Vietnam aims to improve minority education
With the support of aid agencies like UNICEF, Vietnamese authorities are working to provide primary education in minority languages as part of an effort to promote development and economic growth. Vietnam has 53 ethnic minorities that constitute 13% of the overall population and remain among the country’s most impoverished citizens.
Tanzania hospital battles fistula
Corrective surgery is giving Tanzanian fistula sufferers a chance to resume a normal life. The Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation hospital in Dar es Salaam is providing free surgery, education and job training in a bid to help end the stigma and social isolation that often accompanies fistula.
TV viewers help fund health programs in developing world
ABC News television viewers have provided almost $1.5 million to help fund public health programs to support women and children in the developing world. Clean water supply projects in Ethiopia and Bangladesh, and anti-malnutrition programs in Somalia and Guatemala are among the initiatives that have received the financial support.
Family planning makes inroads across Africa
Family planning is beginning to take hold in Africa even as the continent’s population remains on track to double in size by 2045. Cultural resistance and lack of access remain challenges to efforts to reduce fertility rates and stabilize population growth.
India steps up efforts to halt Pakistan polio migration
The increase in recorded cases of polio in Pakistan, from 134 to 173 over the past year, poses a threat to India’s efforts to eliminate the virus, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Only one person was reportedly stricken by the virus over the past year in India.
GAVI vaccine deal is extended through 2023
The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization will be able to buy 180 million doses of pneumococcal vaccine at a steep discount through 2023 under an agreement announced Friday between drugmakers Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline. The vaccine helps prevent pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis, conditions that combined kill an estimated 800,000 children each year, almost all in the developing world.
India eyes subsidies to tackle malnutrition
Indian authorities are hoping an updated food-subsidies program will help address widespread malnutrition and waning political fortunes without disrupting the economy. The plan, which will increase the number of beneficiaries from 180 million to as many as 810 million, has been approved by the Cabinet and heads to India’s parliament next week.
Million Moms Challenge reaches Bangladesh
BRAC, which runs maternal, neonatal and child health programs that reach 24.5 million people, has partnered with the Million Moms Challenge to promote development. The group’s “birthing huts” have helped lower the percentage of Bangladeshi woman giving birth in unsanitary conditions at home from 86% to 25%.
Indonesian women, girls bear brunt of HIV surge
Mothers afflicted with HIV, as well as their daughters, are suffering disproportionately in Indonesia as a result of education and employment discrimination, compounded by financial burdens when infected partners are unable to work, according to a report of the UN Development Program. “Many HIV-positive women are being called ‘bad women’ or ‘bad girls,’ but, at the same time, many of them have to work more after their husbands were diagnosed with HIV,” said Chya Wibisono of Indonesia Women’s Positive Network.
