Election unrest jeopardizes our spring clinic: New York Times article

Unfortunately, due to the unrest surrounding President Abdoulaye Wade’s controversial run for a third term, our spring clinic, slated for March 16th and 17th, is in jeopardy.  

Miracle Ifeanyichukwu, Friends in Africa’s Senegalese director, says that he will make a final decision about the clinic after the February 26th elections are held.  Though we will certainly make every effort to go ahead with our plans, we may have to postpone the clinic or change its location if the elections spark even more unrest.  We’ve dealt with these situations in the past, and we know that we’ll be able to treat many patients--it’s just a matter of when...

Senegal Court Says President Can Run Again

By ADAM NOSSITER

Published: January 27, 2012

DAKAR, Senegal — Senegal’s elderly president can run for a third term next month, according to a ruling Friday night by the nation’s constitutional court, which also threw out the candidacy of the popular music star Youssou N’Dour, who vowed to appeal.

The decision, which appears to contradict a two-term limit in Senegal’s Constitution, quickly provoked street clashes, reminiscent of those last summer, between young opponents of the president, Abdoulaye Wade, and Senegal’s police.

Hundreds of Mr. Wade’s youthful opponents gathered downtown in the normally peaceful capital Friday night, some tossing rocks at the police, who responded with tear gas. Demonstrators also dragged wooden market tables into intersections and set them on fire, The Associated Press reported.

In Kaolack, a provincial capital, a mob torched the governing party’s headquarters, and in Thies, angry youths blocked the national highway, according to a private radio station.

“Stop these displays of petulance which will lead to nothing,” Mr. Wade, said on state television in an appeal for calm. “The electoral campaign will be open. There will be no restrictions on freedom,”

Mr. Wade, officially 85 but believed to be older, has become the focus of youthful discontent in a coastal nation of high unemployment and widespread poverty; in his 11 years in power, Senegal’s place on the United Nations Human Development Index — a measure of living standards, life expectancy, literacy and education — has hardly budged.

Yet Senegal had also maintained its reputation for vigilantly sticking to democratic rules, particularly compared with its turbulent West African neighbors, with a peaceful handoff of power in 2000, when Mr. Wade was first elected, and elections generally judged fair.

His critics say Mr. Wade has damaged that reputation with his determination to stay in power despite the constitutional limit, which he argued before the court — whose five judges he appointed — should not apply to him because he was elected before it took effect. Mr. Wade is to face three of his own former prime ministers, among other candidates, in the Feb. 26 election.

The constitutional court ruled that Mr. N’Dour, a top-selling singer popular worldwide and one of Mr. Wade’s leading critics, had not gathered the 10,000 valid signatures needed for a spot on the ballot, Reuters reported. It said authorities had been unable to identify around 4,000 of some 12,000 signatures in support of his candidacy.

Mr. N’Dour has been outspoken for several years in denouncing what he and others say are the president’s authoritarian tendencies. He has written songs decrying the failings of Mr. Wade’s rule, including frequent power failures, and has built a small media empire in Senegal that serves as a voice for the opposition.

“The fact that my candidacy was deemed unacceptable is a political matter. Mr. N’Dour said Friday night on the television station he owns, The A.P. reported. “Those in power are afraid of me.” He promised to draft an appeal of the court ruling on Saturday.

Mr. Wade, an accomplished lawyer who spent decades as an opposition leader himself, has a reputation for self-assurance. Earlier this week he airily dismissed his critics, as he often does,in an interview published on the Web site Dakaractu.com. “The constitution, it’s me that wrote it. All by myself,” he said. “Nobody knows it better than me.”

A version of this article appeared in print on January 28, 2012, on page A11 of the New York edition with the headline: Senegal Court Says Leader Can Run for Third Term.

2011: A Year In Review

2011 has been a record year for Friends in Africa in every way!  We treated a record number of patients, held two feeding programs and raised more money than ever at the 3rd annual Run For Africa!

This year we treated a record of 4,486 patients.  That number is up from 4,024 patients in 2010, 2,586 patients in 2009, and up from the 2,400 patient average from previous years.  

We completed four two-day medical clinics.  In April, we held a clinic in the town of Dahra, treating 766 patients.  In Dahra we also held a feeding program.  In June, we held our annual Dakar clinic, treating 1,120 patients.  In October, we held a clinic in cooperation with the Assemblies of God Brazilian Mission in Kandam.  That clinic was a wonderful success: we treated 1,440 people, a record for a rural clinic.  At our final clinic of the year in December, 1,160 patients were treated in the village of Keur Massar.  We also hosted a second feeding program during the Keur Massar clinic.

The third annual Run for Africa, was a stunning success!  We raised more than $57,000 supplying us with much needed funds.  Dedicated fundraisers, increased community participation and corporate matching gifts helped us soar past our (hugely) ambitious goal of $50,000 and helped us smash last years’ record of $37,000.  Even Buddy Barrel joined the race this year!

The Run For Africa was featured  on the front page of “Greenwich Time Newspaper” with the headline “Running for a Cause,” and in The Daily Darien (“Runners Can Find Races in Greenwich, Fairfield”).

    

Please remember that we have partnered withGiveBackAmerica.org, an organization created to allow individuals to raise money for their favorite charities when they shop online at no additional cost.  

