Divvys Blog

Ousmann Umar may seem like a role model to fellow migrants, having built a successful new life in Europe after making the dangerous journey from Africa. And yet his sole message to peers today is "don't do it".

The Ghanian in his 30s has just completed a masters degree -- after surviving a five-year trek across his home continent followed by a perilous boat crossing to Spain. 
But he's also actively pursuing a campaign to discourage others from following in his footsteps.
"I went from being almost illiterate to studying a master, it's like I won the lottery," Umar, dressed in a blazer, white shirt and moccasins, told AFP in the seaside town of Badalona near Barcelona. 
But "today I wouldn't do it again, it's too hard," he said as he gazed at the Mediterranean Sea, where thousands of migrants have died trying to reach Europe.
"I am only 0.01 percent. (Many others) die along the way and of those who arrive, only one percent manage to integrate into European life."   
Having already founded an NGO promoting childhood education in Ghana, Umar recently launched a project with migrant rescue charity Proactiva Open Arms that aims to convince his compatriots to stay at home.

Over the past three years, the group says it has rescued nearly 60,000 migrants from the Mediterranean. Umar recalls the ordeal of crossing the Sahara desert without water, the mistreatment he suffered in Libya and Algeria and the death of his best friend along the journey to Europe.
"I will always carry this burden. That is why I don't want anyone to go through what I did," he said.
Dodging death
Umar said death has played a key part in his life since he was born in Fiaso, a tiny village in Ghana's rainforest. His mother died while giving birth to him, which in Ghanaian culture means that the child is "cursed" and must be killed.
He escaped this fate thanks to his father being the local witch doctor. But when he was nine years old, Umar was sent to live with a distant uncle who taught him to be a welder.
He eventually decided to go to Europe when he was around 13.    
The search for a better life quickly turned into a nightmare when the human traffickers abandoned him with 45 others in the middle of the Sahara desert.   
Umar said he walked for 21 days, surviving by drinking his own urine while many of his companions died along the way. By the time they reached Libya, there were only six of them left.
"The biggest grave is not the sea, it is the desert," Umar said.
'Born again'
After working in Libya for several years, he made it to Mauritania where he boarded a boat packed with migrants bound for the "promised land" -- Spain's Canary Islands. 
Along the way he lost his best friend Musa, whose boat sank during the crossing.
"I vowed I would never return to the water. It was total anguish, I don't know how to swim and I thought I could die at any moment," Umar recalled.   
After a short stint at a migrant reception centre on Fuerteventura, he was sent to Barcelona where he had dreamt of living ever since he watched FC Barcelona on TV as a child.
He slept rough for a month before a couple with three children took him into their home.
"I was born again that day," he said 13 years later.
'Russian roulette'
Umar learned to speak Spanish and Catalan, completed high school and last week finished a masters degree in international cooperation at Barcelona's prestigious ESADE business school.
During this time, he made living repairing bicycles, earning enough to pay for his studies as well as those of his brother who is still in Ghana and runs Umar's Nasco education charity there.
Founded in 2012, Nasco acquires computer equipment and provides training in new technologies at five rural schools in Ghana to provide opportunities so youths do not need to immigrate.
The plan is to send migrants rescued in the Mediterranean by Proactiva Open Arms to give talks at the Nasco-backed schools in Ghana about the ordeal they faced trying to get to Europe.
"We want to explain to them before they leave what they can expect during this long journey, from people from their country whom we rescued," said Proactiva founder Oscar Camps.
"Ousmann says he won the lottery. But in the lottery, if you don't win, everything remains the same. This is more like Russian roulette," he added.

Clark State Community College got the go-ahead to develop its bachelors degree for next year’s Spring semester.

The college had proposed offering a baccalaureate degree in Manufacturing Technology Management. But members of the Ohio Department of Education asked Clark State to revise its proposal due to concerns their proposal might be too similar to existing degrees at other schools.

Clark State said the degree will be available for students in Spring 2019.

