European Union College

Toward combating COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has all the makings of a perfect storm for global malnutrition.
The crisis will damage the nutritional status of vulnerable groups through multiple mechanisms.
We can expect a dangerous decline in dietary quality in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) stemming from the income losses related to government-mandated shutdowns and de-globalization, as well as from the freezing of food transfer schemes such as school feeding programs and the breakdown of food markets due to both demand shocks and supply constraints.
But malnutrition will also increase due to healthcare failures, as already strained healthcare systems are forced to divert resources from a range of nutritionally important functions including "antenatal care, immunization, micronutrient supplementation, and prevention and treatment of childhood diarrhea, infections, and acute malnutrition".

Research by:
Derek D. Headey
Marie T. Ruel

http://euc.education/new/44

The good education is your passport to the good future

https://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/elon-musk-net-worth-bezos-richest

Musk adds nearly $10B to net worth in one day, closing in on Bezos, richest person in world Tesla CEO Elon Musk added $9.7 billion to his net worth on Monday, positioning him behind only Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in the race to be the richest man in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Halloween
October 31 is Halloween and is now celebrated in many countries around the world, but do you know anything about the origins of this scary special day? Read the article and find out.
The origins of Halloween
If you think of Halloween, you probably think of scary carved pumpkins, all kinds of fancy dress and children asking for sweets. And if you think of a country that celebrates Halloween, you probably think of the United States first. Americans and Canadians have adopted Halloween in a big way, but Halloween traditions actually come from 16th-century Ireland, Scotland and England.
The tradition of Halloween on 31 October comes from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. Samhain was the Celtic New Year and they celebrated it on 1 November because that was the end of summer and harvest time (life) and the beginning of winter (death). It was also the time for ghosts to return to earth for a day. People lit a big fire, wore special clothes made of animal skin and hoped to be safe from the ghosts and the winter. In AD 609, the Catholic Church put the Christian celebration of All Saints Day on 1 November. In AD 1000, the church added All Souls Day on 2 November, and All Hallows Eve – or Halloween – moved to the night of the 31st.
Pumpkins
The Celts carved faces into vegetables like turnips, potatoes and squash (a pumpkin is a kind of squash) to scare the ghosts and other spirits and make them go away. It was sometimes called a jack-o’-lantern because of an Irish story about a man, Jack. He played a trick on the devil and then had to walk the earth for all time as a punishment. Irish people who came to live in the United States in the 1800s found pumpkins much easier to carve, and the tradition became the one we see today.
Fancy dress
The Celts were afraid of the ghosts that came on Samhain. If they went outside after dark, they covered their faces with masks. They hoped any ghosts they met would think they were ghosts too and would leave them alone. In early America, the Native Americans and the first Europeans celebrated the end of the harvest, but not Halloween. When Irish people arrived, the harvest festival started to look more like Halloween and it became popular across the country. In the late 19th century, people tried to make Halloween less about ghosts and religion and more about celebrating the season with a party for neighbours and family. That’s why Americans today wear all kinds of Halloween costumes and not just scary things like witches and ghosts like in other countries.
Trick or treat
This is another tradition that began in Europe, this time in England. When the church introduced All Souls Day, rich people gave poor people ‘soul cakes’, a small cake made with spices and raisins. It replaced the Celtic tradition of leaving food outside houses for the ghosts. ‘Going a-souling’ was popular in England for hundreds of years until about the 1930s. The Americans kept the tradition, but today children knock on people’s doors and ask for sweets. Going trick or treating is so popular that a quarter of the sweets for the year in the United States are sold for this one day.
The rest of the world
Halloween has become the United States’ second-biggest commercial festival after Christmas. Halloween is also celebrated in other countries, but it’s not as big as in the United States, even in the countries where the traditions began. Mexico celebrates the Day of the Dead from 31 October to 2 November and some of its traditions, like giving gifts of sugar skulls, are starting to mix with Halloween. In this way, the celebration of Halloween continues to change as new traditions join the oldest of the Celtic ones.

October 5 is World Teachers' Day. Find out which famous people want to say thank you to their school teachers for their success.

Who shapes the person you are the most? Parents or other family members are probably at the top of the list for many people. But a close second place is very likely to go to a teacher. Some of the most influential and successful people in the world have a teacher in their childhood to thank for their success.

The teachers behind famous people

Can you imagine life without the personal computer? Well, without two of Bill Gates's high school teachers, that could be our world today. Gates's maths teacher, Fred Wright, asked him to push himself just a little bit harder. Maybe that's why the founder of Microsoft sometimes slept under his desk in the office instead of going home to relax after work. And his drama teacher, Anne Stephens, helped him discover a love of the spotlight when she made the sometimes withdrawn schoolboy the star of the school play. Gates thanked his teachers, saying, 'There's no way there would be a Microsoft without them doing what they did.'

And he's not the only one. Oprah Winfrey, talk show host, actress and TV producer, was inspired by her fourth grade (age 9–10) teacher, Mrs Duncan. Because of her, Oprah says, 'I felt I could take on the world. You did exactly what teachers are supposed to do. They create a spark for learning that lives with you from then on. It's why I have a talk show today.'

An adult you can trust

For some children, teachers are the only positively influential people in their lives. Antwone Fisher, a best-selling writer, grew up in foster homes, and didn't have many adults that he could trust. But a primary school teacher, Mrs Profitt, was the first adult he ever trusted. 'She spoke to all of us the same way – with respect. No one spoke to me that way before. I think that being with her for three years made all the difference.'

Celebrate teachers
There are thousands more stories like this, from famous people and ordinary people all across the world. That's why UNESCO celebrates teachers on 5 October every year. UNESCO wants us to remember that education is a basic human right and every child should have free education. UNESCO hopes to train 69 million new teachers by 2030 so that everyone can go to school, because, sadly, 264 million children in the world today are not in school because there aren't enough teachers. Those children are often in places where life is already very difficult because they live in poor areas or far away from cities and towns, or they are escaping war in their own countries.

A day to say 'Thank you'

So, if you have a teacher, you're one of the lucky ones. One day, you'll probably look back at your life, your successes, the dreams you've made come true or the difficult things you've survived. The chances are high that you'll find a teacher's words have helped you achieve these things. Perhaps you already know who that teacher will be. Why not find them and say thank you today on World Teachers' Day?