Orlando: When words fail, dogs can ease the pain

Yahoo – AFP, Thomas Urbain, June 16, 2016

A group of young women pet a therapy dog near a memorial for the victims of the
Pulse Nightclub shooting, June 15, 2016 in Orlando, Florida (AFP Photo/Drew Angerer)

Orlando (AFP) - When mourners filed in to a prayer vigil in Orlando this week, they hit a friendly roadblock: a team of golden retrievers sent to help soothe a community in shock with their calm, reassuring presence.

As people knelt down to pet and nuzzle the gentle creatures, burying their hands in their soft yellow coat -- many breathed more easily, taking a moment to forget the horror gripping their city.

In the wake of the Pulse club massacre that left 49 dead and 53 injured, a pack of therapy dogs were flown from Illinois to the Florida city to offer comfort to traumatized victims and their families.

On Wednesday night the dozen golden retrievers were stationed outside Trinity Downtown church.

Shelby Gerber, a bubbly young girl who attended the vigil, lives right near the crime scene.

"My anxiety level is pretty high right now," she said. "Sometimes you are too overwhelmed to say anything."

"I didn't realize how much it really was nice to sit after service and just pet them for an endless amount of time. It just alleviates the pressure off your chest."

For nearly a decade -- ever since a February 2008 shooting stunned Northern Illinois University -- so-called "comfort dogs" have become a familiar sight in the aftermath of major tragedies throughout the United States.

The Illinois team have become famous on social media for the therapy they provide: Phoebe, for one, has her own Twitter account.

'Scared to leave house'

In Orlando the dogs, accompanied by 20 volunteer handlers, were visiting three hospitals treating patients wounded in the Pulse attack.

As well as visiting survivors the dogs have consoled emergency caregivers, paramedics and doctors, as well as many families of victims and Pulse staff members.

"People will talk to us and ask if we can visit a family," said Tim Hetzner, president of Lutheran Church Charities, the group that sponsors the dogs' work.

Melissa Soto cuddles with a therapy dog near a memorial for the victims of the 

Pulse Nightclub shooting, at the Dr. Phillips Center for Performing Arts, June 14, 

2016 in Orlando, Florida (AFP Photo/Drew Angerer)

"There's some individuals that lost somebody and they're just scared to go out of their house. So we're going to bring comfort dogs to them."

"Dogs show unconditional love," Hetzner said. "They don't take notes or keep track of wrongs."

The "comfort dogs" owned by the Lutheran Church are distinct from those managed by the Therapy Dogs International program, which brings together about 25,000 dogs volunteered by their owners to provide therapy without special training.

Hetzner's dogs belong to the parish and are subject to training with multiple handlers that sometimes lasts over a year.

He said the training includes teaching the golden retrievers -- a breed known as gentle and affectionate -- not to bite, lick or bark while providing therapy.

'Comfort rugs'

Jennifer Blackwood, who also came to the Orlando vigil, was comforted to see her three daughters fussing over the dogs outside.

"There's a lot that has happened over the last week," she said. I have three kids so that's been a lot of discussion. Hard growing up talks."

Hetzner explains the dogs are taught to lie down like "comfort rugs."

It may seem trivial, but for the traumatized, the simple gesture of petting them can have surprising benefits.

"People feel more relaxed when they have a comfortable dog they can pet," he said. "They calm down, their heart rate goes down, actually, and they're more willing to talk."

Hetzner originally conceived of the idea after a mission to New Orleans in the disastrous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

As he worked on the search-and-rescue effort, he noticed the "tremendous bond" those his team rescued had with their pets.

"People would die rather than part with their pet."

The Lutheran church program funds itself with donations, and owns about 120 Golden Retrievers in 23 states.

Three dogs from the organization still reside at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut, where a gunman killed 20 young children and six staff in December 2012.

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Matthew message (Channelled by Suzanne Ward, March 20, 2016)

Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear Kryon: I live in Spain. I am sorry if I will ask you a question you might have already answered, but the translations of your books are very slow and I might not have gathered all information you have already given. I am quite concerned about abandoned animals. It seems that many people buy animals for their children and as soon as they grow, they set them out somewhere. Recently I had the occasion to see a small kitten in the middle of the street. I did not immediately react, since I could have stopped and taken it, without getting out of the car. So, I went on and at the first occasion I could turn, I went back to see if I could take the kitten, but it was to late, somebody had already killed it. This happened some month ago, but I still feel very sorry for that kitten. I just would like to know, what kind of entity are these animals and how does this fit in our world. Are these entities which choose this kind of life, like we do choose our kind of Human life? I see so many abandoned animals and every time I see one, my heart aches... I would like to know more about them.

