Indigenous Tiwi women strive to improve their lot

0 Comments read Gender, Indigenous
Photo Credit: © Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Tiwi Islands (Australia), 03.11.2009 (Women’s Feature Service): Lynette De Santis, 45, was surprised when in October last year, she became the first elected Mayor of the Tiwi Islands Shire Council comprising Bathurst and Melville Islands with a largely indigenous Aboriginal population of 1,495 and 434. She had conquered what had thus far been a male bastion.

“It had become the norm that men would be chairperson, mayor or president so I was amazed when I was elected the first female Mayor. I have always stood up for the interests of my people and I suppose this resulted in my victory”, says De Santis, who was born and bred in Northern Territory’s capital Darwin and returned home to the islands in 1985.

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When will your bus arrive? Know it on your mobile

0 Comments read Travel

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 24.10.2009 (IANS): Each day millions of commuters across the world wait for a bus or a train, wondering when it will arrive. Now a group of students at Carnegie Mellon University’s Adelaide campus, that includes Indians, has found a way to tell you exactly when your bus or train will be at your stop.

The Sandora Prototype 1.0 is a tracking system which sends live timetable information and a Google Map showing the location of the vehicle, direct to mobile phones by SMS. Commuters can obtain the information either before their trip or while waiting at a stop.

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Polio Fact Sheet

0 Comments read Disability, Health & Science, Poliomyelitis

The World Health Organisation recommended immunization schedule calls for four doses of Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) to be given at birth and at 6, 10 and 14 weeks of age in polio-endemic countries like India. There should be an interval of at least four weeks between doses.

Routine immunization provides a basic level of immunity against polio. High routine immunization coverage also reduces the amount of circulating wild poliovirus, thus facilitating eradication.

As part of the supplementary immunization, two doses of OPV are administered to all children aged less than five years in the entire country on a national immunisation day. The two rounds are approximately a month apart. All children are immunized regardless of their prior immunization status.

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