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Sunday, June 28, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Women's Health
CAMEROON: Protect Your Daughters, Iron Their Breasts
"Please God, make my breasts disappear." Joyce Forghab used to pray the same line every night during the month she was suffering from breast ironing. The shocking practice, carried out by a quarter of mothers in Cameroon, is meant to reverse female sexual development.JAMAICA: Wanted: Light-Skinned Only, Please
Revelations that proprietors are requesting light-skinned workers from a government training institution is putting a new spin on Jamaica's so-called obsession with skin bleaching.DR CONGO: Hard to Save All Women Suffering from Fistula
"Every quarter, more than a hundred women with fistulas - including many younger than 20 years old - are admitted for surgery in Maniema province," says nurse Julie Mawazo. "The number of affected women who don't have the means or awareness to come in must be far greater."Give Women the Seeds and They Can Feed the World
If women farmers were given more tools and resources, the number of hungry people in the world could be slashed by 100 to 150 million.Uneven Results in Bid to Halt Needless Mother and Child Deaths
Political, private sector and civil society leaders from around the world gathered here on Tuesday to recommit to a year-old initiative, Every Woman Every Child, which aims to prevent 16 million maternal and child deaths by 2015.
DADAAB: A Daily Prayer for Complication-Free Births
Dr. Beldina Gikundi's daily prayer is that the handful of malnourished pregnant Somali women who go into labour that day at the Dadaab refugee complex do not have complications, which might require a caesarean section. Because Gikundi knows that Somali cultural beliefs mean that she and her staff at Hagadera Hospital will most likely not be able to immediately operate on the women and save their lives and those of their unborn children.
INDIA: ‘Missing Girls is About Femicide’
India has been ranked the fourth most dangerous country in the world for women, but the widespread practice of selectively aborting female foetuses may make it the most hostile to the female gender.Finding Opportunity in a World of Seven Billion
Next month, the world's population will reach seven billion people, a landmark that the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is hailing in its drive to raise awareness about the need for global cooperation to solve issues of development.Unleashing the Power of Women and Girls
Kakenya Ntaiya was engaged at age five and would have been married by 13 if her mother had not insisted that she attend her small village school in Enoosaen, Kenya.
Low-Cost Healthcare Goes High-Tech
Cell phones and computer applications can help save the lives of thousands of mothers and children worldwide.
Q&A: “People With Disabilities Want Work”
More than one billion people worldwide live with disabilities, some 15 percent of the world's population.Reproductive Health Security Empowers Women’s Choices
Each day, one thousand women die in childbirth and one million people become infected with sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including 7,000 cases of HIV. Yet these numbers are preventable, experts insist, when countries possess the resources and willpower to address and deal with them.
AFRICA: Slow Progress in Reducing Maternal Mortality
Agnes Kalunda’s doctor feared that because of her slight frame there was a high chance of her developing complications during delivery.
HAITI: Patchy Healthcare Adds to Miseries of Women and Girls
"I just gave birth on the ground...I had no drugs for pain during delivery," one Haitian mother tells Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a report released Tuesday that says a year and a half after the country's devastating earthquake, women and girls are still facing gaps in access to available healthcare services necessary to stop preventable maternal and infant deaths.
Haiti’s Earthquake Victims: ‘Abandoned Like Stray Dogs’
Eighty thousand tiny houses dot the countryside near this coastal city, located just west of the epicentre of the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake that killed some 200,000 and displaced over one million.CONGO: Many Indigenous Women Still Give Birth in the Forest
Marguerite Kassa feared she would find herself alone in the small crowd of a dozen other pregnant women at the integrated health centre in Mossendjo, in the southwestern Republic of Congo. "I am six months pregnant already, but I hesitated to come here before now, because there is so much contempt for us," the thirty-year-old indigenous woman tells IPS. "Yet I was warmly welcomed."
UGANDA: Post War Reconstruction Ignores Victims of Sexual Violence
Ester Abeja has experienced both physical and emotional atrocities. She was captured by Uganda's feared rebel group the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and was forced to join them. But not before the soldiers made her kill her one-year- old baby girl, by smashing her skull in, and then gang raped her.Palestinians Prisoners Languish in Administrative Detention
"I’m sick with worry about my daughter. I’m afraid of what they are doing to her. She has done nothing to deserve this. If they have anything against her why don’t they bring her to trial?" Yehiya Al Shalabi asked IPS rhetorically.
Somali Women Bear Superhuman Burden
While the exit of the Al-Qaeda-backed rebel group Al Shabaab has led to the first U.N. relief airlift in five years in the capital of famine-wracked Somalia, the situation for women and children remains precarious, humanitarian workers warn.SOUTH AFRICA: Failing Women as Maternal Mortality Quadruples
Only six sub-Saharan African countries have failed to reduce the number of women dying in childbirth over the last two decades. High-spending South Africa is among them, with maternal mortality rates more than quadrupling since 1990. Human Rights Watch researcher Agnes Odhiambo says this is largely due to a lack of accountability.
NEPAL: Improved Wood Stoves Save Health, Environment
When Binita Lamichhane got married she was troubled by her husband's bloodshot eyes. "What happened to your eyes?" the 18-year-old bride asked. "Smoke," came the answer.« Previous Page — Next Page »
Worldwide, women’s health is a serious issue. The result of a wide diversity of factors, most notably insufficient access to education, women’s health issues must be addressed. Without access to proper schooling, many girls grow up without the necessary understanding of reproductive health. Due to this, reproductive issues and sexually transmitted infections plague women in developing countries. Women struggle to battle infections such as HIV. The lack of relevant services, coupled with the lack of women’s rights pertaining to their own health, are some of the serious issues that these stories seek to explain.
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