Three Ugandan health workers have made it to the final shortlist of the inaugural Women in Focus Awards that will take place in Geneva, Switzerland this week. The awards celebrate the crucial role played by women in the on-going fight against neglected tropical diseases, a role which often goes unrecognised and unrewarded.
Source: UN Women
Emmy Choge is a wife, a mother of four and an entrepreneur for the past five years. Emmy is the perfect epitome of a “super woman”.
Source: Human Rights Watch
The Angolan government must allow protesters to exercise their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today, ahead of a planned demonstration in Luanda for a woman’s right to have an abortion.
The fearless Gambian human rights activist won New African Woman magazine’s Woman of the Year Award at the their Award ceremony that took place in Dakar last night.
The Ministry of Gender Children Social Protection with funding from the World Bank has for the first time launched the Girls Ebola Recovery Livelihood Support or (GERLS) project in the country. The project will benefit 200 adolescent girls and young women in the three counties including Montserrado, Margibi, and Grand Bassa that are interested in improving and expanding their businesses.
Born in a small town of Mufulira, on the Copper Belt province of Zambia in 1960, Winnie Nachivula, is making a mark in the cassava production in Zambia which currently stands at over 1 million metric tonnes per year, making it the most important crop grown in Zambia after maize. Cassava is grown by 35 percent of the small-scale farmers in Zambia, contributing to 38% of Zambia's total human consumption requirements. It is a staple food for at least 30% of the population and a source of energy, proteins and vitamins A, B1, B2 and C.
Khadra Hussein Mohammad, 28, made history by becoming Somaliland’s first female National Deputy Prosecutor, dealing with a range of cases including theft, gang-related violence and terrorism.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres designated children’s rights activist and Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai as a UN Messenger of Peace with a special focus on girls’ education.
The African Development Bank and the Mo Ibrahim Foundation have long had a close affinity and a natural alliance based on shared interests and complementary objectives. These qualities showed clearly at the 10th Mo Ibrahim Governance Weekend in Marrakech, Morocco, where the President spent a productive working weekend in the company of well-known personalities from African politics, commerce, investment and finance.
One of the aspects of the fight for gender equality in Africa that has been particularly frustrating for women activists is that much of this inequality is the continuing legacy of colonialism, which has altered the empowered role that African women once had in traditional African societies.
A group of women in colorful African dresses danced and sang songs familiar to everyone present. They were neither in Nairobi nor in Lagos. They were in the southern German city of Munich. But their cheers and laughter signaled a kind of happiness they hadn't experienced for a long time.
“I will never go back to the time when I feared attending my own business,” says Evah Kakobe, a long-time vendor at Mchikichini market in the city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
For women working in the Mchikichini market, violence and discrimination was a daily reality, until recently. Betty Mtewele, a vendor there since 2005, describes the ordeal: “Women were verbally abused, sexually assaulted, their rights were not recognized by male traders, and in most cases, male traders would not settle their bills. Women did not know whom to approach, to address these violations and they lost hope.”
AFRICAN Union Commission (AUC) Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security has appealed to Somalia government and the African Mission in Somali to engage women in all efforts to counter violent extremism.
It is followed by South Africa and Botswana at 17.4 percent and 16.9 percent respectively. Morocco and Cote D’Ivoire have the least number at 5.9 and 5.1 percent respectively.
IFC East Africa program Lead Stefan Handoyo credits the high number of Kenyan women board members to pro-women company policies, advanced education levels and fluency in English.
The Young People in the Media (YPM), in collaboration with the Girls Generation and stakeholders in the empowerment of the girl child, yesterday organised a daylong All Girls Conference on FGM and Gender-Based Violence, held at the Paradise Conference Hall.
The Speaker of Parliament, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, has warned community development officers (CDOs) against swindling funds meant for women's economic empowerment, saying culprits will be arrested and prosecuted.
Speaking at Buyengo Primary School in Jinja District last week, Ms Kadaga, who is also the Kamuli District Woman Member of Parliament, said it is not a secret that corruption is rife in government programmes such as the Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP) and the Women Entrepreneurship Fund.
Source: allAfrica
Thyolo — Thyolo-Luchenza Sex Workers Association has elected new leadership during elections held on Friday at Luchenza Community Centre Hall.
Source: Global Citizen
As women around the world continue to fight for equal representation in government, Kenya just took a major step forward as a global leader.
FGM is one of the most severe human rights violations and forms of violence against women. Somaliland has one of the highest rates of FGM at about 99.8% (NAFIS assessment Report, 2014). FGM has long and short term physical and psychological implications for girls and women, and it may lead to infertility and even death.
Source: The Monitor
Kuwait was in the news recently following a 12-second video that was posted online, of a maid falling seven floors from a window. The video was filmed and uploaded onto social media by her employer, a Kuwaiti woman. The maid is an Ethiopian woman.