Now more than ever, health is at the forefront of everyone’s minds. On 7th April, we have an opportunity to thank the nurses and midwives of the Principality during World Health Day 2020.
“Nurses and midwives help us live in a happier, healthier world,” says the World Health Organisation (WHO), sponsors of World Health Day 2020 in this International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife.
Working at the forefront of Covid-19 epidemic response teams, nurses are, amongst other vital tasks, providing respectful treatment and care, addressing patient fears and questions and collecting data for clinical studies. Their dedication and selflessness often goes unnoticed, but without them, the medical world would be in turmoil.
The International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife has been created to showcase all the things nurses and midwives do, as well as highlight the current status of nursing globally.
In order to do this, World Health Day 2020 will see the launch of the first-ever State of the World’s Nursing Report. The report will cover the big picture regarding the nursing workforce and ways to optimise their contributions to improve health overall worldwide. It will also set out the plan for the future that will include data collection, research, advocacy, policy dialogue and investment. The complementary midwifery report is due out in 2021.
To achieve the ambitious WHO national and global targets related to universal health coverage, maternal and child health, infectious and non-communicable diseases including mental health, emergency preparedness and response, patient safety and the delivery of integrated, people-centred care, nurse and midwife support is necessary.
World Health Day is a global awareness campaign celebrated every year on 7th April under the sponsorship of the World Health Organisation since 1948. Each year it highlights a specific health theme to make it a topic of priority and to raise public awareness of all that is being done to keep the population well.
Home care workers on the front lines during epidemic
Monaco’s support workers caring for the most vulnerable in the community are making heroic efforts to maintain vital ties to the elderly and disabled, whilst trying to remain safe themselves during the crisis.
Confinement is difficult under the best of situations, but when a person is elderly or disabled, the need for reassurance and assistance is paramount to survival.
The Union of Monegasque Businesses for Home Help and Support (SEMAAD), an association of five companies dedicated to helping those most vulnerable in the community, provide the services that ensure this at-risk segment of the population is well taken care of.
In taking care of these necessary visits and aid, they are putting themselves on the front lines seven days a week, as their brethren in the medical field are also doing each day.
These workers face serious organisational constraints. They must adhere to lockdown rules whilst still providing services that normally require close personal contact. To manage this balancing act, they are equipped with gloves, masks and other necessary materials to ensure the health and safety of both themselves and those they care for.
They are also using clever ways to get around practical problems such as transport issues. They have been utilising the free services offered by Monaco Taxi, GIE Les Limousines and the free car parks to keep the system running smoothly.
The workers not only bring food and medicines to their charges, they also provide emotional support, providing perhaps the only social link to the outside world many of these people have.
If you or someone you know is in need of such assistance, contact Dimension Santé via email on mabalain@agence-dimension.com.
The two Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) stars from Monaco have been unbeaten throughout the qualifying rounds and have landed themselves spots in the final stages of the eEuro 2020.
AS Monaco Esports players Lotfi and Usmakabyle have crushed their competition playing for Les Bleus throughout the series. Only two weeks ago, they had a five for five winning streak, followed by a similar scenario playing out on Wednesday. They handily beat out Belgium (8-4), Cyprus (6-0) Czech Republic (7-0), Armenia (9-3) and Croatia (8-2) putting the French eFoot Team firmly in the finals.
The team scored a whopping 74 goals in ten matches and are said to have the best attack in the competition.
They will be up against other tough competitors including Serbia, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Israel, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. Six other countries will be added to this list after their play-offs are held.
The eEuro 2020 Tournament has been hosted by UEFA and operated by ESL Gaming. The video game competition is conducted using eFootball Pro Evolution Soccer 2020 (PES 2020) for Play Station 4.
All players must be nationals for the country they wish to play for and be 16 years or older to compete. They adhere to strict rules of conduct and tolerate no violence, abusive language or rudeness.
There were ten total number of groups that played consisting of five groups of five national teams and five groups of six national teams. Every national team is made up of two to four players and every player must play at least one match during the tournament.
PHOTO: asmonaco.com
Monaco's students: how do we live during the lockdown?
Last September, I started a Masters in Luxury Brand Management at the International University of Monaco (IUM). I was surprised by the number of different nationalities among the students, more than 50. But I went to Monaco in order to enjoy an international experience, and I was incredibly satisfied… until Covid-19 appeared.
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Of course, nobody could have anticipated this health crisis, but how was I supposed to continue to study in these conditions? From the very beginning, I decided to stay here in Monaco, far away from my family in Strasbourg, northeast France, because I had not understood how bad the situation was and that it would only worsen week after week.
So, I’m stuck in my flat, thankfully with a beautiful sea view and the sun shining almost every day. The most difficult thing is to stay focussed on my studies. Questions come thick and fast concerning our graduation.
In fact, our professors do their best to continue to provide us with teaching materials, readings, and individual or group assignments. IUM set up a Business Skype to allow the students to reach them as often as needed, to ask questions about courses and to follow some online classes as well.
