Some girls among the Pokot community in western Kenya are bravely defying what is considered cultural and traditional by refusing to be circumcised. More and more mothers, fathers and the women whose job is to do the cutting are beginning to support these girls’ right to bodily integrity.

Girls Take Charge in the Fight to End Female Genital Mutilation

With its youthful population, fast growing economies and an expanding middle class, Africa has much to celebrate on 25^th May, Africa Day.

This year Africa Day also marks the 50^th anniversary of the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963.

When IPS Africa spoke to a few health experts we found out that advances in health, especially treatment of HIV and Aids are some of the areas we can celebrate this Africa Day.

We also heard what needs to happen over the coming years to make greater progress in the area of healthcare.

Madam Siankusulu complains of poor harvests

Fifty seven thousand people were displaced on the Zambian and Zimbabwean sides of the Zambezi River to make way for the construction of the Kariba hydroelectric dam.

Almost six decade later, they are still to be compensated for being moved from their homes.

South Africa is a country rich in culture and diversity but its Africa Day awareness seems to be lagging behind.

As the continent prepares to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) on Africa Day, 25^th of May, IPS Africa speaks to ordinary South Africans to hear how they plan to celebrate this important day.

However the responses we received were rather disappointing.

Africa Day is an annual commemoration of the historic 1963 meeting of leaders of 32 independent African states to form the OAU, now simply known as African Union (AU).

Dr Theresa Moyo says there are increasing signs that Africa is taking gender equity seriously.

History was made last year July when the African Union Commission elected Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as its chairperson, making her the first woman to lead the organisation.

Now as the continent gears-up to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the 1963 formation of the AU, then known as the Organisation of African Unity, IPS Africa spoke to a few leading women and gender activists to find out if women have equal status with men on the continent.

When the food-strapped Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) appealed to the Mongolian government for food last month, it signaled a major turning point in the public image of this Central Asian country, which has long struggled to feed its own population of three million.

Transformed from a nation of nomads into an industrial agricultural exporter during its time as a Soviet satellite state between 1921 and 1990, the country’s food production systems suffered a sudden crash after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Families went back to subsistence agriculture, but herding under a privatised market economy created unsustainable livestock populations and overgrazing, as a result of which Mongolia now has an estimated 78 percent desertification rate.

As recently as 2008, the country imported two-thirds of its wheat, one third of its potatoes and most of its milk products in urban areas, according to a United States Department of Agriculture report.

But new initiatives by the government and private sector to revive food production here have taken Mongolians back to their roots as small-scale cultivators, utilising the short growing season on the Central Asian Steppes to plan trees and the nutritious sea buckthorn bushes to protect the topsoil.

Tuya, a member of the Mongolian Women Farmers Association (MWFA) told IPS that imported vegetables are too expensive for the rural and urban poor living in informal “tent cities” across the country. So the new cultivation initiatives offer a way out of malnutrition and food insecurity.

According to government studies, a full third (33 percent) of Mongolians eat no vegetables at all.  The poor suffer from heart disease, stunting in children, high blood pressure, obesity, malnutrition and alcoholism. The MWFA, a volunteer-led civil society organisation, has been teaching ger-district and rural residents how to grow and cook vegetables to improve both their income and health.

Paris and Benaiah are among a number of LGBTQ youth who have found transitional shelter at the Ali Forney Center in New York. Credit: Mathieu Vaas/IPS

In New York City, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) youth represent 40 percent of the homeless youth living on the city’s streets. The Ali Forney Center is a non-profit organisation that offers them services such as emergency shelter, transitional shelter, help to reach out to family, and more specific services depending on what is needed.

Eli, Dupree, Paris and Benaiah are four young residents at one of the Ali Forney Center’s transitional shelters, where they live with four other LGBT youth. They can stay up to two years, rent-free, and enjoy a safe and stable environment.

IPS reporter Mathieu Vaas met with the young people living in one of the shelter apartments of the Ali Forney Center to hear their stories.

Lloyd (left) and Fredwim (right) say the youth farm project has changed their lives. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

Down the main road in Munda, a coastal town on the North Georgia Island of the Solomon Islands, past the wharf, the market and a small collection of shops, Patrick Arathe’s farm is reached by walking first across the runway of the local airport and finally along a dirt track that winds between residential buildings until it opens into a large clearing.

Here the crops are laid out in a pattern, with beds of cabbages and other vegetables in the centre, encircled by plantings of corn, banana and pawpaw trees. A group of young boys who have been abandoned by their parents tend to this small farm, performing every task from planting seeds to harvesting produce.

Although subsistence agriculture is the dominant livelihood for the 552,000 people in the Solomon Islands, urban agricultural enterprises like this one are becoming an increasingly rare sight.

Both the Ministry of Health for the Solomon Islands and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have reported that changes in lifestyles and eating habits have resulted in 93.6 percent of the population consuming less than the recommended five servings of fruit and vegetables per day.

Leslie Kiadapite, principal field officer at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock in Munda, told IPS, “Eating patterns in the communities have changed.  People (consume) more imported foods and are moving away from gardening. People depend on rice, noodles and food (they can) buy in stores.”

Young people, in particular, regularly consume food products high in fat, sugar and carbohydrates.

Fifty-five percent of the population of the Solomon Islands is under 29 years, and only one in six students who complete school acquire formal employment

Thus the farm provides a much-needed alternative form of livelihood and income generation.

The Beitbridge area in southern Zimbabwe was hit by serious flooding earlier this year. Those affected are still trying to get back on their feet.

March 27 officially declared the arrival of spring to the Hindu community, celebrated with the Holi festival. Known as the festival of colours, Holi has a broad appeal in and outside India, particularly among youth. Hindus send their greetings and welcome good luck by throwing coloured powder to others and smearing people’s clothes with paint. 

The celebration of Holi will usually last for several weeks and will also take place in different areas across America. At the UN, the United Nations Staff Recreations Council initiates the celebration to embody the festival’s spirit of bridging social barriers of language and status.

United Nations Staff Celebrates Holi, the Hindu Festival of Colors from IPS Inter Press Service on Vimeo.

This year also marks the fifth annual Holi Festival in New York City, which, with the theme “Green Holi”, stressed the use of new herbal and non-toxic colours.