religion with Godmen and blind faith. However, it is now facing criticism and has been called a propaganda film against Hinduism. Twitter users have slammed the film, the makers and cast involved, claiming it is an anti-Hindu movie.
While Krishna admits that he is perhaps trying to find a connection with his own roots by making films like Padmavyuha, he claims that he’s done his research. “I read a number of books on the history of colonization and history of Hinduism. I also read about Orientalism – the concept that the west corrupted eastern narratives. I also took help from my father because he is into Hinduism. He was the one who came up with the name. I went deep down into Padmavyuha – the military formation. I went into versions of Mahabharata, Manusmriti, and the Vedas,” he says.
Responding to the backlash, Krishna says, “Over the last few days, the Padmavyuha team has had to endure harassment online as there has been a misinformation campaign across Twitter, WhatsApp, and Facebook to spread ideas about how our film is ‘anti-Hindu’, when it is, in fact, the opposite. Our film explores the beauty of Hinduism, and delves into the history of Hinduism and India, and explores how these histories have been corrupted by the West. Our intention as filmmakers is to shine a light on the rich mythology associated with Hinduism, and to explore the power of faith of all religions and cultures.”
Krishna still anticipates that the film will be widely available next year.
‘Don’t use religion to settle scores’ – From Linus Oota, Lafia
The Nasarawa State Youth Wing of the Christian Association yesterday warned politicians in the state against the use of religion to settle their scores, calling on all politicians in the state to demonstrate patriotism and avoid dragging the people into an unnecessary religious crisis for their selfish interests.
CAN Youth Chairman Solomon Inusa, Nigeria is currently going through difficult times occasioned by insurgency, banditry, kidnapping and other forms of criminality threatening the peace, Nasarawa State has its fair share in these disturbing happenings.
The Christian youth wing observed that dragging religion into politics at this time efforts by all men and women of goodwill are being required to redirect the nation’s course towards a peaceful society, will spell doom in particular and the country at large.
“As a handful of mischief makers who are bent on fanning the embers of disunity and violence are high at work to achieve their selfish aim, men of God and other Nigerians must rise against the trend” YOWCAN stated.
The group noted that the recent story in the media trending since August 23, 2020, with the claim that Governor Abdullahi Sule had joined forces with others to frustrate the appointment of the immediate past Deputy Governor Silas Ali Agara to head the National Population Commission for being a Christian in preference to Alhaji Kura Isa, a Muslim, was not only disturbing but quite unfortunate.
“The content and spirit of the story is a deliberate falsehood to cast aspersion on the person of the Governor with the aim to unsettle the Peace the State is beginning to build from the fragments it inherited from the past.
The authors of this falsehood ought to know that this is not the time to whip up religious sentiments to cause division among the Nasarawa People”, the group declared.
Unlike other parts of the world, Islam spread in Southeast Asia without a major conquest.
It came on ships and boats. It travelled with spices and silk. Swords remained in the scabbards, there was hardly any bloodshed. The benefit of aligning with rising Muslim powers was obvious, but sufis played an important role too.
Indonesia became the world’s largest Muslim country over a period spanning centuries, yet experts are still undecided on how it actually came about.
Looking back at the Islamic roots of the vast archipelago, which straddles the Indian and Pacific oceans, it has attained significance despite the ongoing debate about whether Indonesians are moving away from their so-called pluralistic version of Islam.
What is interesting about how the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad spread in Southeast Asia, says historian Dr Carool Kersten, is that it did not involve a conquest, and that it happened gradually and surprisingly very late.
“First evidences of the local people converting to Islam in present-day Indonesia does not date further than the 13th century. That’s when we find ground archelogical evidence namely tombstones of sultans with Arab names, which demonstrate that local leaders have embraced Islam,” he tells TRT World.
Muslim forces began venturing out of the Arab lands in the 8th century – they were in control of Spain by the 720s and the famed young military commander, Muhammad Bin Qasim, had just invaded Sindh and Multan, in what is now Pakistan, a few years earlier.
In Indonesia, Islam spread peacefully unlike in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, where it came under its sway as a result of Arab conquests, says Dr. Kersten, who teaches at Kings College London and authored A history of Islam in Indonesia.