Answer: Dear one, indeed the answer has been given, but let us give it again so you all understand. Animals are here on earth for three (3) reasons.

(1) The balance of biological life. . . the circle of energy that is needed for you to exist in what you call "nature."

(2) To be harvested. Yes, it's true. Many exist for your sustenance, and this is appropriate. It is a harmony between Human and animal, and always has. Remember the buffalo that willingly came into the indigenous tribes to be sacrificed when called? These are stories that you should examine again. The inappropriateness of today's culture is how these precious creatures are treated. Did you know that if there was an honoring ceremony at their death, they would nourish you better? Did you know that there is ceremony that could benefit all of humanity in this way. Perhaps it's time you saw it.

(3) To be loved and to love. For many cultures, animals serve as surrogate children, loved and taken care of. It gives Humans a chance to show compassion when they need it, and to have unconditional love when they need it. This is extremely important to many, and provides balance and centering for many.

Do animals know all this? At a basic level, they do. Not in the way you "know," but in a cellular awareness they understand that they are here in service to planet earth. If you honor them in all three instances, then balance will be the result. Your feelings about their treatment is important. Temper your reactions with the spiritual logic of their appropriateness and their service to humanity. Honor them in all three cases.

US general: MSF hospital strike in Kunduz caused by 'human error'

A US airstrike on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan that killed at least 30 people in October was caused primarily by human error, the military reports. Disciplinary action has reportedly been taken.

Deutsche Welle, 25 Nov 2015

The official US investigation into the deadly October 3 strike on a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders (known for its French abbreviation, MSF) in the Afghan city of Kunduz concluded it was an "avoidable accident," a top US military commander said. US Army General John Campbell called the incident a "tragic mistake," putting it down primarily to human error.

"The medical facility was misidentified as a target by US personnel who believed they were striking a different building several hundred meters away, where there were reports of combatants," Campbell said.

The MSF hospital in Kunduz has been
closed since the attack, despite
renewed US offers to help in rebuilding

"US forces would never intentionally strike a hospital or other protected facilities," Campbell, the commander of international and US forces in Afghanistan, told reporters at NATO headquarters in Kabul. Campbell said that the individuals most closely associated with the incident had been suspended from their duty positions.

Campbell did not give any names or specify how many people had been suspended, but said that the affected individuals would be subject to investigation under military justice or administrative discipline systems. Brigadier General Wilson Shoffner said at the same press conference that some military personnel involved in the airstrike had violated standard US rules of engagement, saying that the US military was committed to ensuring full accountability while protecting the identities of those involved.

Almost 30 minutes of bombardment

The 3,000-page investigative file stated that US forces had originally intended to attack a nearby Taliban-controlled compound 450 yards (410 meters) away. The report said that the AC-130 gunship's crew had relied on location information relayed to them by US and Afghan special forces rather than using aircraft instruments.

Investigators found no evidence that the crew or the US Special Forces commander on the ground, who had authorized the strike, knew at the time of the assault that the targeted compound was a hospital. The gunship had fired 211 shells at the compound over a 29-minute period before commanders realized the mistake and ordered a halt.

At least 31 people, including 12 MSF staff
were killed during the air assault, which
 continued for 29 minutes before being
called off

The prolonged attack was condemned by MSF as a war crime. According to the US report, it killed at least 31 civilians , including 12 MSF staff, and injured 28 others. US President Barack Obama had already apologized for the bombing of the hospital and taken full responsibility , but MSF still called for an international humanitarian commission to investigate the attack. NATO and the Afghan army said they were also conducting their own investigations into the incident. General Campbell meanwhile has offered assistance to MSF to rebuild the hospital in Kunduz, which has since been abandoned and closed. He did not rule out further investigations into the incident.

"The personnel who requested the strike and those who executed it from the air did not undertake appropriate measures to verify that the facility was a legitimate military target," Campbell said during the press conference. He added that, in light of the review, changes to the protocols of engagement had been implemented.

Internal MSF investigation

MSF meanwhile has conducted its own investigation into the incident, with preliminary findings being leaked to the Associated Press news agency. Focusing on casualties, the MSF report reportedly found that several doctors and nurses had been killed immediately by the airstrikes, while patients who could not move burned to death in the ensuing fire. It added that people fleeing the main building were hit by gunfire that appeared to track their movements, while one patient trying to escape in a wheelchair was killed by shrapnel.

