Children are bearing the brunt of the drought in Tharparkar, often the first to fall victim to diarrhoea and pneumonia brought on by malnutrition. Credit: Irfan Ahmed/IPS
MITHI, Pakistan, Jan 3 2015 (IPS) – The main entrance to the Civil Hospital in Mithi, headquarters of the Tharparkar district in Pakistan’s southern Sindh Province, is blocked by a couple of men clad in traditional dress and turbans. They are trying to console a woman who is sobbing so heavily she has to gasp for breath.
She lost her two-year-old son just moments ago and these men, both relations of hers, were the ones to carry the child into the hospital where doctors tried – and failed –…
The recent epidemic of chikungunya in the Caribbean has been attributed in part to indiscriminate dumping of household garbage, as in this street in Curepe, Trinidad, thus providing breeding ground for mosquitoes that thrive under hot and wet conditions. Credit: Jewel Fraser/IPS
TRINIDAD, Feb 20 2015 (IPS) – Jenny had gone to bed feeling well, but an hour into her sleep she suddenly awoke with a “stiff, cramping pain” behind one knee. Within the next hour the pains had multiplied and both knees began to lock, followed by stiffened fingers and pains in her chest, along with a fever.
Jenny Gittens, 61, described her experience with chikungunya over the next tw…
Dr. Kirsten Stoebenau is a Gender and Population Specialist at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW).
Girls who report that their domestic chores interfere with their schooling are three times more likely to drop out. Credit: Zofeen Ebrahim/IPS
WASHINGTON, Mar 25 2015 (IPS) – Earlier this month, the Barack Obama administration announced a new initiative designed to improve girls’ education around the world. Dubbed “Let Girls Learn,” the programme builds on current progress made, such as ensuring girls…
Esmee Russell is International Campaigns Coordinator, End Water Poverty
A young Sudanese boy carries water home for his family in a plastic container. Credit: UN Photo/Tim McKulka
LONDON, May 22 2015 (IPS) – In September, the United Nations will agree on new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which will set development priorities for the next 15 years. The draft goals that have been developed are ambitious – they seek to end poverty and ensure no one is left behind.
Until now, civil society has been engaged in discussions over goals and targets; th…
Malaria has dreadful health consequences for HIV positive pregnant women and their babies. Sleeping under a net and taking antimalarial pills help HIV positive pregnant women have healthier babies. Credit: Mercedes Sayagues/IPS
UNITED NATIONS/ADDIS ABABA, Jul 13 2015 (IPS) – Although malaria is both preventable and curable, it still killed an estimated 584,000 people in 2013, the majority of them African children.
According to the…
A hearing in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to follow up on compliance with its ruling that Costa Rica’s ban on in vitro fertilisation violates a number of rights. Credit: Inter-American Court of Human Rights
SAN JOSE, Sep 15 2015 (IPS) – After banning in vitro fertilisation for 15 years and failing to comply with an Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling for nearly three years, Costa Rica will finally once again allow the procedure for cou…
Ms Mette Knudsen is Denmark’s Ambassador to Kenya. Follow her on twitter: . Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Representative to Kenya. Follow him on twitter:
Ms Margaret Kenyatta, the First Lady of Kenya visits a maternal health facility in Mandera County on 06 November 2015. Dr Babatunde Osotimehin the Executive Director of UNFPA looks on. Credit: @UNFPAKen
Mandera County, Kenya, Jan 18 2016 (IPS) – On Friday, 06 November 2015, we had the honor of meeting the First Lady of Kenya Ms Margaret Kenyatta, a tireless advocate for “every woman and every child”, during the launch of the Beyond Zero campaign in Mandera County, North-East…
Evelyn Nguleka is president of the , an international organisation of Farmers for Farmers, which aims to bring together all the national producer and farm cooperative organisations with the objective of developing policies which favour and support farmers’ causes in developed and developing countries around the world. Nguleka introduces the key issues discussed at the May 4-7 2016 WFO conference in Lusaka.
LUSAKA, May 6 2016 (IPS) – Agriculture is the primary sector of all economies. It is the sector responsible for granting food and nutrition security to all human beings. Consequently it is responsible for social stability and health. And it provides work opportunities to families, men, women and youth, and largely contributes to the country Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
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Dr. Katrin Glatzel is Policy & Research Officer at Agriculture for Impact, which acts as the convenor for the Montpellier Panel.
Peter Mcharo’s two children digging their father’s maize field in Kibaigwa village, Morogoro Region, some 350km from Dar es Salaam. Mcharo has benefitted greatly from conservation agriculture techniques. Credit: Orton Kiishweko/IPS
KIGALI, Rwanda, Jun 14 2016 (IPS) – After over a year of extreme weather…
Peru is carrying out a strategy to eliminate mother-to-child-transmission of hepatitis B. The most important preventative intervention is the universal vaccination, which can prevent infection in 95 per cent of cases. Photo credit: PAHO
ROME, Jul 26 2016 (IPS) – With some 400 million people around the world infected with hepatitis B or C, mostly without being aware, the United Nations top health agency encourages countries to boost testing and access to services and medicines for people in need to combat the ignored perils of this disease.
A staggering 95 per cent of people infected with B or C do not know they are infected, often living without symptoms f…