Welcome
Hello and welcome to CaboVerde Support website. Our site is new, so you will continue to see changes to the content in the coming months. We welcome you to continue to check our site for new updates about our organization and the cause we are supporting.
Recent News
1/14/2010 - Haiti Earthquake
Haiti, one of the poorest places in the world, needs your help after a powerful earthquake rocked the nation late Tuesday afternoon.
Massive death tolls are expected in Haiti due to the catastrophic 7.0 earthquake and ActionAid has begun on-the-ground emergency relief efforts, while also launching an appeal for funds to help better assist Haitians down the road. Please Join Us to help Haiti people.
Cabo Verde
Dengue Epidemic
Over 1,000 cases of Dengue Fever have been reported recently in Cape Verde, including 6 deaths. Dengue is a virus carried by mosquitoes. There are two types of Dengue virus. Type 1 symptoms include high fever, rash, head and body aches, chills, diarrhea, vomiting, and exhaustion. More severe versions – Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever and Dengue Shock Syndrome – are typically caused by Type 2.
The best way to prevent Dengue infection is to avoid mosquitoes and eliminate their breeding grounds – standing water.
Because Dengue is caused by a virus, the only available treatment is rest and plenty of fluids. Symptoms can be treated with drugs for relief, but this is does not actually fight the virus. Help us support those in need.
Housing Crisis: Update
A major issue in Cape Verde is illegal housing development. Due to extreme poverty and lack of government planning, many are left no choice but to build, without permit, structurally unsound houses on land they don’t own. In some districts of Praia, only 5% of the houses are legal. Some of the houses are well built, others not so. The poorest cannot even afford a few concrete blocks; some of the saddest houses I’ve seen are made of flattened oil barrels, plastic, and other scraps fastened together into huts.
The sprawl of illegal housing gives rise to a host of problems. No taxes are collected on the property. Erosion becomes a danger. Disease becomes more prevalent because of inadequate sewage. Building roads and other infrastructures in the illegal housing areas will be difficult in the future from lack of planning. The concentration of the poor often leads to crime. Without a permit, a house cannot be wired legally with electricity, so many houses simply steal from the utility company or a neighbor by tapping into the grid. This often leads to costly damage in the electrical cables. The aggregate leads to power cuts throughout the city, which increased by 15% from 2003 to 2006.
Cape Verde has received a 200 million euro credit line from Portugal for low income housing construction. Over 8,000 such homes will be built over the next 3 to 4 years. Three experimental projects will also being in Santiago, Sal and Boa Vista using new, low-cost construction technology.
This is a promising step against he housing crisis, although adding more debt to the already import-dependent economy is a downside