Malignant Growth: Battling a New Cancer Pandemic

Few people in the world can claim to be untouched by cancer. If not personally battling it in one form or another, millions are at this very moment sitting beside loved ones fighting for their lives, visiting friends recovering from chemo, or researching the latest treatments for their relatives.

Soaring Child Poverty – a Blemish on Spain

“I don’t want them to grow up with the notion that they’re poor,” says Catalina González, referring to her two young sons. The family has been living in an apartment rent-free since December in exchange for fixing it up, in the southern Spanish city of Málaga.

Kenya’s Pastoralists Show their Green Thumbs

For more than a decade Dima Wario from Rupa, a village in Merti division, northern Kenya, escaped death and watched helplessly as many in his community died in a spate of fatal clashes over receding resources.

To Tell or Not to Tell? Ugandan Teens Grapple with HIV Disclosure

Silence is golden, it is said. But not for Constance Nansamba* from Uganda, who paid a dear price for keeping silent about being HIV positive and pregnant at age 18.  

On 20th Anniversary of Genocide, Rwanda’s Women Lead

When Rwandan Member of Parliament Veneranda Nyirahirwa was just a girl, she wasn’t allowed to attend secondary school because of her ethnicity. 

Biofortified Beans to Fight ‘Hidden Hunger’ in Rwanda

Joane Nkuliye considers herself an activist. She is part of a select group of farmers producing biofortified crops on a commercial scale in Rwanda. 

Chile Graduates in Earthquake Preparedness

Chile appears to have learned a few lessons from the 2010 earthquake and tsunami, and it successfully drew on them the night of Apr. 1, when another quake struck, this time in the extreme north of the country.

Brazilian Dams Accused of Aggravating Floods in Bolivia

Unusually heavy rainfall, climate change, deforestation and two dams across the border in Brazil were cited by sources who spoke to IPS as the causes of the heaviest flooding in Bolivia’s Amazon region since records have been kept.

Youth Around the World See Meagre Opportunities

Although half the world’s population is under 25 years old, young people in more than two dozen countries feel that their opportunities for educational, economic and societal advancement are limited, according to new research released here Thursday.

Zimbabwe’s Positive Children, Negative News

Three years ago, Robert Ngwenya* and his father got into a heated argument over medication. Ngwenya, then aged 15, refused to continue swallowing the nausea-provoking pills he had been taking since he was 12 years old, and flushed them down the toilet. 

OP-ED: Europe’s Commitment to Africa’s Children is Still Needed

As African and European leaders meet in Brussels this week under the theme of “Investing in People, Prosperity and Peace", it is clear Africa’s greatest natural resource, its children, must be centre stage. 

IPCC Climate Report Warns of “Growing Adaptation Deficit”

The latest update of the world’s scientific consensus on climate change finds not only that impacts are already being felt on every continent, but also that adaptation investments are dangerously lagging.

Somali Diaspora Not Ready to Buy One-Way Tickets Home Yet

On a Friday afternoon men wearing kamis — long white traditional robes — climb the steps to Somcity Travel, a small family business and travel agency in Kisenyi slum, in Uganda’s capital, Kampala. The agency boasts that they “fly all over the world” but to one destination in particular — Somalia.

Q&A: “Bolivia Marked the Start of a Major Indigenous Awakening”

He describes himself as someone who was drawn to Marxism as a result of his commiseration with the plight of indigenous people in his country, and he is considered one of the most influential Latin American thinkers of the 21st century.

Sahel Food Crisis Overshadowed by Regional Conflict

Still not enough is being done to improve the food emergency in Africa’s Sahel Region as conflict and instability continue to exacerbate any response towards aiding a region where one in eight people suffer from food insecurity.

A Honduran Paradise that Doesn’t Want to Anger the Sea Again

At the mouth of the Aguán river on the Caribbean coast of Honduras, a Garífuna community living in a natural paradise that was devastated 15 years ago by Hurricane Mitch has set an example of adaptation to climate change.

Despite Risks, Cuban Fisher Families Don’t Want to Leave the Sea

The road to Guanímar, a fishing village on the southern coast of Cuba, is as narrow as the future of its 252 inhabitants, who don’t want to abandon the area despite its vulnerability to hurricanes, storm surges and flooding.

Zimbabwe’s Growing Electronic Waste Becomes a Real Danger

Electronic waste in Zimbabwe is becoming “an emerging environmental crisis that is by and large unheralded,” according to Steady Kangata, the education and publicity manager of the government-run Environmental Management Agency (EMA).

Zimbabwe Traverses a Rugged Political Terrain

Leroy Muzamani from Zimbabwe’s low income suburb, Highfield, sits with his chin resting on his hands.

Port Development Brings Progress to Brazil – At a Price

“We are victims of progress,”complained Osmar Santos Coelho, known as Santico. His fishing community has disappeared, displaced to make way for a port complex on São Marcos bay, to the west of São Luis, the capital of the state of Maranhão in Brazil’s northeast.

OP-ED: While Women Progress, Men Fall Behind

-- International Women’s Day and the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) are overlooking a critical trend: while girls and women are making notable gains, boys and men are falling behind.