A 13th century tombstone of a local ruler, Sultan Malik al Salih, found in Sumatra, is often cited as a historical marker for when Islam started to make inroads in the region.
Salih, who controlled a principality in the northernmost Indonesian island of Sumatra, had converted to Islam.
“The fact that he adopted an Arab title and called himself a Sultan rather than a Raja, which is a Sanskrit word for a ruler, is the first compelling evidence that someone from the Southeast Asia decided to embrace Islam and his population followed suit,” says Dr. Kersten.
What has really baffled historians and archeologists is his tombstone, which is designed with the motifs and patterns of what you can find in the Indian state of Gujarat.
What changed in the 13th century?
Gujarat is known for risk-taking traders and businessmen who would not have hesitated in travelling to far-off regions to find a livelihood. Among them were many Muslims.
Trade routes have been instrumental to the spread of Islam. For instance, there’s a large community of Hadrami Arabs from Yemen in Indonesia.
Muslims from China have also left an imprint. The 15th century Muslim Chinese admiral, Cheng Ho, is often credited for helping spread Islam in the Indonesian island of Java.
“It’s always been very tempting to assume that it were the traders who brought Islam. But you need to be careful here. Trade routes were maybe used as conduits but traders are businessmen, they are not propogaters or missionaries of religion,” says Dr. Kersten.
An alternative theory suggests that people belonging to the sufi orders might have travelled the same routes and helped spread Islam in the region. The Islam Tradisional — practised in the region — is closer to the mystic Barelvi sect prevalent in Pakistan and India.
Indonesians and Malays enjoyed trade links with the Arabs and Persians even before the advent of Islam. The answer to why it gained a foothold in Southeast Asia relatively late, might be found in the economics of the region.
Surrounded by water, Indonesia, which comprises thousands of islands, did not have the best land for cultivation and its inhabitants relied mainly on sea trade. They felt threatened by Hindu empires in Burma, Cambodia, and Thailand who had prospered on the back of their vast river plains that were suitable for growing rice.
“The people in Indonesia no longer wanted to pay tribute to Hindu and Buddhist rulers from the mainland. And so they looked for political allies in the Middle East and Africa,” says Dr. Kersten.
A tight hierarchical governing structure, where a ruler had the last word on important matters, might have helped speed up the conversion of the local population without too many skirmishes, experts say.
“Unlike the Mughals in much of India who appointed nizams, amirs and maharajas to do the ruling for them, a king in Southeast Asia was the center of power and wielded significant influence,” Nawab Osman, a Singapore-based Southeast Asia researcher, tells TRT World.
Besides taking up the role of a religious leader with the practice of building mosques next to their palaces, these new Muslim rulers also began to look towards the Ottomans for an alliance, he says.
After Constantinople’s conquest in the mid-15th century, Muslims controlled the international maritime routes and a lot of Indonesian rajas saw it as a mark of prestige and opportunity to be part of such a network should they have converted to Islam.
As Islam became a prominent reglion in parts of Souteast Asia, the local imams woud recite the Friday prayers not just in the name of the local king but also the Ottoman caliph, says Osman.
Orientalist misconceptions
Puppetry also helped spread Islam in Indonesia, where 90 percent of the population is now Muslim.
Like in South Asia, society has traditionally used puppet theatre and effigies to tell heroic tales of the Hindu scriptures such as the Ramayana.
“Puppet shows are a big part of Indonesian culture. So what the Muslim scholars did was they changed the characters of Ramayana to Muslim figures — showing the companions of the Prophet and so on. That was a very effective way for people to convert to Islam.”
But in the Indonesian history written primarily under Dutch colonial rule, which lasted between the 1800s and mid-1900s, such cultural appropriation of symbols was given a different meaning.
“So if you look at the orientalist writings from that period, it would seem that Muslims don’t practise Islam and continue to adhere to certain elements of Hindu belief. That’s quite untrue. Muslims would never do certain things such as worshiping a deity,” says Osman.
And Indonesian Muslims were not just passive receivers of the Islamic teachings. They actively participated in its attainment.
“Spread of Islam in Indonesia was a hybrid process. There was no one moment of conversion – it was a much more fluid system where locals did not give up all their practices and beliefs in one go,” says Dr. Kersten.