The MSF account of events added that hospital staff members had made 18 attempts to contact US and Afghan authorities before the bombardment stopped.

The event marked on of the worst incidents of civilian casualties in the 14-year history of the US war effort in Afghanistan.

ss/msh (Reuters, AFP, AP)

Analysts slam US account of MSF hospital strike https://t.co/V4ZjWXLIvV pic.twitter.com/qP6CmbHRvF

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) November 30, 2015

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Matthew message (Channelled by Suzanne Ward, October 19, 2015)

Matthew Ward - October 19, 2015

Matthew Ward

With loving greetings from all souls at this station, this is Matthew. Earth is orbiting in astral planes wherein vibrations are impacting your society at a quickening pace. As linear time is “crunching up,” everything in your world is being pushed more swiftly toward remedy, resolution or final moment, and third density karmic experiences are moving faster toward completion.

This acceleration is causing the Illuminati to take irrationally desperate measures to cling to their remnants of control in New York City and Washington, DC. Often fingers have pointed at the United States for self-serving interference in other countries’ affairs, and with justification—all significant federal actions from Day One have been the work of individuals in the Illuminati’s Rockefeller faction within that nation’s government and military forces, all without the knowledge of the citizenry, who mistakenly thought their voices and votes counted.

Let us tell you what evolved civilizations have long observed about your world. People ruled by other corrupt governments knew they were captives of their political systems; however, only recently and only some United States citizens are realizing that they’ve been duped into believing they lived in “the land of the free” and what they’ve been told generation after generation: We must fight our enemies who want to destroy our freedoms and democratic way of life.

Thus, as your world reels from aerial strikes on Doctors without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, a tragedy stemming from Illuminati madness, the blame falls on the United States via the wrongful assumption that the country’s Commander-in-Chief authorized the unconscionable attack. The fact is, behind the scenes President Obama and others in positions of influence—primarily individuals in the US and in China; Israelis who know Netanyahu’s dark intentions to foment WWIII; Russian President Vladimir Putin; Prince William, Duke of Cambridge; and Pope Francis—have been collaborating to uproot all of the far-reaching tentacles of the Illuminati’s Rockefeller and Rothschild factions.

That attack on the hospital; explosions at a peace rally in Ankara, Turkey; clashes between Israelis and Palestinians; the situation in Syria; and shootings in the United States have caused some to view deadly violence and other prevalent conditions globally as “unsolvable problems.” Dear ones, none of the issues of your concern, which also include effects of climate change, lack of clean water, deforestation, near extinction of some animals, diminishing bee population, widespread surveillance, unjust legal and justice systems, enforced vaccinations, massive impoverishment and rampant pollution as well as war mentality, bigotry, greed and ignorance of truths is unsolvable!

Everything happening in your world is due to Earth’s ascension into increasingly lighter energy planes wherein negatively-based activity is more quickly and emphatically running out its energetic course. However, in some circles this is deemed evidence that “end times” are at hand. We know this isn’t your belief, but we think you will enjoy knowing what God told my mother about that concept several years ago:

“Those souls who are intent upon having an Armageddon, so they shall! But for you who aren’t intent upon having that sort of ‘future,” you WON’T! You can stay within the light and rise into higher and higher dimensions of closeness, understanding, awareness. There are no strict rules that are so complex or rigorous that you and anyone else aren’t capable of adhering to them. All that is required is to live within the light! Or in simplest terms: BE KIND.”

And, with thanks to the light—the same energy as love and the most powerful force in the cosmos—your world is overflowing with kindness and godly works as more and more people are “seeing the light.” Joyously greet this unfolding of consciousness connecting with soul-level knowledge—this, not bodies rising into the skies, is personal ascension—the shedding of all of third density’s negative characteristics and harmful behavior to self and others.

As for other aforementioned issues of concern, first we say, do not be fearful about anything! We cannot say too often that the energy of fear refuels those with dark tendencies and the universal law of attraction is in constant operation!