FIA supporters, please visitGiveBackAmerica.org and follow the very simple instructions to download the GBA toolbar. The toolbar automatically tracks when you visit any of the literally thousands of participating retailers including Amazon, Ebay, and Expedia. Once you have the toolbar downloaded, simply go about your normal online shopping.  The toolbar will display the percentage of your purchase that will be donated to your charity. This toolbar is TRUSTe certified, non-invasive, contains no adware or spyware, and collects no personal information.  This is such an EASY way to help Friends in Africa--we sincerely hope you’ll use it! 

Our most pressing need is for more people to sign up at www.FriendsInAfricaSenegal.com to make regular, ongoing donations.  It’s a very simple process.  We know that it can be difficult to find the funds to support charities like Friends in Africa but giving to such a worthy cause will also be a wonderful blessing for you!  When you make an effort to give regularly--even if it’s a small amount--you are transforming yourself into a more generous and compassionate person!

We continue to promote FIA through social media and through our Blog.  A great deal of information is available atFriendsInAfricaSenegal.com and we encourage you to read about our 2011 activities there in more detail.  You can also subscribe to our Blog and to our “Friends of Friends” newsletter online for ongoing FIA information.

Political unrest is affecting our ability to get permits for our March clinic.  However, we will assess the situation after the February 26th elections we will make every effort to go ahead with our plans.  We are looking forward to 2012 and plan to hold our 4 quarterly clinics and more feeding programs.  We have already started the permit process for our 4th annual Run For Africaso mark November 17th on your calendars and start training!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your ongoing support! because of you we are able to heal the sick, feed the hungry and share God’s love with the nation of Senegal!

New York Times Article: Hotly contested presidential elections unleash a wave of protests

Senegal News - Breaking

Updated: Jan. 3, 2012

Senegal, long one of Africa’s most stable and admired countries, is embroiled in a miasma of political, economic and social problems as unmistakable as the fine dust that blows in from the Sahara every winter.

From the air, Dakar, the capital, looks like a metropolis on the move, a buzzing quadrilateral jutting into the Atlantic. Cars speed along a supple four-lane highway that hugs the rugged coastline. Cranes dot the seaside, building luxury hotels and conference centers, as investors from Dubai revamp the city’s port, hoping to transform it into a high-tech regional hub.

But on the ground the picture shifts. Jobless young men line the new highways, trying to scratch out a living by selling phone cards, cashews and Chinese-made calculators to passers-by. The port is full of imported food that is increasingly out of reach for most Senegalese.

The usual regional trappings of power — a $27 million monumental statue overlooking the capital, a new presidential plane, tinkering with the country’s Constitution — have not gone down well in a poor but proud West African country used to something better. They have led to a season of revolt, on the North African model, in this coastal country, a former French colony.

Hotly Contested Presidential Elections

Senegal’s political class is in seemingly permanent crisis. Senegal’s president, Abdoulaye Wade, 85, after promising to step down, is seeking a third term in office in a hotly contested presidential election in 2012. The attempt to extend his time in office is a violation of the country’s Constitution, critics say, and it has unleashed a wave of protests.

In November 2011, the Senagalese singer and songwriter Youssou N’Dour, one of the biggest stars in the world music genre, announced that he was putting his career on hold to plunge into the political fray.

It’s not clear in what capacity Mr. N’Dour will be involved — as a candidate for public office or just lending his prestige and support to someone already in the running — or for how long. He announced that he would stop performing from Jan. 2 onward. “I am freeing myself from all artistic engagements to enter the political arena,’' Mr. N’Dour said in a live broadcast on a television station he owns.

During the broadcast, he also announced the formation of his own political movement, one of several opposed to Mr. Wade. Mr. N’Dour, who won a Grammy Award in 2005 for his CD '‘Egypt’' and has recorded with artists as diverse as Lou Reed and Neneh Cherry, has long been active in political causes, both at home and internationally.

An Aging Leader to a New Generation

Mr. Wade has in many ways staked his legacy on the rebirth of Dakar from a quaint colonial city to a major regional center, a kind of mini-Dubai for West Africa. It is the bequest of an aging leader to a new generation of Senegalese, the men and women he calls the Generation of Concrete.

Once a darling of international donors, who have spent millions to help Senegal build schools and clinics, pay off its debts and plan infrastructure projects, the country has found itself criticized by representatives of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank over public spending and policies that have worsened the effects of rising food prices.

Above all, Senegal’s people seem to have lost their seemingly endless optimism. In recent years, tens of thousands of Senegalese have boarded rickety wooden fishing boats to try to sneak into Europe. Many thousands are believed to have died in these perilous crossings.

The discontent is keenest among young people, and their chosen mouthpieces: rap artists who have become the griots, or musical storytellers, of their generation, providing a soundtrack to their frustrations. But as the summer of 2011 brought riots with tear gas and tire burnings, as well as several large-scale demonstrations, these rappers have been doing more than chronicling the country’s perilous future — they have been firing up the crowds of young men who surged through the city’s streets, leading the demonstrators and — picked on by Mr. Wade’s police officers — serving as martyrs for the anti-government cause.

Click to read article on original website