R-Evolution Worldwide Sierra Leone is a Local Voluntary Organization of Sierra Leoneans established to help and support vulnerable children, youth, women and communities to build a brighter future in changing lives for sustainable development. The regulatory process of accreditation to the Ministry and national authorities has been completed and this community based organization is starting its activities.
Author: Dario Scaramuzzi
EXCO2019, the first and only global expo dedicated to the players active in the field of development cooperation
R-Evolution Worldwide Community Interest Company joined in EXCO2019, the first and only global expo dedicated to the innovative solutions provided by the actors of development cooperation: national and international agencies, governments, financial institutions, civil society and in particular, the private sector.
During EXCO2019, the players active in the field and those willing to enter development cooperation, had the possibility to meet financial Institutions, Government representatives, development agencies and international organizations, in order to engage in new business relationships aimed at creating partnerships to find solutions for sustainable development.
Malaria incidence stopped to decrease and begun to increase, especially in the 10 countries with the highest burden of malaria
R-Evolution Worldwide Community Interest Company participated as observer to the 15th WHO meeting of the Malaria Policy Advisory Committee (MPAC). The meeting highlighted how in the last couple of years the malaria incidence stopped to decrease and begun to increase, especially in the 10 countries with the highest burden of malaria. According to the World malaria report 2018, indeed, there were 219 million cases of the disease in 2017, compared to 217 million the year before. Every two minutes, a child dies of malaria. In 2017, the estimated global tally of malaria deaths stood at 435.000. All the 10 countries with the highest malaria burden are in Africa: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda and United Republic of Tanzania.
Liberia
With comments as “the project is likely to have a significant impact”, and “this project will make a substantial contribution to the expected impact”, the reviewers of the European Union agency EDCTP approved for funding another new project: “LiberHetica: increasing the ethics capacity of oversight for clinical trials in Liberia by establishing European-African collaborations that facilitates implementation of efficient processes …”. A great team lead by Liberian institutional rapresentatives made this come true, therefore I would like to thank Dr. Bolay Fotorma, Jemee Tegli, Dr. Stephen B. Kennedy, Gloria Mason, and Cecilia Morris.
The way to build bridges instead of walls is still long.
The way to build bridges instead of walls is still long, but I am happy to have got European Union funding for this project. Africlinique project aims to increase the capacity to oversight clinical trials addressing deadly diseases in Central African countries (specifically Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon and Gabon). This achievement was made possible thanks to the exciting proactiveness and invaluable collaboration of a Central African team lead by Prof. Francine Ntoumi, already coordinator of Central Africa Network on Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and Malaria (CANTAM).
Working on an idea for a brand new project
The ATTENTION project is aimed to improve the access to effective health services for the children in the orphanages and Interim Care Centers (ICCs) of Sierra Leone.
Indeed there is a huge lack of healthcare references for the children hosted in these facilities.
It is planned to finance this project by a call proposal to the Small Charities Challenge Fund (UKAid – DFID), by establishing an ad-hoc applying consortium.
EuropeAid, from EU – a major financial resource for overseas humanitarian projects
Directorate General Development and Cooperation – EuropeAid was formed on 1 January 2011 following the merger of the EuropeAid Cooperation Office (AIDCO) with the Directorate General for Development and Relations with African, Caribbean and Pacific – ACP – States (DEV).
EuropeAid focused on maximising the value and impact of aid funding by making sure support provided in a manner which complies with EU development objectives and the United Nations‘ Millennium Development Goals in a speedy and accountable fashion. Effective implementation and delivery of aid also helps the Commission and the EU as a whole to attain a higher profile on the world stage. The European Union is the world’s largest aid donor.
The Commission’s Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO) is responsible for designing European international cooperation and development policy and delivering aid throughout the world. Its mission is to help reduce and ultimately eradicate poverty in developing countries through the promotion of sustainable development, democracy, peace and security.
It works on policy formulation at a global and sectoral level. The main intervention areas covered are: Trade and regional integration, Environment and the sustainable management of natural resources, Infrastructure, communications and transport, Water and energy, Rural development, Governance, democracy and human rights, Peace and security, Human development, Social cohesion and employment.
Directorate-General awards grants and contracts to implement projects or activities that relate to the European Union’s external aid programmes. To ensure that EuropeAid’s work to improve people’s lives is recognised, a set of visibility guidelines have been produced. These guidelines ensure that aid projects acknowledge the funding support they receive from Commission budgets. They also help to raise the general profile of the EU across the world.
Grants are direct financial contributions provided to organisations, or to projects carried out by them. Most of the time, the Commission attributes them through calls for proposals.
Contracts are awarded through tendering procedures to purchase services, supplies or works.
Both contracts and grants are awarded for activities contributing to specific development goals.
Development aid is financed directly by the EU budget (70%) as part of the financial instruments for external action and also by the European Development Fund (EDF).