Now then, to address those issues. Harsh effects of climate change will ease as Earth gets closer to attaining her once-moderate climate worldwide; if necessary, residents of sea-level island areas will be relocated in plenty of time to avert danger. Ongoing assistance of your universal family includes neutralizing or ameliorating harmful effects of toxic elements in vaccines and all sources of pollution; and, added to your own technologies that are emerging from Illuminati suppression, your family will introduce advanced technologies that can remedy environmental damage so quickly that you will be astounded. Bees will return and eventually wildlife will rebound to sustainable numbers except for the few species in arctic climes that will not adapt to those areas’ rising temperatures. Peaceful, trustworthy behavior in your society will end the need for surveillance; all unfair or injurious national laws, justice systems, regulations, and cultural traditions will end incrementally; and, as your world’s resources are fairly allocated, poverty will be eliminated.

It is Gaia’s desire and intention that her planetary body be restored to its original health and beauty and Earth’s humankind flourish in abundance and live in harmony with each other and all of Nature. And so it shall be! Planetary ascension—the world transformation process that you went to Earth to assist in—is assured! Personal ascension is a choice that each person makes, and part of attaining spiritual and conscious enlightenment is knowing the soul you are. Most heartily we have welcomed all of your relevant questions and now shall answer those for which there was no space in previous messages.

“How do I ‘go within’ to ask a question and how will I know if the answer is from soul level or my conscious thought?” In solitude and comfort, visualize yourself in the midst of golden white light, think or say aloud what you want to know, then quiet your mind and simply BE. You may want to see if meditative music is relaxing or a distraction, and it could be helpful to ask first a question that can be answered “yes” or “no.” The answer may come immediately or take a few moments, and when it does, it may be a word, phrase or sentence, which may be audible or appear as a printed sign or move in tickertape fashion; or one or more mental images; or a sensation that clearly indicates “yes” or “no.”

If what you see, hear or strongly sense is similar to what you had been thinking, or hoping for, prior to “going within,” it doesn’t mean that the answer is your own thought; it could be confirmation that your conscious thought and soul knowledge expressed as intuition are closely connected. And, please don’t be disheartened if nothing happens at first try, or even a few times—like every other worthwhile endeavor, practice leads to improvement.

“Was it the person Jesus or his soul who knew how to walk on water and turn a few fish and bread loaves into enough food for the multitudes or were those stories made up to substantiate the claim that he is ‘the only son of God’?” Jesus and his soul were one and the same being, just as every other soul-self is. He knew that everyone has the innate capacity to manifest whatever the person desires and can visualize; that’s why his teachings included that whatever he could do, everyone else could, too. He did walk slightly above water on an occasion when there was a need to do so, and one time there was a need to turn a small amount of food into enough for a hungry crowd. I noted both in my journal.

A conversation with my mother soon after we started communicating in 1994, when I was still living in Nirvana, answers a number of queries about the soul’s origin and its relationship with the cumulative soul, and I’ve asked her to copy those parts.

The soul is the very essence of life as it first sprang from Creator. It is an indestructible living entity of light energy that may have a physical body, etheric body or astral body, or it may exist in free spirit only. Our souls, manifested by God through His co-creating powers with Creator, are expressions of the love and light of God and contain in microcosm every essence of God. In any of its forms, the soul is an inviolate independent being at the same time it exists inseparably with God and Creator and all other souls.

The soul is the power behind everything that exists on Earth. It is the life force of all its parts that it creates for ever-greater experiencing. At every level of evolvement, each soul part is an independent self with intelligence, characteristics, choices, goals and all the other life elements that make each person a unique being.

Each individual lifetime of a soul is its personage. The sum of a soul's personages is the cumulative soul, and all knowledge gained by each personage is available to all. Thus, as each one melds into the cumulative soul, bringing the wisdom of that lifetime’s experiences, every individual personage evolves just as the cumulative soul does. I believe the simplest explanation of the cumulative soul is this: It is the composite of all its parts starting with the very first division of itself into an independent lifetime for diversity in experiencing.

Where do cumulative souls reside?

There is no specific place of residence because a cumulative soul is not an individual entity, but rather the indivisible sum of all its personages wherever they are living, and it grows as each one adds its lifetime experiences to the ever-changing composite. Actually, a better description of a cumulative soul than I first gave you is that it is a force field that derives its entire essence from all its aspects wherever they are throughout the universe.

Do you personally know the other personages in your cumulative soul or do you only have access to their knowledge?

I know those who are in this realm and some of us have become friends. Some are spending a lifetime on Earth, and I know very well who they are! Some have moved so far toward the light that our energy densities are incompatible, so a meeting isn’t possible, and others have regressed far from the light into lower densities, and I’m surely not interested in going there! Some have chosen lifetimes out of this galaxy, where I don’t travel often, so I’m barely acquainted with them.

