AUDITIONS
Actors, Actress, Singers, Dancers, Musician and Stage Crew.
All ethnic groups are welcome. All ages and sizes…plus size, included.

CASTING CALL…
Immediate openings for up coming special presentation of “The Mask”

Looking for Black, White, Hispanic females and males.
Plus size beauties, you are welcome too!

Experience preferred, will work gifted candidates.
Please bring resume, bio, and headshot (If you have them).

Compensation based on experience.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2012
2-5p.m.

Asilimi Museum & Institute
2621 Victory Pkwy.
Cincinnati, OH 45206
Contact: Sandra A. Wright 513.484.4772=20

This is a FREE event… I look forward to seeing you there!

http://www.facebook.com/l/JAQHV6iqvAQFKlLjOQMsMbgR1L2tlqiuR52vWqOk9-ih_Eg/=

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United States (KaiserHealth) – In the heated debate over to what extent religiously affiliated employers should be required to provide free contraception for workers, no one has talked much about what methods are available to women who want to prevent pregnancy and how their choices might change if cost were removed from the equation. But it’s an important subject.

With prices ranging from about $1 for a condom to more than $800 for an intrauterine device (IUD), some of these women, maybe a lot of them, might switch methods if they could afford to.

That’s exactly what many women’s health advocates hope. Long-acting methods such as the IUD and the hormonal implant are nearly 100 percent effective, require no effort after insertion and protect against pregnancy for up to 10 years. (In contrast, birth control pills are about 92 percent effective, and many other common methods are even less reliable in everyday use.)

Some women worry that having a device inserted in the uterus or under the skin is riskier than methods such as a pill, a patch or a vaginal ring that they can discontinue at will.

But experts such as Adam Sonfield, a senior public policy associate at the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit research center on reproductive policy, point out that IUDs and implants “eliminate the possibility of inconsistent use.”

They’re also among the most cost-effective methods available in the United States, according to research by James Trussel, a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University. Among other things, Trussell factored in the cost of particular methods, their effectiveness at preventing pregnancy, and the costs of unintended pregnancy or other events during a five-year period. IUDs and vasectomies were found to be the most cost-effective. Implants were somewhat less cost-effective but still a better bet than oral contraceptives, the patch, the vaginal ring or injectable contraceptives, among others.

These longer-acting methods, however, carry a hefty upfront price tag of between $500 and $1,000 for the device itself and its insertion. Meanwhile, insurance coverage is uncertain. Although the vast majority of employer health plans cover contraception, they don’t necessarily cover all methods and they generally don’t cover them for free. A 2004 study found that 40 percent of companies covered IUDs.

“For most plans, the devices aren’t considered part of the drug formulary, so you might have coinsurance of some amount like 20 percent,” Sonfield says.

Health Care Reform

Under the new health care law, starting this August, new employer health plans or those that change their benefits substantially will be required to cover all FDA-approved contraception methods and related counseling without co-pays. Catholic bishops and others strenuously objected to imposing this requirement on employers who objected to contraception on religious grounds. The Obama administration last week offered a compromise that would allow women who work for religious organizations to obtain contraception directly from an insurer — still without co-pays. But the debate continues.

Although eliminating cost concerns may help encourage the use of longer-acting methods, that’s only half the battle. Educating women and providers is also critical, say experts. Many people still associate IUDs with the Dalkon Shield, a device marketed in the early’70s that led to severe infections, infertility and death, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in legal

claims.

“The Dalkon Shield put a chill on IUDs for the next four decades,” says Eve Espey, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of New Mexico.

Only 5.5 percent of women practicing birth control used an IUD in 2006-2008. An even smaller percentage used hormonal implants, which received FDA approval in 2006. In contrast, 28 percent of women used birth control pills.

The longer-acting methods currently approved by the FDA are considered safe and effective. They include two IUDs, Mirena and ParaGard. These small T-shaped devices are inserted into the uterus and release hormones or small amounts of copper to prevent fertilization for five or 10 years, respectively. Implanon is a matchstick-sized hormonal implant that, once inserted under the skin of the upper arm, prevents pregnancy for three years.