R-Evolution Worldwide – Sierra Leone, a new local Community Based Organization
R-Evolution Worldwide – Sierra Leone is starting to operate in the Western Area Urban and Rural District of Freetown, Sierra Leone.
R-Evolution Worldwide – Sierra Leone is local community-based organization, registered to the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s affairs (MSWGCA), the local council and the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS).
R-Evolution Worldwide – Sierra Leone is established by a group of Sierra Leoneans who will be advocating on the following areas:
· Early Marriage
· Teenage Pregnancy
· Child Labour
· Sexual Offence
· Child Healthcare
· Hygiene and Sanitation
· Food Education
· Prevention of Youth Migration, awareness raising and information campaigns on the risk of irregular migration.
The organization is created as an independent non-profit organisation (local Community Based Organisation – CBO) with strict political and religious neutrality, with a particular respect for the principle of non-discrimination based on race, ethnic, political and religious orientation.
Ebola vaccines at a la glance
Ebola vaccine candidates are currently being evaluated in phase I–III clinical trials conducted in Africa, the EU and the US. Although preclinical development of candidate vaccines utilise different platforms, including inactivated viral particles, DNA vaccines, recombinant viral vectors, recombinant proteins, subunit proteins and virus-like particles, the most advanced vaccine candidates are based on viral vectors engineered to serve as antigen delivery platforms that encode the full length of the surface glycoprotein of the Ebola virus. Examples of viral vectors expressing ebolavirus glycoproteins include recombinant human adenovirus (Ad26), recombinant simian adenovirus (chimpanzee Ad3), recombinant vaccinia virus (MVA) and a live vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV) used alone or in prime-booster regimens. The genus Ebolavirus, a member of the family of Filoviridae, is comprised of five distinct species: Bundibugyo (BDBV), Ebola virus (EBOV) (formerly designated as Zaire ebolavirus, ZEBOV), Reston (RESTV), Sudan (SUDV) and Taï Forest (TAFV). The EBOV and SUDV species are the predominant causes of most EVD outbreaks. Glycoproteins from the different filoviruses show a high degree of diversity at the nucleotide and amino acid levels (60-65% conservation), implying that vaccines for protection against different filovirus infections would have to express and induce an immune response to several glycoproteins and would optimally be multivalent encoding glycoproteins from different viral species into one vaccine regimen. Single dose or prime-boost regimens are being explored in ongoing clinical trials. To date, at least 15 EVD vaccines are being developed (in North America, Europe, Russia and China), with four main candidates in varying advanced stages of human testing. These include the two most advanced – rVSV-ZEBOV (Merck) and ChAd3-EBO Z (GSK) – as well as a prime-boost regimen of Ad26.ZEBOV and MVA-BN-Filo developed by J&J/Bavarian Nordic, and a recombinant particle made of EBOV glycoprotein produced in an insect cell line, developed by the biotech company Novavax. The two lead vaccine candidates started human clinical trials in September 2014 and data on their safety and immunogenicity profiles were ready by December-January, breaking all records in terms of vaccine trial Phase I timelines. WHO played a key role in this endeavor, by identifying and coordinating numerous trial sponsors to test the vaccines contemporaneously in the US, Canada, and several countries in Europe and Africa. These two vaccines are now in Phase II/III trials in the three affected countries. The trial collaborations underway are: a ring vaccination trial of VSV-EBOV in Guinea, organized through a large international consortium including WHO, MSF, Canada, Norway and universities in the UK, Switzerland and the US; and a cluster based, non-blinded, individually randomized trial of rVSV-ZEBOV in Sierra Leone under a Sierra Leonean-US-CDC collaboration. A Phase II trial of both vaccines was carried out in Liberia under a Liberian government – US-NIH collaboration. This trial was completed at the end of April, and it is not known if trials in Liberia will continue. In the meantime, phase II trials of the GSK vaccine are slated to start in Cameroon, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal in the second half of 2015. Pharmaceutical companies developing the vaccines have committed to ramp up production capacity in case of proven vaccine efficacy and the need for deployment. This could be the fastest vaccine roll-out in history. A comprehensive list of the EVD clinical trials can be found on the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry.
Controlled Human Infection Model (CHIM) studies
In a Controlled Human Infection Model (CHIM) study, a well-characterised strain of an infectious agent is given to carefully selected adult volunteers in order to better understand human diseases, how they spread, and find new ways to prevent and treat them. These studies play a vital role in helping to develop vaccines and treatments for infectious diseases.
A very important application of the se studies are the field of malaria clinical research. Indeed in the Controlled human malaria infection (CHMI) studies, healthy volunteers are infected with Plasmodium falciparum to assess the efficacy of novel malaria vaccines and drugs, becoming a vital tool to accelerate vaccine and drug development.