Black Immigrant Daily News

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The first phase of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) communication campaign to address vaccine hesitancy in Eastern Caribbean Countries has been a resounding success.

The campaign, which began in October 2021 and concluded in June 2022, was developed to address four key challenges: low COVID-19 vaccination uptake, due to misconceptions and distrust; Infodemic prevalence (false COVID-19 information which was disseminated mainly on social media and the Internet); the desire to achieve a 70% COVID-19 vaccination coverage by June 2022; and the appearance of new variants of concern due to high circulation of the COVID-19 virus.

PAHO and ITU worked on the campaign with telecommunications provider Trend Media / Digicel. The campaign leveraged the public-private partnership model pioneered by the WHO-ITU joint Be He@lthy, Be Mobile initiative to rapidly implement a content delivery channel that would be convenient and accessible (including to people who have limited access to the Internet).

PAHO-curated awareness-raising and behaviour change information was packaged in engaging multimedia format (infographics, posters, videos, etc.) and posted online. People received SMS messages with brief preventive health advice along with links to the multimedia materials which they could access without any data-traffic costs.

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The information communicated aimed to raise awareness; debunk myths; provide guidance; and encourage people to vaccinate.

Phase 1 initially ran from October 2021 to January 2022 and targeted Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, and St. Lucia.

When the project was extended to June 2022, Dominica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines were included.

The PAHO ITU team deemed the campaign a success based on the following research findings. One in four people read the 5 million messages forwarded and opened the links.

Additionally, approximately 81 percent of the mobile users who receiving the messages described the content as useful, interesting or relevant; and just over 50 percent of mobile users said the information they received helped them stay alert about related risks.

Importantly, at least 5 percent of respondents reported that the communication campaign helped them decide to get vaccinated; while close to 14 percent said the information helped them to adjust their behavior.

Based on the outcome of this initiative thus far, PAHO and ITU are currently in discussions about phase two of the project. The second part of the project will target those countries which were not included in the first phase.

Representative for the PAHO/WHO Office for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Countries (ECC), Dr. Amalia Del Riego, described the progress to date as “very encouraging!”

Dr. Del Riego added: “Phase two of the campaign will provide PAHO and the ITU with an opportunity to raise awareness and reduce vaccine hesitancy in our other countries and territories.”

According to Mr. Bruno Ramos, Director of the ITU Regional Office for the Americas: “The campaign highlighted the feasibility of leveraging digital technology to support preventive health measures to contribute to better health and development.”

Mr. Ramos underscored that the ITU Regional Office looks forward to collaborating with PAHO and other partners to support the integration of cost-effective digital solutions in SDG-related projects and initiatives.

SOURCE: Pan American Health Organization

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Black Immigrant Daily News

PHILIPSBURG — Every year around 1,600 students from the islands of the former Netherlands Antilles travel to the Netherlands to study at institutions for MBO, HBO or WO-diplomas. Those journeys do not always end well: Caribbean students struggle with a complex of issues that result more often than not in disappointing results. The ministries of education from the Netherlands, Aruba, Curacao and St. Maarten commissioned a study into the experiences of these students.

The resulting report, produced by ResearchNed in collaboration with Excellent Government and Management Consultancy from  Bonaire and Utrecht-based consultant Andersson Elffers Felix was competed in April. Richelis Williams-Van der Mark, who works for the ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports in St. Maarten was part of the supervisory committee that supported the researchers.

First an explanation of the Dutch alphabet soup that is mentioned in the first line of this article. MBO stands for Middelbaar Beroepsonderwijs, HBO for Hoger Beroepsonderwijs and WO voor Wetenschappelijk Onderwijs, or studies at university level.

The four education ministries asked for the study because Caribbean students perform worse than other students that follow higher education. The results of the study mainly reflect the situation in Curacao and Aruba and the researchers warn that their findings cannot be extrapolated to the other islands. Data available from St. Maarten and the BES-islands was too limited to draw definitive conclusions.

Of the 600 MBO-students that go to the Netherlands every year around 50 percent has its diploma after four years, compared to 65 percent for students with a non-western migration background and 75 percent for other students. The yield is especially low among Caribbean male students. In the first year there is not much difference between male and female students but in the years after that the male students fall further and further behind.

HBO-studies attract each year around 740 Caribbean students, while around 250 go to university. Within the first year 48 percent of HBO-students and 43 percent of WO-students switch to a different study.