“Clark State is appreciative of the Ohio Department of Higher Education’s further review and analysis of our proposed program,” said Jo Alice Blondin, president of Clark State. “The additional time strengthened our application to ODHE. I am grateful for the hard work and leadership of Aimee Belanger-Haas and Clark State faculty to bring this to fruition. Clark State continues to hear from our regional industry partners about their interest in this program and how they hope this program is available to train their workers.”

Central State was one area university that had raised concern that Clark State’s original proposal was similar to an existing program in the region, according to online testimony provided by staff at that institution.

Now that the degree has received approval, it will allow Clark State to begin providing additional training to the region’s manufacturing workforce. The program is a blend of manufacturing skills and management coursework, said Belanger-Haas, dean of business and applied technology for Clark State.

“It’s a great need in our community right now,” said Belanger-Haas. “A lot of our manufacturing has been low-skilled. People are retiring and there’s a need to upskill our incumbent workers in that position.”

She said Clark State worked closely with area manufacturing firms to develop the curriculum.

Clark State was awarded a $2.5 million grant in 2014 from the U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Department of Education as part of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training program. That allowed Clark State to provide training for entry-level technicians in the region, Belanger-Haas said.

The four-year degree will provide additional options to local companies like Cascade and the Hall company that want more training for mid-level employees.

She said there’s already plenty of interest int he program and the college will likely look to hire some additional faculty for the program.

“Our employers, when we submitted the application have committed to sending around 100 employees in the first few years of the program so there’s a lot of interest already,” Belanger-Haas said.

Floyd Mayweather is distancing himself from Donald Trump ... according to TMZ Sports he doesn't consider POTUS a real friend -- despite showing serious support for Trump for years. 

For the record, Floyd visited with Trump after he won the election back in November and has defended Trump's "Access Hollywood" comments as stuff a "real man" says.

So, when we saw Floyd out shopping in Bev Hills, we asked how he felt about his friend's stance on the national anthem. 

"Hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up," Floyd said ... "Friends is a strong word."

Floyd proceeded to point out some guys he considers real friends and then explained his relationship with Trump is WAY more casual. 

"I know a lot of people. I knew Barack Obama. I know Donald Trump. I know a lot of people."

But, when it comes to the his opinion on the Philadelphia Eagles and the national anthem, Floyd says he's staying mum ... "I don't want my name in no bullshit. I'm out of it." 

Will Smith wasn't impressed with his son Jaden Smith wearing a skirt.

The 49-year-old actor's wife Jada Pinkett Smith has admitted her spouse rang her up when he found out that the 19-year-old actor had decided not to conform to fashion's gender divide and became the face of Louis Vuitton womenswear in 2016.

Speaking on the latest episode of 'Red Table Talk', she said: ''I give Jaden props. His style choices were especially brave with him being a black young man -- and the son of like an über masculine hip-hop star.''

Of her husband Will, she added: ''He has his feelings on that for sure. I remember Will calling me and being like, 'Have you talked about this Jaden and him wearing a skirt?' And I said, 'Yeah I have. He's pretty happy about it.' ''

Although her husband wasn't overly keen on Jaden's fashion choices, the 46-year-old actress thought it was really brave of him because he'd always talked about it.

She explained: ''He'd talked about wanting to wear skirts to give kids the freedom, to give other people the freedom to think out of the box for themselves and not feel like in doing that that they would be bullied or be attacked in some way.''

And it's not just Jaden's fashion sense that has caused conflict between Jada and Will as she has admitted they also got locked into a war of words over his acting.

Speaking about Jaden's breakout movie role in 'The Karate Kid' when he was just 12, she said: ''I remember being on set with Will and it was such a struggle between he and I in regards to Jaden. I understand why men take their sons away for like whatever kind of warrior training because it is completely, utterly unfair and unnatural for a woman to have to sit and watch anything like that for her son. Will and I were in constant conflict, to the point where we were warring over Jaden.''

Drake is back on Instagram after going ghost when Pusha T dropped his vicious diss track.