Education Effort

The Contraceptive Choice Project is testing the idea that by educating women about longer acting methods and removing cost barriers, more will decide to use them and fewer will become accidentally pregnant.

In 2007, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis began to enroll 10,000 women in that region, offering them free contraceptives of any type for three years and focusing on educating them about longer-acting methods.

Seventy-five percent chose IUDs or implants, a much higher proportion than the 5.5 percent in the general population. After a year, 86 percent of those using IUDs or implants decided to continue with the longer acting method; only 55 percent of the women who were taking birth control pills continued with that method, according to preliminary figures from the researchers.

“Women should be able to control their reproductive lives,” says Jeffrey Peipert, principal investigator for the project who is vice chair for clinical research in the department of ob/gyn at the Washington University School of Medicine. “But with our current system, so many people are uninsured or unable to pay for their birth control.”

Happy With Her Choice

Lydia and Drew Huston have three children and don’t want any more. When Lydia, now 44, heard about the research project at the university near their home in Florissant, Mo., she signed up. Three years of free contraceptives sounded like a good deal.

Until she enrolled in the study, Huston had been getting hormonal Depo-Provera shots every three months to prevent pregnancy. Her co-pay was $20 each time. Although it was better than having to take a pill every day, getting to the doctor even once every three months was tough given her family commitments and her job working in development at a nonprofit organization.

Before meeting with the university researchers, Huston never understood the longer-acting options that were available. “They gave me this array of information,” she says. “It was so empowering.” After discussing the methods, Huston decided on a hormonal implant, which would last for three years. It was an easy transition from the injections she’d been receiving earlier.

Huston is happy with her choice. “Knowing what I know now, if I had to pay for a longer-acting method I would.”

That’s a choice many women like Huston soon won’t have to make.

Please send questions or ideas for future topics for the Insuring Your Health column to questions@kaiserhealthnews.org.

- Provided by Kaiser Health News.

Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico (AHN) – Mexican prison officials are being accused of helping 30 members of the violent Zetas drug cartel escape from a northern Mexico prison Sunday after they murdered dozens of their rivals.

Before they left, the escapees knifed or bludgeoned to death 44 members of the rival Gulf cartel, according to Mexican media reports.

Within a day after the escape, the director of Apocada prison, three top officials and 18 guards were fired as an investigation continues.

Rodrigo Medina, governor of the northern state of Nuevo Leon, said, “Unfortunately, a group of traitors has set back the work of a lot of good police. The most important thing is to make sure that the people working on the inside are on the side of the law, and that they not be corrupted and collaborate with the criminals, as the investigations indicate they presumably did.”

The governor gave few details of how the prison break occurred, other than to say it involved a security breach near “Tower Six.”

He also said no firearms were used and no one broke into the prison to aid the escapees.

All of the escaped prisoners were members of the Zetas drug cartel, a super-violent gang organized by former members of an elite Mexican military unit, Medina said.

The governor is offering a reward of $788,000 for information leading to the arrests of the escapees.

Other accounts of the murders came from Nuevo Leon state officials.

The prisoners fought with knives and burned mattresses, said Jorge Domene, public safety spokesman for the state of Nuevo Leon.

“According to an investigation, so far all the deceased inmates were in the Delta pavilion and were killed with sharp objects, stones and bars,” he said.

Local media in the Monterey area reported that many of the bodies of the victims had their skulls shattered by blows with pipes, sticks, bricks, stones and pieces of compact discs.

The Apocada prison holds about 2,500 inmates, or 180 percent of its capacity, because of a crackdown on organized crime in the Monterrey area.

Monterrey is Mexico’s wealthiest city and often cited as an example of the country’s prosperity.

It also is a battleground over control of drug trafficking routes between the Zetas and the rival Gulf cartel.

Both of them are known for carrying out brutal murders – sometimes with beheadings and dismemberment – to protect their income from illegal drugs.

Medina implied that prison overcrowding might have contributed to the violence.

“It would be very good for the state if a large number of federal inmates are transferred out in light of the overcrowding we have,” Medina said.

The prison is used to hold prisoners either convicted or charged with federal crimes, which often refers to drug trafficking and racketeering.