Each has its own soul growth to accomplish, Mother. Wherever the other personages are experiencing for their individual growth, we’re always within the familial bonding of our cumulative soul. But it isn’t necessary that we meet or share lifetime interests or know all the details of each other’s lives. What we do share is the essential knowledge of our collective awareness, otherwise all the individual souls’ learning would be wasted.

The cumulative soul can advance from its station toward the light only by the advancement of its personages. Therefore, each one not only has the benefit of the cumulative soul’s composite knowledge, but it is continuously given encouragement at soul level to master its chosen lessons so the cumulative soul can evolve. However, that is not self-serving—with that soul’s advancement, all of its personages also have the opportunity to evolve. But, depending upon the free will choices of each, the personage can either grow toward the light or regress so far as to become trapped in base energy.

If a personage becomes trapped, how does that affect its cumulative soul's energy?

The lifetime energy registration that consigns a personage to the base energy placement does not affect its cumulative soul because that personage's unique energy stream made its own way entirely by its free will choices. The cumulative soul may encourage its personages, but it can't ever interfere with their free will. However, out of love for all its personages, the cumulative soul may request divine grace to assist any that become trapped in base energy.

Are the individual souls always aware of everything their cumulative soul knows?

Let me compare this with your memory, Mother. Nothing you have learned or experienced is ever lost in your memory system, but you can't remember everything at the same time–it would be overwhelming! Furthermore, many of your experiences were so trivial that they were irrelevant to subsequent happenings and never returned to your conscious mind, yet all are in your memory bank. It's the same with the personages of the cumulative soul as they experience their respective lifetimes.

That makes sense. Matthew, with all these parts of your cumulative soul, I just want to be absolutely sure that you are ONLY my Matthew and nobody else!

Oh, Mother, absolutely I am Matthew and no one else! Every personage is its own soul and no one else! The cumulative soul is the synthesis of all its independently functioning soul-selves.

But it sounds as if every soul that divides itself becomes a cumulative soul, so you could do the same and become one, too.

Mother, I realize that in my eagerness to answer your questions, sometimes my efforts result in confusion rather than clarification. The terms I've given you for the various aspects of soul expression—cumulative soul, personages, soul fragments or sparks and such—are meant only to show the soul's long journey striving through multiple lifetimes to return to its beginning in the perfect love and light of Creator.

In this realm we don't need differentiation of terms, as the soul's energy registration in the universe is evidence of its evolutionary station. Since each soul is its own inviolate self regardless of its station or the number of its progeny, we think of each simply as "soul." And that is how we speak of each one to you unless we are trying to explain the soul growth stages through its independently functioning aspects, or the inextricable and eternal connection of each soul with God and all other souls in the universe.

Thank you, Mother, and yes, I see that once again must leave remaining questions about the soul for the next message. We hope that our answers thus far have been convincing: You are limitlessly powerful, unconditionally loved divine beings in the eternal Oneness of All.

LOVE and PEACE

Suzanne Ward

Website: The Matthew Books
Email: suzy@matthewbooks.com

US experts to help treat burn patients from Taiwan dust explosion

Want China Times, CNA 2015-07-18

Medical staff members treat a burn victim from the water park disaster at Far

 Eastern Memorial Hospital in New Taipei, July 10. (Photo courtesy of Far

 Eastern Memorial Hospital)

A group of plastic and reconstructive surgeons and therapists from Johns Hopkins Medicine will arrive in Taipei this weekend to help treat patients who suffered severe burns last month in a water park disaster, a Ministry of Health and Welfare official said Friday.

Most of the six members of the Johns Hopkins team will travel to Taipei from Los Angeles on the presidential plane with President Ma Ying-jeou, who is en route home from a state visit to Central America and the Caribbean.

The president announced the US medical team's week-long visit to Taiwan at a dinner party hosted by overseas Chinese communities on Thursday in Los Angeles, where Ma was transiting.

The American medical experts will visit hospitals in central and southern Taiwan to mainly offer advice on treating burn patients, according to the president.

Because many of the patients still require surgical procedures, the American surgeons may also operate on patients under the supervision of local physicians, the president added.

Ma said that the US physicians will not violate Taiwanese law by performing the operations because they are in Taiwan to provide emergency assistance rather than to practice medicine as a profession in the country.

Under Taiwanese law, foreign doctors are normally required to have a Taiwanese medical license to practice medicine here.