It requires a lot of organisational skills on both parts – teachers and students. Some use creative ideas to help us follow their classes, such as Youtube channels, where they give a relatively “normal lesson”. Or they send us their PowerPoint presentations with voiceover on each slide in order to give the most accurate explanations to us.
Regarding our assignments, we have to submit everything online, on the platform ‘IUM Intranet Monaco’, respecting deadlines. For exams, most of the professors will give us a business case to work on, in order to do it at home.
Of course, our master program director tries to keep us updated on any information they receive internally, which helps us adapt to working and studying properly from home. International University of Monaco
Also, for students who may need it, they just made psychological support available. If we need someone to talk to, or if we have difficulties in going through this situation, difficulties managing stress, or need advice to deal with anxiety that may be caused by this stressful environment, all students are free to contact the English-speaking support implemented by the INSEEC group. The conversation will remain confidential.
During the first 10 days of confinement, I was fine studying like this. Days went by quite quickly, as I spent most of my time working on my projects that needed to be submitted. But when you have your whole days to work only on schoolwork, very quickly there are no more assignments to do, or the deadlines become more and more spaced out.
So, I really felt the need to do something else rather than spend my entire days working on my laptop.
Normally, I would go to my flying yoga class at MAD Monaco twice a week and my regular yoga class once a week. So, in order to have that same feeling I had when I returned home after my yoga classes, I decided to follow Instagram Live yoga class given by my yoga teacher from MAD Monaco. It helps me to feel better, less “locked in”, and it gives me the impression I have a social life again. It also helps me focus more when I get back to work on my assignments. Me before the lockdown
Now, after two weeks confined to my flat without any external contact, time is beginning to feel much longer. I do many FaceTime videos with my friends, most of them are living abroad, and with my family obviously. I’m checking in on my family almost every day, whether it’s my parents, my brother or my granny, we call each other a lot just to make sure that everybody’s okay and nobody’s taking risks by going out. Everyone’s very worried.
But I think we have to stay very positive in this strange period. We are lucky, we are safe, at home, even if this is not the best condition to work and study in, but we have to be patient.
I also take this as an opportunity to do things I have never done before. I work on my creativity skills. I am passionate about fashion and print magazines (I’ve been collecting Vogue magazines since I was 17), so now it’s time to use them. I cut out pictures for my mood boards and hang them in my living room like artwork. I also plan to select my favourite magazine covers to decorate the top of a glass table. I even ordered a chalk board to remind me every day of my goal and I will hang it on the wall of my living room.
I started reading several novels as well, ‘The Irregular, Coco Chanel itinerary’ written by Edmonde Charles-Roux, and ‘Beautiful People’ by Alicia Drake. I’ve loved literature since I was a little girl, so now is the time to re-read all the novels I have loved. Albert Camus is one of my favourite authors. Next on my list are ‘The Foreigner’, ‘The Summer’ and ‘Letter to a German Friend’.
Up until now, I never went outside since the lockdown was ordered on 17th March. I had enough provisions so I didn’t want to risk going out. But in the next few days I am going to have to – to at least get some air, while remaining as far as possible as I can from people I might run into.
Actually, this period makes me remember the feeling I had when I was living in St. Barths, during the hurricanes. We had to stay locked up for days. People were rushing to run errands before the cyclone’s arrival. Water was a scarce commodity. And as the whole island was supplied by boat, no one could come and fill the supermarkets shelves until the end of the cyclone.
But I think the worst came after the hurricane, when we could get out again. Many families who lived on boats had lost everything. In 2015, after Gonzalo, more than 50 boats were found sunk or stranded. The island was completely destroyed and people had to rebuild everything. It was terrible. Then, Hurricane Irma came two years later in Gonzalo.
I think the worst is to be aware that these natural catastrophes can happen, but that we cannot do anything about it.
It is exactly like the situation we are living now. We are powerless, but we must remain positive and hope that the worst is behind us.
I hope that the situation will improve quickly, so that we can resume our everyday lives again. Regarding my studies, it’s still uncertain, but we will certainly work from home until the end of our school year, which is the end of June, because they do not want to take the risk of spreading the epidemic again.
We wait. It’s all we can do right now.
The In Your Element Festival, due to be held in Monaco this weekend, has switched gears and will now be a free online event with live workshops and classes being presented throughout the day.
The In Your Element Wellness and Fitness Festival, scheduled for the weekend of 4th of April in Monaco, was not able to take place at Stars n’ Bars as planned due to the health crisis.
Instead, the hosts of the event have decided to put on a two day online event where their community of experts and coaches will be streaming an assortment of live workshops and events directly into participant’s homes.
The idea behind the event is to help people get motivated during these challenging times and offer tips on health, well-being, nutrition and exercise.
Classes offer something for everyone and include a Total Body Sculpt class, a core yoga and pilates class, a live Q&A with the physiotherapists at Bodi Team Physios, a nutrition class explaining detox, workshop about buying the clean beauty products, meditation and breathwork classes, strength and cardio training, a raw chocolate and Easter treat-making workshop and a class teaching how to do a home facial massage.
The dates are 4th and 5th April. For more information, go online to their Instagram page at https://www.instagram.com/in_your_element/?hl=en
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