Medina said many of the prisoners “are very highly dangerous.”

Mexico’s five-year-old war against drug cartels has caused many state and federal prisons to become overcrowded recently, which also has prompted a prison building boom.

The 44 murders Monday at the Apocada prison represented the most deadly prison incident in recent years but was hardly the only uprising that resulted in multiple deaths.

Last month, 31 prisoners were killed during a prison riot in Altamira, near the border with Texas. In October, 20 prisoners were killed and 12 injured in a prison riot at Matamoros.

The mass murder this week follows a fire at a prison in Honduras last week that killed 359 prisoners.

Overcrowding and poor housing led the United Nations to conclude in a recent report that Latin American prisons often create dangerous and inhumane conditions for inmates.

The Spanish news organization El Referente said in an editorial that, “The case in Mexico is especially alarming, considering that the prisoners who escaped belonged to one of the most dangerous drug trafficking gangs in the world, extremely violent and strongly militarized. In addition to being a planned escape and with the alleged complicity of personnel charged with maintaining security at the site, it shows with clarity the incapacity of the authorities to control order in the prisons.”

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Five top U.S. lawmakers lead by Senator John McCain on a visit to Egypt on Monday urged the nation to prove its credentials on the path to embrace democratic principles and respect rights of the NGOs operating there.

In a statement at a press conference in Cairo, Senator McCain said, “Egyptians have the chance to turn the page from the Mubarak era and write a new chapter in the great history of their sovereign nation.”

Joined by four colleagues from the Senate – Senators Lindsey Graham, Jeff Sessions, Richard Blumenthal, and John Hoeven, Senator McCain confirmed, “the issue of the NGOs came up in all of our meetings.”

Addressing the issue that, “these NGOs are violating Egyptian sovereignty and meddling in this country’s internal affairs,” McCain said, “Nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, the majority of the people who work for these organizations here in Egypt are not foreigners, but Egyptians.”

Senator McCain explained on behalf of the NGOs, “Their work – which is done at the request of Egyptian democracy and civil society groups – seeks to support these Egyptian partners in pushing for the rule of law, free elections, a free media, respect for the human rights of all people, and other core principles of a democratic society.”

Denying that the NGOs issue is “about America, despite the efforts of some to make it about America,” McCain said, “It is about Egyptian democratic and civil society groups, the inherent rights they possess, and whether those rights are respected and protected by the government.”

In a report American Forces Press Service cited the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff cautioning the Egyptians about the seriousness of the issue during his visit a week earlier.

Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey told domestic television, he spoke with senior Egyptian leaders regarding the release of 19 Americans being held and how it could impact relations. “I can tell you we came to a very clear understanding of how serious this is,” he said.

“And also a clear understanding that our relationship would be somewhat stalled until this particular issue is resolved.”

Washington is clearing the mist that $1.3 billion in military aid from the U.S. would dry up if the ruling Supreme Council for the Armed Forces (SCAF) that overthrew Hosni Mubarak, does not stop blaming foreign hands for the continued unrest in the country more than a year after the popular uprising.

The crisis precipitated in December last year when a large number of civil-society organizations operating in Egypt were raided, including U.S. pro-democracy groups including International Republican Institute (IRI) which receive U.S. government funding.

Since then the Egyptian Ministry of Justice, after launching an investigation into working of the groups, have banned dozens of Americans including IRI country director Sam LaHood, son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, from leaving Egypt.

Last Friday before the long weekend in the U.S., the State Department had nothing new to offer on the issue. Victoria Nuland, the department spokesperson, when asked if there were any new developments said, “No, except that our legal team has had a number of senior meetings over the last 36 hours.”

“We continue to work very hard on these issues. So we need to let that work go forward and hope we can solve this in earliest days,” Nuland hoped.

Joiley, IL, United States (AHN) – It all started with Rick Ruzzamenti, a 44-year-old from Riverside, California.

On impulse, inspired after hearing a moving story while grocery from a woman he didn’t know, who gave one of her kidneys to a relative, he decided to donate a kidney to a complete stranger. He was resolute, even after his wife threatened to leave him.

What followed was a domino chain of transplants that took place over four months, involved 60 patients and 30 kidneys at 17 hospitals across 11 states.