Drake has been missing in action from social media for over a week now. After Pusha Tdropped his diss track “The Story Of Adidon,” Drizzy went ghost on social media as hip hop fans started trolling him. The Toronto rapper is now back on the Gram a day after J Prince revealed in an interview that he has a “career-ending” diss track sitting on that could cause great pain for Kanye West and Pusha T.

While he didn’t make any new posts on his Instagram feed, Drake left a few comments letting his fans know that he has been going through a lot. “Nobody really know what I been through,” he wrote in the comments before adding, “Black Benz no friends.” Some fans immediately went to trolling him by congratulating him on his new baby, while others welcomed him back to the Gram.

Last week, Drake made a rare statement on his Instagram Story last week when he addressed the blackface photo controversy. According to the Young Money rapper, the photo was taken as part of an initiative that he and his friend took part in to illustrate the struggles of black actors in Hollywood. Seems Drake is now trying to put all of that controversy behind him and move forward.

Drake is getting ready to drop his new album Scorpion sometime this month. While he hasn’t revealed the exact release date, his fans are on alert for him to drop the project without notice. It could be this weekend or it could be next weekend. Kanye West and Kid Cudi are dropping their joint album this weekend so it would be interesting to see if Drake releases his project to directly compete with.

Whitney Houston's bible is being sold for $95,000.

The 'I Have Nothing' hitmaker left the holy book behind when she moved out of her Newport Beach luxury rental in 2011 - a year before she was found dead in her bathtub - and now her former landlord is planning to flog it for the hefty price tag.

The owner told TMZ he found the bible in a box with some clothes and CDs by the bin after the legendary singer moved out and, although he tried to contact Whitney's agent at the time about the items, he was told he could keep them if he wanted them.

The man - whose identity is not known - sold the house in 2012 and ''threw out other stuff Whitney had left behind except the bible because he thought it was interesting.''

And he's hoping the bible, which is being sold through Moments in Time, will fetch the impressive figure because it has Whitney's handwriting all over it and there are pages documenting her life events - such as the date she married Robert B. Brown in 1992 and the birth of her now-late daughter Bobbi K. Kristina on March 4, 1993.

Meanwhile, Whitney was found to have cocaine, marijuana and prescription medication in her system when she accidentally drowned in the bath in February 2012, but her ex-husband Bobby doesn't think she ''died from drugs.''

He said: ''I don't think she died from drugs. Not at all... She was really working hard on herself to try to be a sober person and, um [pauses] she was a great woman.''

Asked if that means he doesn't think there were drugs in her system when she died, he clarified: ''Yes.''

And when his wife and manager, Alicia Etheredge-Brown interrupted to say there ''were drugs in her system'', Bobby replied: ''Well, I don't think so.''

Asked what he attributed her death to, he said: ''Just being broken-hearted.'

Kim Kardashian West is planning ''an intimate little dinner'' for Kanye West's birthday.

The 'Keeping Up With the Kardashians' star has revealed she's decided to keep things low-key for the rapper's 41st birthday on June 8 and just wants to throw him a small meal with their close friends and family at their house in Los Angeles.

Speaking to E! News, the 37-year-old beauty said: ''I'm planning a dinner for him at our house. Just an intimate little dinner with friends.''

And the 'Bound 2' hitmaker certainly deserves to be waited on hand and foot on his special day as he's been busy working in the studio over the past few months on his recently-released seven-track album 'Ye'.

Kim also left him to clear up the mess after their daughter North's unicorn-themed birthday party at the weekend and wanted him to be there when she opened her gifts.

She explained: ''He's at home babysitting. He was going to come, and he wanted to come, but I'm staying a few extra days in New York. And so I said, 'You know our daughter had her birthday party last night. She needs to wake up and open her presents, so you're going to have to take that shift.' So he did that!''

Kim's low-key approach to Kanye's birthday will no doubt come as a surprise to fans as she stocked a plane with Japanese snacks and magazines for his 40th birthday last year and made him guess where they were going.

Taking to her Twitter account earlier this year, the reality star uploaded a photograph of Kanye beaming at the camera with his stash of Japanese candy sat in front of him.