Only 23 percent of HBO-students has a diploma after five years, compared to 33 percent for students with a non-western migration background and 51 percent for other students.

On university-level the percentages are lightly better: 43 percent of Caribbean students had a diploma after four years, compared to 58 percent for students with a non-western migration background and 61 percent for other students.

Eight years after the start of their HBO-studies, 40 percent of Caribbean students had a diploma; for university students this percentage is 75 percent.

Most of the students that go to the Netherlands every year come from the larger islands Curacao and Aruba. St. Maarten sends between 50 and 75 MBO-students, 50 to 90 HBO-students and 10 to 20 WO-students.

What are the main concerns for these students? The report found that essential practical matters like housing are not settled well when the students arrive in the Netherlands. Coaching and supervising the students often stops after a year, or at times sooner.

There are no specific facilities for Caribbean students at most schools, because they are registered as being Dutch. For this reason they also do not qualify for facilities for foreign students.

Mostly, the new students suffer from what the report calls overload: a combination of practical, study-related and personal problems.

The report notes that students are poorly prepared for their life as a student in the Netherlands. They have not been taught to be independent, they lack study-skills and they do not master the Dutch language sufficiently.

Students experience a culture shock in their new country. The culture, the climate, the society, the approach to education and all kinds of practical matters are different from what they were used to back home. “For many students the transition is so significant that there is no good approach available to prepare them for it,” the report states, adding that is were better to take more time to prepare students or to look for better fitting study-options at other locations.

Where to begin? The countries must acknowledge that the study-success of Caribbean students is low,” the report states. “Preparation, the choice of study and support are insufficient and focusing on just one aspect will not solve these issues.” There is a need for more resources, and more cooperation, sharing of knowledge and professionalization.

According to the researchers the key to a solution is in the Caribbean. “The bottom line is that if we do not manage to improve the preparation and the supervision effectively, chances of study-success in the Netherlands remain slim. In that case the switch to higher education in the Netherlands ought to be more often discouraged or postponed.”

The report does not provide practical solutions. “The educational institutions in the Netherlands and the Caribbean and the respective governments have to discuss this among each other.”

A significant stumbling block for Caribbean students is language. “Dutch is for less than ten percent the language that is spoken at home,” the report notes. That is obviously not helpful because the language of instruction at most schools in the Netherlands is Dutch.

Another issue is the study students choose to follow. “Parents and teachers have a preference for status-giving studies like law and medicine that are possibly not a good fit for the student,” the report states.

The problems Caribbean students experience are complex: they vary from  seemingly mundane issues like homesickness, loneliness and performance anxiety to problems with the Dutch language and practical issues like housing, budgeting, debts, insurances and taxes. Combined with limited study-skills and a limited ability to take care of themselves, this puts study results under severe pressure.

Literature about poor study results mention family background, social economic status, ethnicity, the financial situation of students, social integration and a lack of confidence as possible causes.

Students who were interviewed for the study said that they were poorly prepared for the practical side of living in the Netherlands. They also said that it is too easy to make debts in the Netherlands and that many students don’t handle their finances well. This results in many side jobs that leave little time for study. Due to the temptations of debts, criminality, drugs and shady friends, some students lose focus. Pregnancies are also mentioned as reasons for dropping out of school.

Employees of the University of St. Maarten (USM) were also interviewed for the study. They said that students receive plenty of information but that many of them only take action at the last moment.

USM told the researchers that it wants to establish a program to prepare students better for their life in the Netherlands. The university also noted that it is busy establishing a business program in cooperation with a Dutch graduate school and that it already has a so-called two plus two program in place. Participants in this program study the first two years at home and the next two years at a partner institution in the United States.
Caribbean schools and universities are well aware of the problems students in the Netherlands are facing. They mention language, choice of the wrong study, culture shock, handling money, homesickness, not being independent, not being assertive and problems with housing.

The institutions also mentioned another factor: the culture of shame. Because of this, aspiring students often only hear the success stories. Living with family they have not seen in years does not always end well either; sometimes this results in conflicts whereby the student suddenly finds him or herself on the street.

Government institutions like the St Maartenhouse emphasized to the researchers that they want to present a positive image, saying that many students complete their studies. “Success-stories also deserve attention.”

