Development aid pulled from Guinea-Bissau
Millions of dollars in assistance to Guinea-Bissau have been suspended by the World Bank and African Development Bank after military leaders staged a coup, scuttling presidential elections and detaining the leading candidate. Elections next would be held in two years, said the coup leaders, who chose the former vice president of the National Assembly, Manuel Serifo Nhamajo, to lead a transition government.
More than 100 Afghan schoolgirls are poisoned, hospitalized
More than 100 schoolgirls in northeastern Afghanistan are in hospital suffering from suspected poisoning. The health director of Takhar province said the girls fell ill shortly after drinking water at their school. An education official in Kabul said preliminary investigations suggested the water had been poisoned. A local official in Takhar suggested that people opposed to education for girls were responsible.
The importance of investing in girls
Girls the world over are being short-changed because their talents are unrecognized, Melanne Verveer, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, said recently at the Girls Leadership Summit hosted by the United Nations Foundation’s Girl Up campaign. “And when a girl can go to school safely, can study and be free from abuse, when she can access health care and have the chance to fulfill her God-given potential, she will not only have a head start but she will contribute to her families and communities,” she said.
Aid is helping to save 4 million children annually
Over the past 20 years, humanitarian aid along with economic growth and good government have combined to help 4 million more children each year to live beyond their fifth birthdays, according to a report for UNICEF and Save the Children. “Where funding gaps exist, for example for primary education or child health, aid can make all the difference,” said Justin Forsyth, head of Save the Children.
How school can help curb early pregnancy
Education is known to be a key for reining in population growth, and in Africa experts agree that means keeping girls in high school. The higher level of schooling gives girls the ability to enter the workforce rather than be left to conceive babies at a young age. “If you educate girls to the secondary level, then exposure to pregnancy doesn’t happen until they are mature and can make choices,” said Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund.
