November 14 is World Diabetes Day. The disease is having a devastating impact on the Caribbean, which has double global rates. Diabetes and cardiovascular disease cause the majority of premature deaths from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the region. In some countries as many as 1 in 4 adults are living with the illness and women in the region are 60% more likely to have diabetes than men.
This stark picture is echoed across the Caribbean with other chronic diseases, where NCD mortality is the highest in the Americas. Too many people are dying from diabetes, heart attacks, stroke, and cancers. In some countries more than half the adult population has high blood pressure and children are increasingly being affected. In Barbados, for example, some 2,500 children are living with obesity-related hypertension. Across the region childhood obesity exceeds 10% and in one country nearly a quarter of girls are obese.
Clearly, we are facing a crisis and we need to do more on an individual, community, national and regional level to make sure that the people of the Caribbean lead longer, healthier lives.
To find out full details of the NCD epidemic and ways to accelerate action, visit onecaribbeanhealth.org. The website has a wealth of information, stories, ideas, fact sheets and action guides about where we are and where we need to go.
Comedian Ayo ‘AY’ Makun’s ‘A Trip To Jamaica’ currently showing in cinemas nationwide in Nigeria has already raked in 80 million naira, surpassing any other Nollywood movie that has hit the cinemas in 2016. The movie set a good tone for itself in its first week in the cinemas, by raking in 61 million naira over and above American actor, Will Smith’s ‘Hollywood’s ‘Suicide Squad’ record of 40 million naira in at the cinemas. In addition, the movie also has a new record of the fastest film to hit the naira century mark in the history of Nigerian cinemas in seven days.
Situated on the most eastern part of Dominica is Castle Bruce. The area around Castle Bruce has been inhabited for 5,000 years, first by Amerindians from South and Central America. Descendants of the Kalinago/Caribs lives near Castle Bruce and are very much part of the community. They called the place Kouanari which was later change by the Europeans to Castle Bruce. It is an area rich in natural resources: Castle Bruce boasts of many rivers, rich fertile agriculture soil, large forest and greenry. The high woods come close to the shore and there is a wide bay with a grand sweep of beach, a large freshwater lagoon at the mouth of the river and a headland that ends in two rugged islets topped by forests of their own. The Atlantic boisterous ocean is to the east while to the west is Mt. Fraiser.
Tropicalfete, the official home for Caribbean culture, will be giving you an afternoon of good food and drinks as they hold a BBQ fundraiser event on October 8, 2016, 3PM at 644 E 34th St. Brooklyn NY, 11203 (between Avenue D & Foster Ave).
An exciting, productive and adventuresome opportunity exists for college students of Jamaican parentage who are studying in the United States, Canada and the UK to be ambassadors for Jamaica through the Grace Kennedy Jamaica Birthright Program. Under the program, students between 18 and 25 years old who have not lived in Jamaica for more than six months and who are pursuing undergraduate or graduate studies, and who have a B average or higher can apply now through November 30 to participate in the 2017 schedule.
The GIIFF was founded in 2012 with a mission to preserve the values and aspirations of all indigenous people and Garifuna cultures. Founded by Freda Sideroff an indigene of the Garifuna, the GIFF’s mission is to specifically support the preservation of all indigenous cultures in the world through art and film.
MARIA JACKSON 27 MAGAZINE 