It ended with Donald C. Terry Jr, from Joliet, Illinois, who was dying of renal failure and had no family either willing to or able to donate a kidney to him.

Because Mr. Ruzzamenti was not a match for Mr. Terry, staff at the National Kidney Registry set up a series of connected transplant operations which connected people willing to donate with those in need of a kidney.

The linked procedures, called Chain 124, were carried out between Aug. 15 and Dec. 20, 2011.

All but one of the patients involved have now come forward to share their role in these record-breaking, history making and life-saving series of transplants.

Those involved include husbands who donated to wives, children for a parent, a nephew for an uncle, a mother-in-law for her daughter’s son, and an ex-boyfriend for a former girlfriend.

The kidneys traveled on commercial airlines all across the United States, from coast to coast, in specially iced cardboard boxes with GPS tracking devices attached.

Since the recipients were not well enough to travel, the operations could not be done simultaneously. That meant that trust was placed in the hands of the donors, even as fears lingered that some might pull out.

In the end, all of the donors kept their sides of the bargain.

This heart-warming story has a storied and happy ending. But not all kidney patients have such as happily-ever-after ending.

Currently, some 400,000 Americans with kidney failure undergo dialysis daily, and every year, 4,500 die while waiting for a transplant.

Mpalizi, Swaziland (AHN) – Scientist and author Michael Tellinger says a huge footprint found in South Africa is the best piece of evidence that giants once inhabited the Earth, and is connected to the Bible.

The huge footprint was discovered in the town of Mpaluzi, near the Swaziland border. It is estimated to be between 200 million and 3 billion years old. The imprint is in rough, solid granite and measures some 4 feet long.

Tellinger, who often see things from a religions standpoint, is not surprised at all that this discovery is being called the “Footprint of God.”

The find, apparently, is somehow connected with the Bible quote, “There were giants in the earth in those days, and also after that when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them, the same because might men which were of old, men of renown,” according to the King James edition of the Bible.

Others of lesser faith say the “footprint” was caused by erosion. These doubters say that for a foot to make a print in this type of rock, the rock would have to have been very hot and soft.

People are always looking for God or signs from Him, and this appears to be one of the latest and largest. While questions abound, scientists and theologians are curiously investigating.

23 November 2012: President Ali Abdullah Saleh signs GCC-brokered deal, under which he leaves power on 21 February 2012 in exchange for legal immunity from prosecution.

25 November: Tens of thousands of protesters rally in Sana’a and 17 main cities on the so-called “Friday of Ongoing Revolution”. They oppose immunity for Saleh and his aides.

10 December: A 34-member coalition cabinet sworn in (17 members from Saleh’s party and 17 from the opposition Joint Meeting Parties)

15-20 December: Mass protests by staff at dozens of government and military institutions call for the replacement of top officials who are members of Saleh’s party.

18 December: A demilitarization committee, made up of- senior officers from pro-government and defected army units, begins removing sandbags, roadblocks and checkpoints in Sana’a.

23 December: Fourteen protesters killed in clashes with police as a “March of Life” arrives in Sana’a after a five-day, 250-kilometer, walk from Taiz city. They oppose the GCC deal.

25 December: Thousands of Southern Movement (SM) supporters take to the streets of Aden; dozens burn voting IDs to signal their intention of boycotting the presidential election.

29 December: Saleh meets senior members of his party, instructing them how to deal with mass staff protests in several government institutions.

30 December: Saleh’s supporters resume Friday rallies in Sabeen square under the slogan “We return since you don’t cease” (a reference to demands for Saleh’s prosecution).

4 January 2012: Defected Maj-Gen Ali Mohsen Saleh escapes assassination attempt in Sana’a.

6 January: Vice-President Hadi threatens to leave Yemen after senior members of Saleh’s party accuse him of defying Saleh’s authority – even calling him a traitor.

8 January: Cabinet proposes draft immunity-from-prosecution legislation for Saleh and his aides, presents it to parliament.

10 January: Draft immunity legislation opposed by some MPs. Anti immunity bill “March of Dignity” arrives in Sana’a after a five-day, 240-kilometer, walk from Sa’dah.

