UNHCR: Somalia famine needs not effectively met
Somalia’s food woes are far from over and food shortages will last well into 2012, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres warns. Guterres said the international aid response has been insufficient to address drought and famine across the Horn of Africa and efforts need to increase.
Congolese rape survivor is helping others
Masika, a rape survivor in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is helping to provide other rape survivors not only with support and counseling, but a means to earn a living through farming. “Here in Congo, they go into villages and loot. And after looting, they never leave without raping. That’s why I say we’ve become weapons of war in Congo,” Masika said.
How the U.S. military fights malaria
For decades, the U.S. Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Maryland has produced “an unparalleled outpouring of drugs and vaccines to prevent and treat malaria,” as a result of experiments conducted on human volunteers. Subjects are infected with the disease — curable if treated within 36 hours — to test each new experimental vaccine funded through the $15 million the Defense Department spends annually on malaria research.
Uganda faces case over maternal mortality
The families of two Ugandan women who died during childbirth have launched a landmark case against the government on the grounds that failure to provide basic health care constitutes a human rights violation. Sixteen women die every day during childbirth in Uganda, most from causes that could be prevented by proper supplies, personnel and facilities.
India taps tech in landmark anti-poverty program
India has embarked upon the creation of the world’s largest biometric database, in which some 1.2 billion people will be assigned 12-digit numbers that, in conjunction with a thumbprint, can be used for identification purposes — allowing people, far from their home villages, to obtain welfare benefits, open a bank account or get a cellphone. The new Aadhaar system, intended to pull an estimated 400 million Indians out of poverty, can verify an identity within eight seconds using inexpensive hand-held devices linked to a mobile phone network.
HRW: Abuse, neglect plague Haitian women
Women and girls continue to pay a heavy physical price in post-earthquake Haiti as a result of abuse and neglect, Human Rights Watch says in a report. Women’s rights advocates are lobbying to support a proposed bill to penalize those who commit violent acts against women.
Aid agencies raise alarm over Somalia education
Schools should be placed at the forefront of Somalia famine-relief efforts to avoid a second simultaneous crisis in education, UNICEF and other aid agencies say. Aid officials predict hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren will not return to school in September because of the famine conditions and mass displacements.
Kenya struggles to combat malnutrition
Efforts to address drought-related malnutrition in Kenya are complicated by factors including illiteracy, infrastructure gaps, lack of awareness and poverty. Health officials see the lack of public outreach on malnutrition and distances to medical facilities as the two most critical elements left unaddressed.
Women in troubled Pakistan region get a hospital
Umrana Mumtaz Healthcare Trust Hospital caters to under-served and impoverished Pakistani women in a northwestern region of the country. Women there face obstacles of poverty, lack of infrastructure and societal norms. “About 50 to 60% of young mothers that we see with children or young babies are undernourished… or they have iron deficiency or they have malnutrition,” said Dr. Qasim Nasruddin.
Cellphones help battle child malnutrition
Concern Worldwide has launched a cellphone system for cash transfers in a bid to help battle malnutrition in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. The program allots a monthly cash allowance for food to selected beneficiaries, who can collect by visiting cellphone agents with their identification.