She accompanied it with the caption: ''Throwback to that time I surprised Kanye with a trip to Japan for his birthday! He had to guess where we were going based on the snacks and magazines I had the plane stocked with! He was happy!

The stills Selena has been sharing do bear a startling resemblance to the Palestinian artist’s cinematic work, with a deep colour palette and the songs lyrics subtitled over the pictures. Since Selena began posting the stills last week fans have let comments underneath the posts, tagging Sarah accusing the singer of ripping off her work.

Other commenters meanwhile have pointed out the aesthetic isn’t owned by one specific person, with one writing: “She’s not even the one who invented it. Many people do this kind of art so everyone is allowed to do it.” In an Instagram story Sarah Bahbah claimed that “well over 2,000 people” had sent her Selena’s posts, but neither have made a statement yet.

In an interview with i-D earlier this year, Sarah said her process behind creating her cinematic, screencap like images. “I’m a writer first, visual artist second”, she said, citing her cinematic influences as No Country for Old Men and The Big Lebowski. “The dialogue is written over a period of months, usually after I have internalised intense conversations I’ve had with once significant connections, or conversations I never had with them but wish I did. I’ll replay those conversations in my mind, and it’s the finding of unspoken dialogue in those actual conversations that becomes part of my art.”

Selena’s Back To You video was released yesterday and sees her stealing a car and escaping on an adventure with a mystery man she meets at a party. Watch the full video here:

The Trump administration's abortion policy on foreign aid is having a devastating effect in local communities that require medical assistance, according to a new report.

Investigators from the Center for Health and Gender Equity, or CHANGE, issued a report Tuesday on what's known as the "Mexico City policy" or the "global gag rule" -- what the Trump administration calls "Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance." The policy requires that any foreign group -- nongovernmental organization (NGO) or for-profit -- that receives U.S. global health funding cannot perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning -- or else they'll be stripped of their U.S. funds.

Trump's policy is an expansion of past Republican presidents in that it now affects all global health funds -- a total of $8.8 billion -- for groups that do family planning, reproductive health and maternal and child health care, but also those that target HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases, malaria, nutrition, tuberculosis and more.

Trump signed an executive memorandum reinstating the policy, overturned by Barack Obama in 2009, on his first Monday in office.

The report demonstrates that the new restrictions have led to cutbacks for groups on the ground, many of whom are reliant on U.S. funding.

"We were operating last year in 17 countries, and by the end of or by sometime next year, those will all be shut down -- all those projects," one anonymous organization told investigators.

The report's fieldwork focuses on Zimbabwe and Mozambique, where one group, the Mozambican Association for Family Development (AMODEFA), will lose 60 percent of its budget next year -- leading to 10 of its 20 health clinics closing and 30 percent of its staff getting laid off.

At one of its HIV clinic, for example, AMODEFA consulted 6,799 girls and young women under 24 years old and tested 5,981 of them from July to September 2017. During a similar time period in the new fiscal year -- October to December 2017 -- they consulted only 833 and tested only 671.

The report argues that the policy does not reduce abortions, citing research from when it was in place under President George W. Bush. It also argues the Trump administration did a poor job rolling it out and explaining the details of it, leading to confusion that has exacerbated the problem and caused doubts about organizations' funding.

The State Department conducted its own review of the policy after its initial six months in 2017 and found that partner organizations "largely accepted the policy" and several submitted comments in support of it -- "despite several NGOs having provided submissions detailing early harmful impacts of the policy," according to CHANGE.

ABC News has reached out for comment from the State Department on the findings of the new report, but have yet to hear back.

The report argues that the impact spills over into other areas, including women's empowerment: "One NGO has been forced to discontinue a project that reached 14,000 AGYW [adolescent girls and young women] in Uganda with information and services on HIV and economic empowerment because the prime partner could not comply with the GGR."

The International Planned Parenthood Foundation estimated it would lose $100 million in U.S. funding under Trump, leading to 20,000 maternal deaths, 4.8 million unintended pregnancies and 1.7 million unsafe abortions, the group reported.