Once Islam was established, Indonesian Muslims travelled to Muslim learning centres around the world. The scholars were well versed in Arabic, Persian and vigorously sought Islamic knowledge, he says.
“Islam shouldn’t be seen as something varnished on the Southasian culture. These people were an integral part of the Muslim world.”
Reverse Islamisation
In recent years, Indonesia’s religious groups have come under the spotlight amid concerns that hardliners have started to dominate political discourse.
Jakarta’s 2017 gubernatorial race, in which a Christian of Chinese descent was defeated after a backlash from religious groups, is often cited as an example of rising intolerance.
Osman sees a problem when the current debate is framed around the question of whether ‘Islamists’ are on the rise – a narrative which, he says, was sparked after a strong showing of Islamic groups in the 1999 national elections.
Former Indonesian dictator Suharto, who ruled the country for 31 years between 1967 and 1998, enforced curbs on Muslim political groups and tried to reduce the role of religion in affairs of the state.
That does not mean that groups such as Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah have acquired millions of followers only after Suharto’s removal. Even in the previous openly contested election of 1955, Islamic groups had garnered some 40-45 percent of votes, says Osman.
These days even the moderate groups, such as NU, feel they are under threat from what they see as a creeping Arabisation of the Indonesian strain of religion — dubbed as Islam Nusantara.
“Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama both have been arguing that moderate Islam is under threat from the Salafis, Hizb ut Tehrir and the Muslim Brotherhood types.
“But I think what has happened over the years is that there’s been a rupturing within the ranks of the traditionalist muslim groups and some of their own members have started taking a harder Islamic position.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
As the Republican National Convention continues, Sputnik spoke to Pastor Mark Burns, an evangelical preacher and former Republican candidate for South Carolina’s 4th congressional district seat, who shared his opinion on the level of support for Trump among religious communities, people of color and the undecided, touching upon other topics.
Sputnik: The RNC includes several conservative Christian speakers. What do you think is the level of support for the president among the conservative Christian community? Will President Trump be able to keep conservative Christian votes?
Mark Burns: Support for President Trump among Christians and people of faith is extremely high. You got to remember that evangelical Christian’s community is the largest voters block in America. So this is the number one group. If you’re able to have their support it is very difficult for a Democrat to win on a national level. People of faith and Christians are the strongest groups here in America.
Sputnik: Democratic Georgia State Rep. Vernon Jones, who is African American, is planning to vote for Trump. He said that “The Democratic Party does not want Black people to leave their mental plantation”. Will this rhetoric resonate with black Democratic voters?
Mark Burns: I’ve been on the ground level since President Trump announced his candidacy in 2015. I was here watching the campaign grow from just a few people to this massive machine. I was just with the president yesterday and I can tell you that the rhetoric is causing a lot of black people to second guess their support to the Democratic Party. Now will the majority of black people vote Democrat? Yes, absolutely – that’s going to be the case. So it will take a longer time than rhetoric before the campaign or before the election to begin a change in mentality. Maybe they should take somebody like me and I should run for president (laughs).
But I‘ve seen with my own eyes that black Americans who start as Democrats are now questioning what exactly the Democratic party does for people of color and low income families and at risk communities in this nation. People who voted Democratic their whole life, now, because President Trump is doing more for African-Americans not with just good words or identity politics or playing to your color base, but he is actually doing things like giving money to HBCU’s (historically black colleges and universities), helping people who are getting out of prison or placed in prison by a failed 1994 Democrat policy of putting millions of black people in jail. The president is getting them out of jail. 98% of those that had been released from prison are black Americans. Not only is that he is getting them out of jail, but he is assuring that they have a way to go to work.
For the first time ever the president is working with the federal agencies to allow those who have been released from prison to be able to get a job in the federal system. That is getting people an opportunity to not get back in jail not to do more criminal activities after they are released. The unemployment level among African-Americans is at the historically low level, especially before coronavirus. The president is actually doing things. He is not going to play you to feel good like the Democrats do. They talk about slavery; they talk about Jim Crow, what the Democrats have done in the past, etc. Let’s just look at the cities that are led by the Democrats. When you look at them you’ll see that these cities are in ruins in America.
Sputnik: How much of the African American electorate do you think Republicans can attract?