11 January: Demilitarization Committee gives 48-hour deadline for gunmen loyal to Sheikh Sadeq al-Ahmar to leave Sana’a.

12 January: At least 26 killed and dozens injured in clashes between fighters from a Sunni Salafi Islamist group and Houthi-led Shia rebels in Hajour area, south of Sa’dah city.

13 January: Seven killed and more than 25 injured in clashes between SM and police in the southern port city of Aden.

14 January: Hadi refuses to submit his nomination credentials for the elections until defected army units remove their checkpoints in northwestern Sana’a.

15 January: Armed tribesmen kidnap a Norwegian UN official in Sana’a, demand release of a jailed tribal leader.

16 January: Islamic militants overrun Radaa city, Beidha Governorate, kill three policemen and release 400 militants from the central prison.

20 January: At least five killed in clashes between Islamist militants and civilians in Radaa city.

21 January: Parliament passes Immunity Law and approves nomination of Hadi as the sole presidential candidate. Thousands of young protesters in Sana’a take to the streets in protest against the new law.

22 January: Saleh leaves Sana’a for Oman, prior to going to the USA for medical treatment, says he will return to Yemen for Hadi’s inauguration after the election.

23 January: Thousands of members of the Air Force in Sana’a and Taiz begin protests against their commander Gen Mohammed Saleh al-Ahmar, a half brother of Saleh, demanding his replacement.

24 January: Some 46 armed men killed and dozens injured in clashes between Houthi-led Shia rebels and tribesmen in Hajjah Governorate.

27 January: Tens of thousands protest in Sana’a and other main cities against Saleh’s immunity.

28 January: Pro-SM gunmen burn down branch office of the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum (SCER) in Dhalea Governorate.

29 January: SCER begins training election management committees in governorates.

31 January: Information Minister Ahmad al-Amrani escapes assassination attempt in front of Cabinet building. “I don’t know why they fired a barrage of bullets at my car. I have no personal feuds with anyone,” he said.

3 February: More than 30 injured in Aden in clashes between election supporters and opponents.

5 February: Fifty-five killed in clashes between Houthi-led Shia rebels and Sunni Salafi members in Ahim District, Hajjah Governorate. Six killed in clashes between policemen and SM supporters in the governorates of Dhalea and Hadhramaut.

7 February: Hadi launches his electoral campaign in Sana’a. “The situation in Sana’a and other main cities is still complicated, but we have to proceed with elections to save Yemen from conflicts,” he said.

8 February: At least eight inmates killed and several others, including policemen, injured in clashes with police in Dhamar Governorate’s central prison.

9 February: Two killed and more than 10 injured when gunmen attack SCER office in Dhalea Governorate.

10 February: Hundreds of thousands protest in Sana’a and- main cities on what they call the Friday of “Completing all Goals of Revolution”.

11 February: Some 18 Houthi fighters killed in an ambush by tribesmen loyal to Sunni Salafis in the Jarabi and Hazah areas, Hajjah Governorate.

12 February: SCER deploys election management committees in the governorates. Saleh gives televised speech from New York calling on his party supporters to take part in the elections.

14 February: A suicide bomber blows himself up in front of an SCER office in Aden Governorate, leading Hadi to cancel campaign rallies in southern cities.

15 February: Houthi gunmen storm office of Islamist Islah Party in Sa’dah, tear down all pictures of Hadi in the city, and prevent any officials from putting up electoral posters.

16 February: Head of SCER regional office, five staff members and a Republican Guard commander killed in an ambush by gunmen in Beidha Governorate. One killed and another 20 injured in clashes between SM members and election supporters in the eastern city of Mukalla.

17 February: Hundreds of thousands of protesters rally in Sana’a and other main cities on the so-called Friday of “Your Vote is a Gain for the Revolution”, declaring their support for Hadi.

19 February: Interior and defense ministries deploy 103,000 officers and soldiers, especially in southern governorates, to safeguard the electoral process.

20 February: One soldier killed, five injured in attack on a SCER office in Khor Maksar District, Aden Governorate. Citizens force election officials to leave two other offices in the governorate.

