Active Citizens

Iran: One Year on, What’s Changed?

By Inés M. Pousadela
It’s a year since a photo of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini – bruised and in a coma she would never recover from after being arrested by the morality police for her supposedly improperly worn hijab – went viral, sending people onto the streets.

Multilingual #AfghanGirlsVoices Campaign to Return Millions Back to School

By Joyce Chimbi
A Taliban edict is rolling back time in Afghanistan after access to education for all Afghan girls over the age of 12 was indefinitely suspended on September 18, 2021. Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls are forbidden from attending school beyond the primary level, leaving more than 1.1 million girls and young women without access to formal education.

Treated Wastewater Is a Growing Source of Irrigation in Chile’s Arid North

By Orlando Milesi
The reuse of treated wastewater in vulnerable rural areas of Chile's arid north is emerging as a new resource for the inhabitants of this long, narrow South American country.

Youth Rally for Peace Through Climate Justice at the UN

By Abigail Van Neely
“What do we want? Climate justice! When do we want it? Now!” youth chanted in an unusually lively conference at the United Nations Headquarters.

UN Report Offers Solutions for Decarbonization of Buildings, Construction Sector

By Naureen Hossain
The building sector may be overdue for a significant overhaul of the processes in which infrastructure is built to be more environmentally conscious and reduce carbon emissions, a new UN report reveals.

African Startups Mull Home-Grown Solutions to Combat Climate Change

By Aimable Twahirwa
A group of young African startups made their presence known at the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, hoping to play a big role in promoting home-grown climate-oriented solutions.

El Salvador Is Making Little Effort to Eradicate Illiteracy

By Edgardo Ayala
El Salvador's efforts to improve the educational level in the country seem to be falling short, with rundown schools, especially in rural areas, and little progress in overcoming illiteracy.

Mexico’s Interoceanic Corridor Lacks Water

By Emilio Godoy
Due to insufficient pressure water does not make it up to Elliot Escobar's house in the Mexican municipality of Matías Romero, where he lives on the second floor, so he pipes it up with a hose from his sister's home, located on the first floor of the house shared by the two families.

Social Activists Demand Real Equality for Chilean Women

By Orlando Milesi
Women social activists recognize that gender equality is gaining ground in Chile, but maintain that there is still a long way to go to turn into reality the promises to "level the playing field" between women and men, while they highlight the importance of addressing the issue of care work.

International Youth Day 2023


 

Today, the world is embarking on a green transition. A shift towards an environmentally sustainable and climate-friendly world is critical.

“No” to Sex Education Fuels Early Pregnancies in Central America

By Edgardo Ayala
Pregnancies among girls and adolescents continue unabated in Central America, where legislation to prevent them, when it exists, is a dead letter, and governments are influenced by conservative sectors opposed to sex education in schools.

Vulnerable Women Suffer the Worst Face of Discrimination in Argentina

By Daniel Gutman
Remi Cáceres experienced gender-based violence firsthand. She struggled, got out and today helps other women in Argentina to find an escape valve. But because she is in a wheelchair and is a foreign national, she says the process was even more painful and arduous: "Being a migrant with a disability, it's two or three times harder. You have to empower yourself and it's very difficult."

Biodigesters Light Up Clean Energy Stoves in Rural El Salvador

By Edgardo Ayala
A new technology that has arrived in rural villages in El Salvador makes it possible for small farming families to generate biogas with their feces and use it for cooking - something that at first sounded to them like science fiction and also a bit smelly.

Mandela Day Reminder to Stand Witness to Human Rights Defenders

By Joyce Chimbi
As human rights increasingly deteriorate, rights defenders are being violently suppressed. Abducted, detained, tortured, and humiliated, many now live one day at a time. They have been told, in no uncertain times, that anything could happen. They are now asking the global community to stand as a witness.

‘Passion Seeds’ Fertilize Brazil’s Semiarid Northeast

By Mario Osava
Zé Pequeno cried when he learned that the heirloom seeds he had inherited from his father were contaminated by the transgenic corn his neighbor had brought from the south. Fortunately, he was able to salvage the native seeds because he had shared them with other neighbors.

Human Rights Concerns Ahead of Zimbabwe Polls

By Ignatius Banda
Zimbabwe holds general elections next month amid growing human rights and press freedom concerns in what analysts say could mar conditions for undisputed poll results.

Women Recyclers in Bolivia Build Hope, Demand Recognition

By Franz Chávez
They haul many kilos of recyclable materials on their backs but receive little in return. These Bolivian women who help clean up the environment from dawn to dusk are fighting for recognition of their work and social and labor rights.

The Dark Side of Wind and Solar Farms as Sustainable Energy in Brazil

By Mario Osava
"Anxiety, insomnia and depression have become widespread. We don't sleep well, I wake up three, four times a night," complained Brazilian farmer Roselma de Melo Oliveira, 35, who has lived 160 meters from a wind turbine for eight years.

Wood Smoke Continues to Make Women Sick in El Salvador

By Edgardo Ayala
Using a few dry sticks as fuel, Margarita Ramos of El Salvador lit the fire in her wood stove and set about frying two fish, occasionally fanning the flame, aware that the smoke she inhaled could affect her health.

Women in Peru’s Poor Urban Areas Combat the Crisis at the Cost of Their Wellbeing

By Mariela Jara
At five in the morning, when fog covers the streets and the cold pinches hard, Mercedes Marcahuachi is already on her feet ready to go to work in Pachacútec, the most populated area of the municipality of Ventanilla, in the province of Callao, known for being home to Peru's largest seaport.

Tuberculosis: A Disease of the Poor Begs For Rich Funding

By Busani Bafana
The United Nations General Assembly is convening a high-level meeting on Tuberculosis (TB) to get a political commitment for increased funding for programmes and research to end an old disease that today kills more people than AIDS and COVID.
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