Hsu Ming-hui, director of the Health Ministry's Office of International Cooperation, said the six-member group will include Stephen Maxwell Milner, director of the Johns Hopkins Burn Center, and Christina L. Catlett, an attending physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

It will also include Kevin Gerold, associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine; Denver Lough, plastic and reconstructive surgery resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital; Linda Ware, clinical social work/therapist and therapist Theresa A. Lynch.

The victims they will treat were among the nearly 500 people who were injured when colored powder ignited at a concert at Formosa Fun Coast water park in New Taipei on June 27.

As of Thursday, 382 of the burn victims remained hospitalized, and 250 were in intensive care units, with 185 of them in critical condition, according to the ministry.

A patient with severed burns at a hospital in New Taipei, July 3.

(Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Health and Welfare)

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Taiwan insists on labeling rules for Japan's food imports

Want China Times, CNA 2015-04-18

A selection of Japanese products sold at a store in Taoyuan which may pose
radiation risks, March 28. (Photo courtesy of Department of Public Health, Taoyuan)

Taiwan will enforce as scheduled a new directive that requires imported food from Japan to be labeled with its place of origin and proof that it is radiation free, vice health minister Shiu Ming-neng said Friday.

The directive has been issued and it's not possible to rescind it, Hsu told reporters after meeting with three visiting Japanese Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry officials.

The Japanese officials asked during the meeting for Taiwan to remove the requirement and offered more data related to radiation risks, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

But Hsu said the new directive will be enforced starting on May 15 as scheduled. He added that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is compiling scientific research and risk assessments on radiation safety.

Asked if the measure will affect trade, Hsu said the issue will be handled by the ministries of foreign and economic affairs.

The directive was made after Japanese food products from areas affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 were found last month sold in local supermarkets despite a ban.

The FDA imposed a ban on food products from the Japanese prefectures of Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant melted down in March 2011 and contaminated parts of those regions with radioactive substances.

Taiwan's authorities found that the food imports from those areas made their way into Taiwan after information on the packaging indicating their place of origin were covered up by Chinese-language stickers showing a different place of origin.

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World's first academy for humanitarian relief to be launched

Humanitarian Leadership Academy to train aid workers from over 50 countries in organising rapid responses to disasters and emergencies

The Guardian, Julian Borger Diplomatic editor, Sunday 22 March 2015

Local residents receive humanitarian aid in the city of Debaltseve, Ukraine.
The world’s first academy for humanitarian relief will train aid workers in
responding to disasters and emergencies. Photograph: Sokolov Mikhail/
Sokolov Mikhail/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis

The world’s first academy for humanitarian relief is to be launched, aimed at training 100,000 aid workers from over 50 countries in organising rapid responses to disasters and emergencies.

The Humanitarian Leadership Academy, launching on Monday, is a response to the growing number of humanitarian crises around the world, driven by climate change and conflict, combined with a severe and worsening shortage of people with the skills necessary to coordinate the large-scale response required in the critical first days to prevent mass casualties.

The HLA is being set up by a global consortium of aid organisations with initial £20m funding from the UK Department for International Development, out of a target of £50m. The Save the Children charity has paid the startup costing and is hosting the academy’s hub in London.

Further centres will open in Kenya and the Philippines later this year, and by 2020 the plan is to have ten training centres around the world, which would offer both classroom and virtual training for the surrounding regions, in mobilising the rapid response in resources and manpower needed in the wake of a disaster.

Jan Egeland, a former UN head of humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, will be the academy’s first chairman. He said the initiative “may revolutionise the entire humanitarian sector”.

“Investment in a new and better trained generation of humanitarian workers closer to where we find the greatest needs will bring development and sustainability to many of the world’s most fragile communities,” Egeland, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said.

Last year witnessed a record number of severe global humanitarian emergencies and the highest number of refugees the world has seen since the second world war. 50 million people were forced to flee their countries.

  

Justin Forsyth, chief executive of Save the Children, said: “If we are to save more lives in some of the toughest places in the world we need to train and support local people themselves to become the humanitarian workers and volunteers of the future. The academy will do this by bringing together an extraordinary and unique coalition of actors to train and share best practice, transforming the humanitarian system.”

The idea behind the establishment of ten national and regional centres around the world is that each should be able to tailor responses to crises in terms of local conditions and local culture. Aid experts have said that previous attempts to increase local and regional capacity to react to large-scale emergencies have foundered because they were seen as impositions of practices developed far away.

