Source: pri.org
Caskets are carried off, carrying those who didn’t survive the two-day journey across the Mediterranean, from Libya to the Sicilian port of Palermo. Babies wail and those sick and burned from the effects of the gasoline mixed with saltwater stumble towards the medical tent. The Nigerian girls are given a plastic bag containing a liter of water, a piece of fruit and a sandwich. They're ushered to a vinyl tent for “vulnerabili” — the vulnerable ones.
Source: allAfrica.com
Moroccan authorities stifled a women's protest in the coastal city of Al-Hoceima, campaigning for access to jobs, health services and infrastructure in the northern Rif region. Police encircled hundreds of female protesters in a public park late on Saturday, impeding others from joining, as the women chanted "freedom, dignity and social justice," Reuters news agency reported.
Source: Human Rights Watch
Under a huge baobab tree in Sudan’s Nuba mountains, I met Sebila, a 27-year-old mother of three. In March last year, her village had been attacked by Sudanese ground troops and bombed by government war planes. The assault forced Sebila and many other villagers to flee deeper into rebel-held territory.
UN Women, the African Union Commission, and the Permanent Mission of Germany today launched the African Women Leaders Network, a ground-breaking initiative that seeks to enhance the leadership of women in the transformation of Africa with a focus on governance, peace and stability. The Network was launched following the three-day High-Level Women Leaders Forum for Africa’s Transformation, which took place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 31 May to 2 June.
In the Central African Republic, the women of Obo are considering leaving their homes when Ugandan and U.S. troops abandon the hunt for Joseph Kony.
Men dominate the Ugandan journalism industry, but one radio station hopes to change that, employing only women in management positions, and putting voices on the air that would not otherwise be heard.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
In parts of Mali, bride kidnapping is rife: While some girls escape, others are forced to wed, so students are striving to save their peers from a similar fate.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Between 15 to 20 government soldiers face charges including murder, rape and looting during attack on hotel in Juba.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Heat-holding rocks dramatically reduce the amount of cooking fuel needed - and solar panels provide electricity as well
Source: newsdeeply.com
Margaret was 15 when her parents told her she was getting married. Her future husband was a 36-year-old farmer from her home village of Sakabusolo, in southern Uganda. She begged her parents to let her stay in school, but they said they needed the dowry money. The groom paid them $80.
Source: newsdeeply.com
Millions of girls and women are displaced and on the move right now globally – and the Trump administration’s proposed drastic cuts to humanitarian aid will have a major impact on these girls’ and women’s health. An especially important but often overlooked issue is one of the most basic parts of life for women – menstruation.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Pregnant and abandoned by the father of her unborn child despite his promises of marriage, 16-year-old Coumba did not think her plight could get any worse - until she told her family. "My mother said she regretted that I was ever born," the teenager told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an empty classroom of a secondary school in the Senegalese city of Thies.
Source:Thomson Reuters Foundation
More countries need to collect specific data on how disasters affect women and girls to improve their chances of surviving and help governments to create effective risk reduction strategies, the deputy head of the United Nations' women's agency said.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Anthio Mounkoro has been farming land in Bogossoni for as long as she can remember – but none of it was ever hers. "The land I've been cultivating my whole life is my father's," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation while meticulously watering a batch of shallots, careful not to waste one drop from the hose. "No woman in my village owns land – that's for men, it's just the way it is."
At a hospital in Botswana’s capital, the introduction of a weekly meeting for cervical cancer care providers has resulted in a sharp reduction in delays for treatment.
A self-help group of women farmers is defying the effects of climate change and making a steady income by growing drought-resistant sorghum on contract for a national brewery.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
When Allan Maleche was offered a position at one of Kenya's top law firms on graduation, he did not imagine a future as an activist standing up to government and challenging tradition. But he could not shake off the human rights bug which he had caught during a holiday job working with an HIV/AIDS charity - so he quit the prestigious firm.
Source: News Deeply
South Africa is a country with extremely high levels of domestic violence, where one in five women over the age of 18 report being abused by a partner. In the 2015-16 financial year, there were new applications for protection orders made in domestic violence cases, a 4.3 percent rise from the previous year. The country passed the Domestic Violence Act in 1998, but women’s rights advocates say the process for reporting and escaping perpetrators is slow and complicated.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
President Donald Trump's dramatic expansion of a policy blocking U.S. aid to organisations offering abortion services will have one sure result, say medical workers in this city: more abortions.
Source: theconversation.com
Kenyan folk stories celebrate women as strong, fierce heroines of the distant past. Women in some communities in western and central Kenya are said to have enjoyed considerable power directly or indirectly as chiefs, queens, queen mothers and advisors.