Mark Burns: President Trump attracted 8% which is pretty high. It was higher than Mitt Romney’s 6%. The supposedly “racist” Donald Trump gets 8%, more than Mitt Romney. We’re looking between 13-15% of the African American votes here in America. It has grown from the 2016 Presidential Election.
Sputnik: Many topics were raised at the RNC ranging from health care to economics and race. In your opinion, will the Republicans be able to attract undecided voters?
Mark Burns: Without a question. I think one of the greatest things of the Democratic party is that they allowed the violence and riots to take place. Not the peaceful protests. Everybody knows that George Floyd should not have died. Donald Trump Jr. said during his speech that if you talk to any police officer in this country, they will all agree that George Floyd should not have died. We need to eliminate racism in America.
But what the liberal socialists have done – they have taken George Floyd’s death and it has been highjacked by socialist anarchists who want to destroy western culture. So the riots, looting and even a murder that has taken place – that is not America. So for those who are in the middle of the road, those who are undecided – they are certainly painting a picture of what a society, the socialist left Democrat party is leaning towards. They are celebrating these violent acts, they are not condemning them. Even those who are in the Black Lives Matter movement should be condemning those who have infiltrated themselves and have highjacked the peaceful protesters.
And you can see what is taking place in Milwaukee right now with this young man who is now paralyzed. He was walking away to his car and the cops shot him six to eight times and now this young man is paralyzed. That is a senseless death at the hands of the police, two people of color in this country and there is a right way to do it and the socialist Democratic Party is doing it the wrong way by burning, looting, killing.
Black Lives Matter, they absolutely matter, just like the black cops that are being killed. Just like the black sheriff that was assassinated while he was protecting his friend’s store while there was looting and burning, the black federal officer that was beaten badly while he was wearing uniform by these so-called BLM protesters. So black lives do matter. All lives matter – baby lives matter, unborn and born. Let’s talk about all black lives. All black lives matter.
Sputnik: The mainstream media is stating that the RNC is trying to “rewrite pandemic history,” saying that Trump supporters are trying to whitewash his actions in the fight against COVID-19. How would you assess such rhetoric and media attacks?
Mark Burns: It is clear that mainstream media has never been a fan of Donald Trump. Since day one they never gave him a fair shot. I am very happy today that President Trump sent a “thank you” tweet to CNN for at least covering the large part of RNC. I am saying some healing is beginning to take place in that matter but the mainstream media has never given President Trump a real chance in that matter and they are blaming this COVID-19 crisis on President Trump.
According to CDC and the doctors who are leading the calls against this horrible virus that is in America, they stated themselves that President Trump acted swiftly once this information began to bump America’s shores. But yet the mainstream media are trying to downplay Trump’s involvement and leadership ability and trying to portray this as this is his fault. This is not his fault. This is a ‘China virus’ and it happened when China refused to allow America, the WHO and other countries that tried to assist them, they tried to keep it quiet. It could have been prevented. It is China’s fault. And Joe Biden and the Democratic party are also downplaying the seriousness of this virus.
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The views and opinions expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
<h2>Dr. Jake Shachar Laks<span class="s1"> has joined the surgical staff of Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel, a hospital ranked ninth-best in the world by <i>Newsweek</i> magazine.</span></h2>
Jake Shachar Laks, 41, has spent his life moving between his birthplace in Israel, growing up in Farmington Hills, receiving his medical degree at the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University, working at U.S. hospitals and now, finally, going back home to Israel.
For Laks, an oncology surgeon who specializes in treating pancreatic cancer, his aliyah is a dream come true.
“It’s always been a dream for me to go back home,” he said. “The medical community there was so difficult to enter. There were only a few positions I could move into.”
Laks, who was an associate professor at East Carolina State University before his move, has joined the surgical staff of Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel, a hospital ranked ninth-best in the world by Newsweek magazine. He is now using his highly specialized robotic surgical training for the benefit of pancreatic cancer patients in Israel and is a faculty member of Tel Aviv University.
“It’s been really exciting,” Laks said about his move to Israel in the fall of 2019. “(Sheba Medical Center) has a really incredible innovation center I have never seen anywhere else. All you have to do is talk to people around the water cooler and you get ideas for cutting-edge research.”