The plan is for each centre to provide a common pool of knowledge, the latest technology and examples of best practice, as well as solid career structures for humanitarian workers, with internationally recognised certification for successive levels of achievement, recorded in ‘humanitarian passports’. The end result should be to expand the pool of people available in every region to manage the humanitarian response in the first 72 hours of an emergency.

“This is potentially one of the most transformational projects I have been involved in,” said Gareth Owen, Save the Children’s director of emergencies, who has been working on the academy project since 2007. “It is based on the recognition that many studies of humanitarian disasters and emergencies point to leadership and decision-making as the critical factor. Really by now we should have a global capacity that we can draw on that is far greater and more diverse. We haven’t invested enough in people on the ground.”

Owen said that climate change was adding to the relentless annual toll of humanitarian crises: “We used to have a big natural disaster about once a decade and that has come down to one every two or three years.”

Global funding for emergency relief has largely stagnated. Owen said the $20bn (£13bn) spending on the response to humanitarian emergencies is a third of the amount the world spends on yoghurt, for example, and that there is no comparison with the $1.5tn spent on arms.

“The Humanitarian Leadership Academy will help create a faster and more effective disaster response system by empowering local people in the most vulnerable countries to be the first responders after a disaster strikes,” Justine Greening, the secretary of state for international development, said. “The high quality training and expertise delivered by this academy will mean humanitarian responses not only provide immediate, life-saving relief, but also help build a more secure and resilient world.”

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Britain authorises 'three-parent' babies

Yahoo – AFP, Dario Thuburn, 3 Feb 2015

As well as receiving DNA from its mother and father, an embryo would also
include a small amount of healthy so-called mDNA from a woman donor

Lawmakers at the House Commons voted by 382 to 128 in favour of allowing the creation of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) babies with DNA from three people, a move aimed at preventing serious inherited diseases being passed on from mother to child.

Under the change to the laws on IVF, as well as receiving the usual "nuclear" DNA from its mother and father, the embryo would also include a small amount of healthy so-called mDNA from a woman donor.

Lawmakers at the House Commons voted
by 382 to 128 in favour of allowing the
creation of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF)
babies with DNA from three people

"Families who know what it is like to care for a child with a devastating disease are best placed to decide whether mitochondrial donation is the right option for them," said Jeremy Farrar, director of health charity Wellcome Trust.

"We welcome this vote to give them that choice."

The bill is expected to be rubber-stamped by the House of Lords, the upper chamber of parliament, later this month, paving way for the procedure to begin next year.

The change could apply to up to 2,500 women of reproductive age in Britain with hereditary mitochondrial diseases but opponents say it opens the way to the possibility of "designer babies" in future.

Mitochondrial DNA (mDNA) is passed through the mother and mitochondrial diseases cause symptoms ranging from poor vision to diabetes and muscle wasting.

Mitochondria are structures in cells which generate the energy that allows the human body to function.

Health officials estimate around 125 babies are born with the mutations in Britain every year.

'Invaluable choice'

The law will allow Britain's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to authorise the procedure and a pioneering research centre in Newcastle is expected to be the first where it would take place.

Genetic disease charities celebrated the historic vote.

"We have finally reached a milestone in giving women an invaluable choice, the choice to become a mother without fear of passing on a lifetime under the shadow of mitochondrial disease to their child," said Robert Meadowcroft, Chief Executive of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign.

John Tooke, President of the Academy of Medical Sciences, said he was "delighted" by the vote.

"These treatments could reduce the number of children born with rare mitochondrial diseases, and help dozens of families to lead happy and healthy lives.

"Today's vote is the culmination of many years of scientific and public debate."

'Destructive manipulation'

But many Britons are still against the proposed change despite years of consultation by health authorities with the public and the scientific community.

A poll by the ComRes market research agency in the run-up to the vote showed only 20 percent of respondents in favour of the change and 41 percent against, while 39 percent said they had no view either way or did not know.

Britain on Tuesday became the first
country in the world to allow the creation
 of babies with DNA from three people
 after MPs voted for the controversial
procedure.

Opponents include scientists and religious leaders.

David King, director of the watchdog group Human Genetics Alert, said: "If we want to avoid the nightmare designer baby future we must draw the line here."

Josephine Quintavalle from the pro-life organisation Comment on Reproductive Ethics said there should be more focus on finding cures "which do not rely on destructive manipulation of early human life".

The Roman Catholic Church is firmly opposed to the move, pointing out that it would involve the destruction of human embryos as part of the process.