But governments have also woken up to the reality of poor study results. Aruba and Curacao for instance no longer grant study financing for MBO-studies, because the return on investment is so low. For the same reason, the Hogeschool Rotterdam no longer actively recruits Caribbean students, though motivated students are still welcome there.

Most alarming in this context is that mastering the Dutch language in the Caribbean is diminishing. “Governments are promoting Papiamento or English. Outside of education, Dutch hardly plays a role anymore,” the report states.

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Related article:Education reform is a work in progress

Download the complete report here>>>

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Black Immigrant Daily News

PHILIPSBURG — Utilities company GEBE is in a serious crisis, Minister of General Affairs Silveria Jacobs acknowledged during a public meeting of Parliament on Friday, but the shareholder (the Council of Ministers) has “limited authority to intervene.” Only the supervisory board of directors can provide the solution, she said.

Jacobs also made clear that GEBE has no legal relationship with parliament and that parliament has no authority over the company. “It cannot summon members of the managing board or the supervisory board to parliament; they can appear voluntarily but they are not compelled to answer questions or to provide information.”

Parliament’s authority is limited to asking members of the Council of Ministers how its exercises its shareholder-rights.

Minister Jacobs noted that “effective and immediate action” is required from the supervisory board. The shareholder has asked this board to immediately appoint a temporary and independent manager and to set up a crisis management team. The shareholder also wants GEBE to procure and conduct an independent investigation into the events of the past couple of months. This refers specifically to the period after GEBE became the victim of a cyber-attack on March 16.

Jacobs explained that the Council of Ministers discussed on March 29 the possibility “to establish a consortium of cyber security professionals and CEOs of government-owned companies to ensure that we have a standard procedure for cyber security.”

In April the ministers of Finance and VROMI met with the supervisory board to discuss the status of actions to restore data and to make sure that collection starts to take place.  On August 19 there was a general shareholders meeting.

In spite of all these actions, the crisis at GEBE has not gone away. On the contrary, GEBE-clients have not received invoices, or they have paid invoices only to hear that according to GEBE they didn’t and to be informed that they are being threatened with a termination of services in September.

Minister Jacobs encourages citizens who did not receive any bills (and therefore have not paid anything) to contact GEBE’s customer service to make a payment-arrangement. Jacobs labeled a statement by GEBE that its accounts receivables are up to date as “erroneous.”

Members of Parliament had plenty of questions for the minister, but they will have to wait for the answers. Jacobs asked ten days to prepare her replies, but parliament-chair Grisha Heyliger-Marten tentatively postponed the meeting until Wednesday, August 31, giving the minister just four days (including the weekend) to come up with her answers.

Independent MP Solange Duncan noted earlier in the meeting that GEBE is a piece of critical national infrastructure. “It is the government’s responsibility to make sure that it functions properly,” she said. Duncan asked who is responsible for holding GEBE accountable. “The shareholder and the supervisory board should not have a direct influence on the company,” she said. “But what we see is that decisions are taken without integrity and that there is a serious management problem.”

Duncan pointed out that in 2017 the government delegated the regulatory role for GEBE to the Bureau Telecommunication and Post (BTP). “What is the current status of BTP’s mandate? Was anything done?”

Duncan furthermore asked whether the FBI or Microsoft headquarters had contacted GEBE’s ICT-department with a warning about a looming cyber attack.

Duncan also stated that St. Maarten has “a serious governance problem,” adding that this is not due to a lack of institutions but to having people in positions where they should not be. “If hundreds of people have to suffer for one person to keep a job then some of them are not going to take this lying down,” she warned.

MP Ludmilla de Weever noted that GEBE has postponed payments to vendors. “Does this include insurance?” she asked. De Weever also wondered how GEBE is going to pay for not-budgeted overtime and about the status of relief for seniors.

But most of all, she appeared critical of the company’s financials. “If you look at the revenue of the four big companies (GEBE, Harbor, Airport and Telem) then it does not add up. There is a leak somewhere.”

MP George Pantophlet (National Alliance) emphasized that the issues at GEBE must be resolved. “If GEBE goes down, we all go down,” he said.

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Related articles:MP De Weever: Issues at GEBE a matter of national security nowMP Gumbs Requests Question Hour to Receive Answers about GEBE’s ongoing cyber-attack woesN.V. GEBE saga>>>

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