2 June 8-June 14, 2006 THE NEW YORK AMSTERDAM NEWS

TOGOLESE BEAUTY CROWNED MS. WORLDCUP

Jun. 5 (GIN) - With a dazzling 200 wattsmile, student Edwige Madze Badakou, 24,came in ahead of 31 other finalists to becrowned Miss World Cup 2006.

Thousands of diehard soccer fans arealready in Germany, watching their favoriteteams train. The games will be played in 12stadiums starting June 9 with the World CupFinal July 9.

Ms Badakou’s victory comes after aTogolese voodoo priest predicted glory for theSparrowhawks, Togo’s team, widely seen asrank outsiders, in Germany.

Maria Garrido B’aez, 23, of Spain came insecond, followed by Ecuador’s Katty LopezSaman, 23.

“The ancestral spirits say that Togo will gofar at the World Cup,” predicted the priest,Togbui Assiogbo Gnagblondjro III.

MILLIONS IN COMPENSATION OWED FORSTOLEN LANDS

Jun. 5 (GIN) - Descendants of the Khoi-Khoi, South Africa’s first inhabitants, havemoved a step closer to a multimillion-dollarsettlement with the South African govern-ment and the return of 210,000 acres takenfrom them by the white-led regime in the1920s.

The group, in papers filed in the Cape HighCourt in 2005, said they wanted 1.5 billionrand compensation for the alluvial diamondsextracted from the rich coastal mine fieldssince then.

They also wanted one billion rand for dam-age done to the environment and 10 millionrand for their “pain and suffering.” One rand isequal to 15 U.S. cents.

Earlier, a constitutional court had upheldtheir complaint that the state gold mine groupAlexkor was mining on their traditional land.

SOMALI LEADERS DEFEAT U.S.-BACKEDINSURGENTS

Jun, 5 (GIN) - Somali Islamists on Mondaydeclared victory over a United States-backedwarlord alliance in Mogadishu after fourmonths of bloody fighting.

The fighting ended just two days after amassive protest of thousands of angry SomaliMuslims filled the streets of Mogadishu, withprotestors denouncing the United States andthe U.S.-backed warlord alliance fightingIslamic militia.

Chanting anti-U.S. slogans and comparingU.S. President George W. Bush to a Nazi, 5,000Muslims gathered in southern Mogadishuafter Friday prayers and pledged to fight thealliance to the death.

Surrounded by heavily armed Islamist mili-tiamen, the throng cheered as clerics accusedWashington of financing a genocide bybankrolling the Alliance for the Restoration ofPeace and Counter-Terrorism in Somalia.

The United States denies responsibility forthe clashes, although it has refused to confirmor deny its support for the ARPCT.

INTERNATIONALNEWS

Stealing dreams, Part 3:

One village defeats malariaBy DAMASO REYES

JAMBIANI, ZANZIBAR—The roadto Jambiani, a small coastal town onone of the two islands that makes upZanzibar off Tanzania’s coast, is longand bumpy. The hour-long drive to thevillage was dotted with the occasionalglimpse of pristine white sand beachesand tall palm trees lining the road, butshowed no sign of the paved blacktopmost foreigners are used to.

“Welcome to Jambiani! Welcome toJambiani! Malaria, bye-bye! Malaria,bye-bye!” young schoolgirls, theirheads wrapped in traditional whiteIslamic scarves, sang to a group ofweary visitors who were instantlyrevived by their enthusiastic singing.Older women held signs declaring thesuccess villagers have had in fightingthe disease, which perhaps more thanany other, even AIDS, has held Tanza-nia’s future hostage.

The young girls had something tobe very happy about indeed: the vil-lage of Jambiani, population 5, 137,has not had a documented case ofmalaria since October of 2005.

This is a small miracle for a townthat in 1999 had over 3,000 cases; in1997, more than 50 percent of the pop-ulation suffered from more than oneattack. Given that malaria still runsrampant throughout the mainland ofTanzania, the casual observer can beforgiven for thinking the village is inpossession of some kind of magic cure,some potion which renders its inhabi-tants immune from this ancientscourge.

The answer, of course, is much sim-pler: insecticide treated mosquito nets,Artemisinin-based combination drugs,and a commitment from the govern-ment and international donor commu-nity to wipe out malaria. These threethings, which together cost little morethan $10 per person per year, have in afew short years freed Jambiani fromthis disease which kills tens of thou-sands of children in Tanzania eachyear.

Of course, education has played acritical role in this village’s success.Community leaders were broughttogether to help clear out potentialmosquito breeding sites like standingpools of water; pregnant women weregiven preventative drugs to cut theirrisk of infection; mothers with childrenunder five were shown how to use,then given free insecticide-treated bednets; and children in the community’sschools were taught not only howmalaria is transmitted, but the signswere that someone has the disease andthe importance of seeking medicaltreatment immediately, especially forchildren.

“For us money was not theissue, saving people’s lives was,”said Dr. Abdullah Ali, programmanager of the malaria controlprogram in Zanzibar. “We thenhad to find the money. Thank Godwe did,” he added, noting the diffi-culty health professionals have ina country where the health bud-get is roughly $10 per person peryear. The money came becauseZanzibar, with its homogenousand small population made up ofroughly one million people whoare mostly Muslim, was seen asan ideal test bed for policies themainland has been considering

adopting, including free distribution ofbed nets and a switch to the moreexpensive, but highly affectiveArteminsinin-based drugs.

“Malaria has been a menace to thispart of the world for a very long time,”said President Amani Karume in aninterview at his official residence. But“some of us still believe that it is possi-ble to eradicate malaria completely,”he added. This is a view that doesn’tseem to be held by many in the inter-national donor community. However,many Tanzanians, seeing the successof communities in Zanzibar in curbing

the epidemic, hold out hope that withenough funding and dedication, malar-ia, like smallpox before it, can becomea thing of the past.

“The African condition has to partand parcel of the improvement of theglobal human condition,” said IbrahimGambari, United Nations under-secre-tary-general for political affairs.

“There should be much more com-mitment from the developed world.America should lead the way. You havethe resources, the people and the tech-nical know how,” President Karumesaid.

Africa needs your helpto fight malaria

By DAMASO REYESEliminating the threat that malaria poses to Africa’s future is a difficult job

that will take many years, but with the help of people throughout the devel-oped world this goal is achievable. Education is the first step in understand-ing both the disease and what role African-Americans can play in combatingit. To learn more about what is being done to fight malaria and how you canhelp, visit these web sites:

THE GLOBAL FUND TO FIGHT AIDS,TUBERCULOSIS AND MALARIAWWW.THEGLOBALFUND.ORG/EN/

AFRICA FIGHTING MALARIAWWW.FIGHTINGMALARIA.ORG/

US PRESIDENTIAL INITIATIVE ON FIGHTING MALARIAWWW.FIGHTINGMALARIA.GOV/

THE UNITED NATIONS FOUNDATIONWWW.UNFOUNDATION.ORG/

THE UNITED NATIONS MILLENNIUM PROJECTWWW.UNMILLENNIUMPROJECT.ORG/

Editorial/Opinion ........Page 12Education ......................Page 32Health Care ..................Page 30Recipes/Reviews ........Page 24Resorts/Travel ..............Page 26Sports..............................Page 44Trends..............................Page 16

Arts & Entertainment Page 19Astro/Numerology ....Page 27Career/Business ........Page 36Caribbean ....................Page 14Church............................Page 35Classified ......................Page 37Community ..................Page 8

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The women of Jambiani hold up signs declaring their victories over malaria.(Damaso Reyes photo)