————————————

Sources:

http://www.irinnews.org/country.aspx?country=YE

http://www.hajjah.net

http://www.barakish.net/

http://www.almotamar.net/news/

http://www.newyemen.net

http://www.sabanews.net/ar/news

http://www.al-tagheer.com/

http://marebpress.taiz-press.net/

http://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/arabic/

Ministry of Interior: http://www.moi.gov.ye/

Supreme Commission for Election and Referendum: http://www.scer.org.ye/

http://www.yemenfox.net/

http://www.yemenpost.net/

Al-Saeeda Local Independent TV Channel: http://www.alsaeedah-tv.com/wp/

http://www.albidapress.net/

ay/cb

- Provided by Integrated Regional Information Networks.

Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – A top security official from the White House, in a three-day trip to Israel, stressed the importance United States attaches to security concerns there while a top U.S. military official reiterated the need for a diplomatic solution to Iranian nuclear ambitions.

In a communique detailing the trip of National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, the White House said Donilon had “consultations with senior Israeli officials including Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu, Defense Minister [Ehud] Barak, Chief of the General Staff [Benny[ Gantz, and National Security Advisor Gen. Yaakov Amidror.”

Addressing “the full range of security issues of mutual concern,” the visit was highlighted as “part of the continuous and intensive dialogue between the United States and Israel and reflects our unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security,” the statement said.

Appearing earlier on domestic television, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff discussed Israel’s relationship with Iran and its potential to prevent Iran from achieving a nuclear weapons capability.

According to a report from American Forces Press Service, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey said, “I think that Israel has the capability to strike Iran and delay the capability of Iran to achieve a nuclear weapons status probably for a couple of years,” adding, “But some of the targets are probably beyond their reach, and of course that’s what concerns them.”

U.S. officials have told the Israelis that “it’s not prudent at this point to decide to attack Iran,” Dempsey said. “That’s been our counsel to our allies, the Israelis. We also know, or believe we know, that the Iranian regime has not decided that they will embark on the efforts to weaponize their nuclear capability.”

During his recent trip to Israel, Dempsey said he held candid conversations with senior Israeli leaders and reiterated it would be premature to use the military option for Iran while diplomacy is effective.

U.S. officials believe Iran is “a rational actor,” and as long as that is the case, Dempsey said, “we think the current path that we’re on is the most prudent at this point.”

The Malagasy National Disaster Office organizes annual simulation exercises in vulnerable areas to test the preparedness of local authorities and communities. However, in Brickaville, on the east coast of Madagascar, power lines had been down for two weeks – a regular occurrence in the island’s outlying provinces – and news that the town lay directly in the path of Cyclone Giovanna, a category-four tropical storm, could not reach the people in time.

The cyclone destroyed thousands of homes and killed at least 23 people, but this number is expected to rise as more remote locations are reached.

“By the time the ‘chef de Fokotany’ [administrator of the district] came to warn us about the cyclone, it was already here. All we could do was run to the church for cover,” Jean Noel, 48, a mother of six who lives in Brickaville, told IRIN. Nearly a week after Giovanna struck on- February, she and her neighbors are trying to rebuild their houses, which were among the 70 percent damaged by the storm.

The water pump was damaged and people have resorted to drinking water from an untreated well. Food is also in short supply. “We need rice, oil and soap,” one resident said. “On the other side of town, aid workers have given out supplies, but we didn’t get any yet.”

Emma Zafiarisoa, of the local NGO, St Gabriel, told IRIN: “The [aid] supplies come in waves. We managed to get drinking water to the first 2,000 flood victims, but it’s not enough. We have materials for 5,000 people, but after our evaluation there might be as many as 50,000 victims who need supplies.”

The NGO installs water purification plants, and households can also subscribe to clean drinking water for 500 Ariary (US$0.20) per 20 liter. “Through our subscription system we already know the households, and so it was easy for us to identify who needs water the most. When the cyclone hit we worked with the chef de Fokotany to make sure those households with the biggest need will be helped first. We will stay here for a month. After this, the people will have to find their own way. ”

Colin Radford, of the NGO, Help, arrived in Brickaville the day after the cyclone struck and was in front of the town hall distributing rice, oil, beans and high-nutrient biscuits, donated by the UN World Food Program (WFP). “We thought we needed food rations for 4,000 people, but by now we have discovered that it is much closer to 6,000, so we have new rations coming in,” he told IRIN.