The Church of England has also said that ethical concerns "have not been sufficiently explored".

There is also concern on purely scientific grounds.

Justin St John from the Centre for Genetic Diseases at Monash University in Australia said the new IVF techniques required "further validation".

"It is essential to analyse offspring to determine that no abnormalities appear at least during early life," he said in a statement last week.

Related Articles:

Tears as MPs’ vote ends long wait for breakthrough on mitochondrial disease
Detailed map of genome function


"DNA REVEALED" - Mar 13, 2010 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

“…  Biology and Intent

Let's talk more about biology because now it gets a little more complex. There is an intermingling of the 3D and the quantum that we wish to describe to you now. It's something that is new, for the vibration of this planet and of humanity, especially of those who are working with the light, is creating a new tool set. You're going to start to see it and it's going to be visible through examination of the 3D chemistry of DNA, even at the 3D level.

Science is now looking at what they call markers in the protein-encoded DNA, which creates the Human genes. These markers, as they are described by science, are those that are the pieces and parts that would indicate predispositions - attributes that might weaken certain cells so that later in life they would allow disease, such as cancer. They're starting to see these markers, perhaps in certain families where mothers and daughters and their daughters and their daughters all had the same kind of disease. They're starting to see the genetic markers that create predisposed weakness.

Let's talk about the markers, for this is the first time we have disclosed this. First the premise: For years we have told you that your intent to talk to your cellular structure has power. This intent is your communication to the DNA field to alter something within the 3D cellular structure. You might say it's your own interdimensional "voice" giving instructions to the quantum part of your DNA, which then results in the actual chemical changes that are occurring in the codes within your 3D genome. But now the results are going to be seen, and you can begin by removing the markers, and when you do, they stay removed. This means that something quantum you do today can change the chemistry of your gene-producing DNA so greatly that it will NOT be passed to your children. You can break the chain.

Blessed are the Human Beings who realize that as they purify their lives with the light of the Creator, it will affect the biology of the protein-encoded parts. You can erase the markers. It's one of the first times that the 3D has intermingled with the quantum so that science can someday look at the same Human Being over time, knowing that DNA never changes... yet it did! It's yours and it's unique and you changed it. There will be no answer for them, but the 3D facts will show it, that you eliminated the marker.

The joy of this and the beauty of this is that the lineage of the young women who do this will be shown, for their daughters will not have the disease, nor will the daughters of their daughters. It's a new gift and reflects the power of the times. Can you really change those who are your children-to-be? Indeed!

I know what you are thinking. The crowd who sits here says, "Well, it's a little late, Kryon. I've had my children. So why do you sit here and tell me these things?" Are you not understanding where this message is going? Are you not understanding the profundity of what happens when old souls allow us to give this information to Earth? Do you not understand your energy has generated the allotment of allowance for us to come in today and give you this, so that young women and young men who are Lightworkers each will hear it and know what it means to them? Do you understand you're your own ancestors? Has this occurred to you? I see you as actual history, sitting in the chair, from all over the world! That's what I wanted to tell you today.

You don't each have one name to me. I don't even see the gender that you are. I see you in a quantum state and that's why it's so profound that you would let us come in and visit you in this fashion. The woman sits in the chair in front of me. She has no idea the warrior she's been, or how big she was when she was a man. Yet she carries around with her the feeling of the warrior and she knows she's strong. I look at the big, burly man and I see the mother toiling with all those children and the man knows it. He can feel it. He's sensitive and can actually feel the love of a mother. Who is it he used to be? And how has it affected him today?

Old soul, it's affected you today because every single lifetime gives you layer upon layer of wisdom. It has brought you to the chair today or reading this today. For this is the lifetime where you have awakened and realized there is more, a lot more. It brings you as a seeker to a place where you can say, "What can I do for myself and the earth?"

I'll tell you what you can do. You can become compassionate on this planet. You can walk around and show your light on this planet. You can change the markers in your own DNA! Think of who's listening to this message and what it might mean to their children and their children's children. These are the tools we spoke of so long ago, and the proof will come down the line of the reality of this message.

All of this that I have told you today is correct and real, and will be seen naturally in its own way. But I wanted you to know the sacredness that is here within a structure you thought was only chemical based. DNA is far larger and more sacred than anyone has ever imagined.

So what are you going to do with this information? Why don't you walk out of this place different than you came in, feeling a little more enabled? Perhaps you will feel a little better about the possibilities before you? Perhaps you might even know that what happened today is real.

And so it is.

KRYON