RIGHTS: A New Wall of Stigma Proving to Be a Setback in the Fight Against AIDS

"I lost my job after my employer came to know my HIV status. My children were chased from school and my relatives stopped visiting me," says Evelyne Apondi, whose husband succumbed to the disease two years ago.

HEALTH-AFRICA: AIDS Activists Push For More Access to Drugs to Reduce Deaths

"We want drugs! You talk as we die," were some of the angry voices by AIDS activists who protested Wednesday against failure by their governments to give them anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs).

POLITICS-UGANDA: Women Join the Peace Wagon, As Rebels Wreak Havoc

Rosemary Nyeko is a bitter woman. She remembers how rebels ruined her life when they burned her house in northern Uganda last year.

HEALTH: Botswana’s Women-Led AIDS Success Story

Wearing a beauty queen's sash, Kgalalelo Ntsepe, had her audience at the International Conference on AIDS in Africa in stitches and in an almost non-stop round of clapping when she spoke this week.

HEALTH-AFRICA: Initiative to Fight AIDS From All Fronts

The silence in the room is chilling as everybody pays attention to an AIDS verse by children from a Nairobi-based institution caring for AIDS orphans.

RIGHTS-GUINEA: Women Fight to Overcome Cultural Barriers

Idiatou Balde, in her late 30s, exhibits and sells indigo-tinted fabrics in an up market in Conakry, the capital of Guinea.

RIGHTS-ZIMBABWE: Women Sue Government Over Enforced Name Change

What's in a name? Married women in Zimbabwe are taking the government to court over a procedure that compels them to adopt their husbands' surnames as a precondition to official documents, including registering the birth of infant children

TECHNOLOGY-AFRICA: Women Find Reason for Optimism in Internet Usage

Slowly, but effectively, the Internet is empowering women in Africa to follow events as they have never witnessed before. The latest case in point is the women in Somalia who have been following their country's peace talks in neighbouring Kenya via Internet usage.

RIGHTS: Abortion Debate Splits Kenya

Lorna Wambui (not her real name) may be scarred for life following a "back street" abortion that she had nine years ago.

HEALTH-ETHIOPIA: AIDS Fight Hindered by Stigma, Discrimination, Say NGOs

Miss Ethiopia has joined hands with non-governmental organisations (NGOS), which are based in the capital Addis Ababa, in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

RIGHTS-MALAWI: Women Gang up against Child Labour

Women activists in Malawi have waged war against child labour saying it is one of the many forms of violence that women in the country suffer from.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Women Mourn their Lack of Political Clout

As crucial municipal polls got underway in Zimbabwe on August 30 and 31, gender activists could only marvel at how little inroads women have made in politics.

HEALTH-SENEGAL: Women’s Groups Seek Mandatory Premarital HIV Testing

Women's groups are urging health officials to make premarital HIV testing mandatory so that ''young women are protected against AIDS''.

CULTURE-TANZANIA: Media Still Treats Women as Sex Workers, Mothers, Wives

The lack of women's voices and limited portrayal of their roles in the media may soon change if a new plan to correct those anomalies is implemented in Tanzania.

ECONOMY-SWAZILAND: Women Own Majority of Small Businesses

Since the publication last week of a government report that showed a majority of small businesses are owned by Swazi women, women's empowerment groups are trying to reconcile this surprising news with the reality that Swazi women are legally minors with limited rights in this small country.

POLITICS-MALAWI: President to fight for the Political Inclusion of Women

Malawian President Bakili Muluzi has urged legislators in his Southern African nation to amend the country's Constitution to allow him to appoint more women Parliamentarians in a bid to increase women's participation in politics and other decision making organs.

CULTURE-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Progress Towards Gender Equality Disappointing

Southern Africa leaders reaffirmed their commitment to reach a target of at least 30 percent of women in political and decision-making structures by 2005.

CULTURE-KENYA: Award Winning Writer is Obsessed with Writing

She is so artistic, so poetic, that every sentence she jots accentuates her creativity and passion for writing.

CULTURE-TANZANIA: African Women Called on to Stop Embracing Poverty

Women in Africa have to rise up to the challenge of developing positive attitudes as a key factor to advancing themselves, as well as attaining sustainable socio and economic development of the continent.

/ARTS WEEKLY-THEATRE/UGANDA: Inspired by Women

Uganda's celebrated playwright and director, Charles Mulekwa, owes his success to the women who have instilled in him values that have inspired his writings.

RELIGION: Gay Controversy Spreads to Other Churches

The controversy surrounding the Anglican Church over homosexuality appears to be spreading to other churches.