Many organizations have cut those funding ties with the U.S. because of the policy, some out of solidarity or principle. But many are forced to because their work inherently involves reproductive health care and they at least present female patients information about abortion. That includes groups that counsel women on gender-based violence -- or focus on HIV/AIDS treatment.

"I think that really creates a fear that HIV rates will go up because there’s no longer this availability of funding," a representative for WaterAid told CHANGE.

Cancer patients with diseases that are difficult to treat may live longer if doctors engage in genetic sequencing and then match treatment to their illness, a long-term “precision medicine” study has found.

The study represents part of a push in cancer treatment to personalize medicine for specific patients, matching known tumor mutations to treatments in an effort to extend patients’ lives. It is the first long-term study to compare tailored methods to traditional, more generic treatment.

“All patients should have access to next generation sequencing and I believe in the next few years we are going to see this approach dramatically improving outcomes,” said Apostolia Maria Tsimberidou, a professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, who led the research.

“We need to know what is really causing these diseases so we can treat them properly.”

The study was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco) in Chicago, the world’s largest gathering of cancer specialists.

The study looked at more than 3,700 people with cancer that had proved difficult to treat and who had already undergone other types of treatments. Their ages ranged from 16 to 86, with a median of 57.

Included in the study were gastrointestinal (24.2%), gynecological (19.4%), breast (13.5%), skin (11.9%) and lung (8.7%) cancers.

Of those patients, 1,307 had a known mutation, and 711 received treatment based on that genetic profile. Those patients were twice as likely to live three years (15%) versus those who did not receive tailored treatments (7%). Patients were also six times more likely to live 10 years if they received tailored treatment, at 6% of the sample compared with just 1% for those who received general treatment.

Another, more comprehensive, trial is due to take place at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, which will address an admitted shortcoming in the previous study, by using randomized trials.

Tsimberidou said her own clinic had witnessed the potential of personalized cancer medicines. One patient has been kept alive despite being diagnosed in 2011 with an aggressive form of brain cancer called glioblastoma. The same cancer killed the former US vice-president Joe Biden’s son, Beau, who died in 2015, and former British cabinet minister Tessa Jowell, last month.

Cancer research is increasingly pushing for patients to have tumors sequenced for personalized treatment after analyzing key details within the DNA.

Some types of genetic testing are already on the market. Another major study presented at the conference found that many women with the most common form of early breast cancer do not benefit from chemotherapy. That test looked only at 21 genes.

Researchers believe more detailed genetic testing is on the horizon.

Dr Catherine Diefenbach, an Asco expert, said scientists had barely “scratched the surface” of the potential of precision medicine.

“Now with faster and more robust genetic tests, we can help even more patients by treating the cancer based on its genetic makeup rather than solely on its location in the body,” she said.

"We are going to file a series of legal motions that will get us more information and may impact the process, and if we are successful there may not be a trial - and if there is a trial, we will proceed expeditiously and vigorously to try and clear Mr Weinstein's name."

"As terrible as the crime of rape is, it is equally reprehensible to be falsely accused," Brafman added.

One alleged victim, who has not been identified publicly, told investigators that Mr Weinstein cornered her in a hotel room and raped her.

The other accuser, former actress Lucia Evans, has gone public with her account of how the former producer forced her to perform a sex act on him at his office in 2004.

"I said, over and over, 'I don't want to do this, stop, don't,'" Evans told The New Yorker in a story published in October.

The two women are among scores who have accused the Hollywood mogul of sexual misconduct ranging from rape to harassment.

They include Uma Thurman, Salma Hayek and Gwyneth Paltrow.

The outpouring saw people around the world come forward with cases of sexual mistreatment, leading to resignations and sackings of powerful men across industries.

They include TV hosts Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose, comedian Louis CK, Democratic Senator Al Franken, chef Mario Batali, casino magnate Steve Wynn and, most recently, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

Women worldwide have also taken to social media, using the hashtag #MeToo to share their own stories of being sexually assaulted or harassed in the workplace.