Inaugural Youth Olympic Games provide Competition and Inspiration SINGAPORE, August 2010 – As the first-ever Youth Olympic Games comes to a close, a young female athlete quietly traces the outline of her hand on a piece of paper and writes, “I have a right to be educated and to play any sports I like.” She is one of some 3,600 young athletes aged 14-18 – representing over 200 countries – that competed at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore this month. The … [Read more...]
Singapore – Inaugural Youth Olympic Games inspires youth to Take Action!
August 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment
China: Activist detained in Beijing who tried to act as Advocate for a Woman.
August 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Blogger joins others held by police, for publicizing a politically sensitive case. Photo: Liu Dejun Wu Gan (R) meets with activist Liu Shasha in Beijing shortly before his detention. HONG KONG – A rights activist who tried to act as advocate for a woman who claimed local officials had raped and murdered her daughter was detained in the Chinese capital this week. Blogger Wu Gan, known online by his nickname "The Butcher," said he was rounded up by officials from his home province … [Read more...]
JOHANNESBURG – Antiretroviral Gel Lowers HIV Infection
August 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Antiretroviral Gel Lowers HIV Infection and Offers Hope to Women JOHANNESBURG, 2010 (IPS) - When women from the predominantly rural Vulindela district in KwaZulu-Natal first began participating in an HIV-prevention trial many were unable to negotiate the use of condoms or even discuss safe sex with their partners. But as they used the discreet antiretroviral (ARV) microbicide gel, for the first time women - who bear the brunt of the HIV epidemic in Africa - were in control of an … [Read more...]
Ninoy Aquino Day – August 21, 2010
August 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The Philippines - Ninoy Aquino Day August 21, 2010 Ninoy Aquino Day is a national non-working holiday in the Philippines observed annually on August 21, commemorating the anniversary of the 1983 assassination of former Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr.. He was the husband of Corazon Aquino, who was later to become Philippine President; they are treated as two of the heroes of democracy in the country. His assassination led to the downfall of Ferdinand Marcos on … [Read more...]
Japanese Government sponsors new maternal and child health handbook for Palestine Refugees
August 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Maternal and Child Health Beirut August 2010 The Embassy of Japan and UNRWA launched on Wednesday 04 August a new Maternal and Child Health (MCH) handbook which will be distributed free-of-charge to Palestine refugees across Lebanon who are pregnant or have young children. A ceremony held at UNRWA premises in Beirut in the presence of the Japanese Ambassador to Lebanon, H.E. Koichi Kawakami, the Director of UNRWA Affairs Lebanon, Salvatore Lombardo, as well as representatives of UNRWA-contracted … [Read more...]
Indonesia to provide poor with Safer Maternal Care
August 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Photo: Alisa Tang/IRIN Only 5 percent of Indonesia’s 5 million poor pregnant women receive government assistance for deliveries attend for three million poor women in 2011 in a bid to reduce the maternal mortality rate. BATAM, 2 August 2010 (IRIN) - The Indonesian government announced it would fund deliveries performed by skilled birtattendantsfor Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih said many maternal deaths could be attributed to the use of traditional unskilled … [Read more...]
Communities in South Asia show how Stigma and Discrimination can be Transformed
July 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Credit: World Bank Stigma and discrimination are widely recognised as two of the major barriers to an effective and successful AIDS response. But how, with both often entrenched and hard to challenge, can they be meaningfully addressed? The World Bank and The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) focused on this central question during a satellite session at the XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna entitled: Making the case for stigma-reduction and moving to action, … [Read more...]
UNHCR – US$33 million programme rewards decades of hospitality in Bangladesh~CELEBRATE!
July 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment
TEKNAF, Bangladesh, July 2010 (UNHCR) For Bangladeshi women with pregnancy complications in this poverty-stricken area an emergency transfer to hospital is often beyond their budgets and can be life-threatening. They either have to pay for fuel for the three-hour trip by government ambulance to a hospital in the nearest big town, Cox's Bazar, or risk a long ride over rutted roads in a motorized rickshaw – sometimes too dangerous to contemplate. But two Bangladeshi women facing labour complications … [Read more...]
Viet Nam – Girls vs. Boys
July 13, 2010 By 1 Comment
When Girls Don’t Count as Much as Boys: Pre-natal Sex Selection in Viet Nam YEN HA VILLAGE, Viet Nam — May 19 was a special day for Thuy and her husband Nghe. Their son was one month old and, as dictated by Vietnamese tradition, they invited their relatives for a party. It was a big reunion, with more than 15 people celebrating the arrival of the new baby. And because it was a baby boy, after three girls, the celebration was all the more heartfelt. Son preference in Viet Nam has … [Read more...]
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