Laks said he has also been impressed with Sheba’s response to the COVID-19 global pandemic and its ability to secure PPE devices and ventilators in the face of a worldwide shortage.
“The initial response of the hospital was perhaps the most impressive mobilization of resources I’ve ever seen,” he said. “The entire hospital switched to working in three separate pods around the clock to minimize the possibility of health care workers becoming infected and causing a shortage of health care staff while still being able to deliver quality and efficient health care.
“That type of mobilization of resources would have taken months of negotiations and board meetings to get approved in a hospital in the United states. (The mobilization) occurred essentially overnight in an Israeli hospital whose structural operation runs more like an army division than a hospital at times of emergency. This proved to be a great asset in the initial response.”
Laks obtained his bachelor’s of science degree in biology from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. After receiving his medical education in Israel, he did his surgery residency at St. Louis University in Missouri and his surgical oncology fellowship at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. He also spent six years at Columbia Surgical Associates and at the University of Missouri. He practiced for an additional three years at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C.
Laks’ family joined him on the move, including his wife, Meital, who is a veterinarian, and his two daughters, Noam Renee, 11, and Einav Elle, 10. Laks met Meital when he was going through medical school in Israel.
His daughters are becoming accustomed to Israel, which he said is very different from America in terms of schooling.
“My oldest daughter was struggling with Hebrew, but she is getting used to it,” he said, recalling with a laugh a Jewish phrase that goes something like, “learn to use your elbows.”
“She came from a very coddled Hebrew school in the states, where it was a very controlled environment,” he said. “She is learning to use her elbows.”
Laks said he is thrilled to have the opportunity to use his robotic surgical skills for his pancreatic cancer patients and that taking the “cancer journey” with them is humbling. It is one that he has personally taken, given that his eldest daughter was diagnosed with and survived rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare cancer that develops in the soft tissue around the skeleton.
Laks has noticed the differences in the levels of communication that Israeli patients prefer, compared to American patients.
“In the states, we see a very solid line between the patients and the doctors, and it’s a line that is literally never crossed,” he said. “In Israel, that does not apply. It’s very informal. Patients have no qualms about giving you advice. It’s quite amusing. At the same time, that brings you closer to the patient and the family and it can make it difficult.”
Laks said it’s normal that all his patients have his cell phone number. And those patients take advantage of that fact. Laks said he doesn’t mind.
“If I don’t give them my number, they wouldn’t get the kind of answers or care they need,” he said. “Patients don’t really have the kind of resources they have in the states.”
Laks and his family, who are Reform, now live in Tel Mond. He says that realizing his dream of returning “home” brings him in greater connection with all aspects of Judaism, both the religion and the culture.
“One of the things I do feel is a special bond with the Jewish people and being able to take care of people who are my own,” he said. “It’s really quite rewarding to give back to a country that is a homeland to our people. It’s important we live in that home and it’s important to be part of that home. I wanted my children to grow up in Israel and feel like they belong.”
The independent Africa Regional Certification Commission (ARCC) for Polio Eradication officially declared that the 47 countries in the UN World Health Organization (WHO) African Region are free of the virus, with no cases reported for four years.
“This is a momentous milestone for Africa. Now future generations of African children can live free of wild polio,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.
Polio is a viral disease that can cause paralysis, and mainly affects children under five.
The virus is transmitted from person to person, mostly through contact with infected faeces, or less frequently through contaminated water or food. It enters the body through the mouth and multiplies inside the intestines.
While there is no cure for polio, the disease can be prevented through a simple and effective oral vaccine, thus protecting a child for life.
The ARCC certification entailed a decades-long process of documentation and analysis of polio surveillance, immunization and laboratory capacity, as well as field verification visits to each country in the region.
The last case of wild poliovirus in the region was detected in Nigeria in 2016.
“Today is a historic day for Africa,” said Professor Rose Gana Fomban Leke, ARCC Chairperson, announcing the certification.
A commitment by leaders
The journey to eradication began with a promise made in 1996 by Heads of State during the 32nd session of the Organization of African Unity held in Yaoundé, Cameroon, where they pledged to stamp out polio, which was paralyzing an estimated 75,000 children annually on the continent.
That same year, the late Nelson Mandela jumpstarted Africa’s commitment to polio eradication by launching the Kick Polio Out of Africa campaign, supported by Rotary International, which mobilized nations to step up efforts to ensure every child received the polio vaccine.