Rations

“Today we’re handing out rations to the people who live on the outskirts [of Brickaville]. Yesterday it was to the townspeople,” he said. “We had to close down the whole operation two times this morning, as people became angry easily. Some were trying to get more than one ration, while some local officials here tried to get all their friends and relatives on the list. But we have zero tolerance for corruption, so with help from the people we soon figured out who needed food the most.”

On the other side of the square, Jean, 65, who only gave his first name, stands with an empty basket and ID card, waiting for assistance. He told IRIN that Giovanna was much worse than Geralda, the 1994 cyclone, which all but destroyed the town. “My house is completely broken and I’ll need to raise about 100,000 Ariary (US$50) to rebuild it,” he said.

In Vatomandry, another severely affected town, Bernadine Ravaonasolo, 67, told IRIN: “My husband is a fisherman, but our pirogue [dugout canoe] and supplies all washed away. He’s now rebuilding the house, and after that we’ll try to get by doing odd jobs.”

In neighboring Manambato, villagers did not believe reports about an impending cyclone, even after the village leader received a cellphone text message. “The day of the cyclone it was very hot and sunny, so we didn’t think there would be a storm,” said Florette Rabearivelo, 25. When the wind started blowing she and her neighbors sheltered in the main building of the hotel where she works. “When we came out in the morning, everything was destroyed.”

“It’s important that local communities are prepared in case of a cyclone,” Dominic Stolarow, an emergency officer with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), told IRIN. “Once a cyclone alert is launched, people need to ensure that they have a supply of food and water at home so that when the cyclone hits, they can stay indoors.”

UNICEF runs a program at schools on how to prepare for disasters. Information is also broadcast on radio and television. Dean Deely, a UNICEF consultant, was in the field to evaluate the disaster preparedness program when Giovanna hit. “We saw how the [trained] school teachers told children how to prepare for the cyclone. They had some very simple, but important messages like, ‘Weigh down the roofs with sandbags, reinforce the walls, put important belongings in plastic bags, and store water’. When people don’t have this knowledge they will sit and wait for the disaster to come, and afterwards they’ll wait for help to arrive,” he told IRIN.

Cyclone preparations

Deely said there was much less damage in places where schoolteachers had been trained in disaster preparedness. “We went through one village where they had weighted down the roofs and reinforced the walls, but apart from this you saw that there was an empowerment, an increased awareness. People were able to mitigate the damage.”

In Brickaville the storm would have come as a complete surprise if aid workers from neighboring towns had not traveled there to warn people. “I showed local officials the [satellite] pictures of Giovanna,” said Herizo Andrianaivosoa, a regional technical assistant with UNICEF. “We had just a few hours left, so from three o’clock in the afternoon until the storm hit at 8 p.m. we went around warning people, cutting trees, and setting up shelters. We contacted all the district heads in the surroundings towns and told them to get their post-storm reports to us as soon as possible. Then we turned off the electricity and waited,” he told IRIN.

Andrianaivosoa also enlisted the help of 15 people from the National Disaster Office.

Giovanna raged all night. “I’ve been through three cyclones so far, and this is the worst one yet. It went on the whole night. When we came out in the morning, everything was flooded, our shelters were filled with people, and there was no communication,” Andrianaivosoa said.

The UNICEF team is now headquartered in Vatomandry, another coastal town hard hit by the storm, trying to collect data from the surrounding communities. “There are’ communes surrounding this town, and right now we have news from four of them. Some are as far as 85 kilometers away, and there is no road, you have to go parts of the way by pirogue,” said UNICEF logistics assistant Naina Rasoanaivo.

Ranirisoa Andriamandrindra, a local education official, said there was a total of 774 classrooms in the area and so far he had counted 275 that had been destroyed, and 107 that had been damaged. He told IRIN: “We don’t have a budget for reconstruction at all.”

ar/ks/go/he

- Provided by Integrated Regional Information Networks.