Nearly two million spared
Since then, polio eradication efforts have spared up to 1.8 million children from crippling life-long paralysis, and saved approximately 180,000 lives, WHO reported.
“This historic achievement was only possible thanks to the leadership and commitment of governments, communities, global polio eradication partners and philanthropists,” said Dr. Moeti.
“I pay special tribute to the frontline health workers and vaccinators, some of whom lost their lives, for this noble cause.”
Always remain vigilant
However, Dr. Moeti warned that Africa must remain vigilant against a resurgence of the wild poliovirus.
Keeping vaccination rates up also wards against the continued threat of vaccine-derived polio, or cVDPV2.
WHO explained that while rare, vaccine-derived polioviruses can occur when the weakened live virus in the oral polio vaccine passes among populations with low levels of immunization. Over time, the virus mutates to a form that can cause paralysis.
Adequate immunization thus protects against wild polio and circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses, the UN agency said.
Learning from polio eradication
WHO officials in Africa believe that the experience in eradicating wild poliovirus has other benefits for health on the continent.
Despite weak health systems, and significant logistical and operational challenges, countries collaborated effectively to achieve the milestone, according to Dr. Pascal Mkanda, Coordinator of WHO Polio Eradication Programme in the region.
“With the innovations and expertise that the polio programme has established, I am confident that we can sustain the gains, post-certification, and eliminate cVDPV2,” he said.
The experience also will inform response to other challenges, both new and ongoing, Dr. Moeti added.
“The expertise gained from polio eradication will continue to assist the African region in tackling COVID-19 and other health problems that have plagued the continent for so many years and ultimately move the continent toward universal health coverage,” she said. “This will be the true legacy of polio eradication in Africa.”
UNICEF works to ease the suffering of children whose lives have been ‘turned upside-down’ after Beirut blast
Through two airlifts and commercial cargo routes, vital personal protective equipment (PPE), medical, health hygiene and nutrition supplies were able to reach those in desperate need.
“Before the dust had begun to settle, UNICEF teams were working to ensure that urgently needed humanitarian supplies could reach children and families affected as soon as possible”, said UNICEF Lebanon Representative Yukie Mokuo.
Ten-year-old Mira was injured when the Beirut blast ripped through her house.
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On 4 August, a cache of ammonium nitrate caused a deadly explosion in Lebanon that rocked the capital of Beirut, causing devastation in a city already suffering from the global coronavirus pandemic.
The blast killed close to 200 people, injured thousands of others, left around a quarter of a million homeless, and sparked protests that prompted the resignation of Prime Minister Hassan Diab and his entire cabinet.
The UN agency’s immediate response was to distribute 18 shipments of pre-positioned supplies, which were in stock, while working to procure additional humanitarian items locally, including PPE, infection prevention and control (IPC) kits and other hygiene items, as well as provisions to support psycho-social assistance to affected children.
To compliment the locally procured supplies, additional materials were sent to Beirut from UNICEF’s global supply hub in Copenhagen, with further shipments planned in the coming days and weeks.
“Children have had their lives turned upside-down”, Ms. Mokou reminded. “Making sure that families have their basic needs met will allow them to start rebuilding their lives and look to the future”.
Much more needed
Against the backdrop that COVID-19 cases in the country continue to surge, and that the explosions destroyed 10 containers of PPE, it was critical that UNICEF was able to deliver more than $3.5 million worth of critical PPE and IPC kits.
“As families fight to rebuild after the chaos of the explosions, coupled with the ongoing economic crisis and the added threat of COVID-19, the support of our donors and partners has been absolutely critical”, she continued, “but much more is still needed”.
The humanitarian supplies were delivered with the assistance of the European Union’s European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) and the Government of Belgium and through a donation from the Sanofi Foundation.
However, UNICEF still requires $46.7 million to respond to the immediate needs of children and families over the next three months – with a focus on keeping children safe; rehabilitating basic essential services; and equipping young people with the skills they need to help rebuild their country – all while limiting the spread of COVID-19.
“Now is the time for the international community to stand with the people of Lebanon and ensure that they receive the help and assistance required”, concluded the UNICEF envoy.
