AM TIMAM, Chad – Once, Adouia Brema was a child bride forced to leave school. Today, she gives her community the gift of light. Her journey – from vulnerable teen mother to solar cell electrician – shows the remarkable feats that marginalized women and girls can achieve when they are empowered with information and economic...
The recent news making the rounds concerning the rape, assault, molestation, and murder of young Nigerian women as young as nine years old is overwhelming for any woman. Uwa, Tina, Jennifer, Barakat represent the limits that exist around women and the restrictions we must place on ourselves just to be considered worthy of humanity. As...
12 June 2020 Good morning, good afternoon and good evening. WHO is a global organization, but we are also proud and active members of the cities and communities we live in. Since the 20th of March, Geneva’s famous Jet d’Eau fountain has been switched off while the city was in lockdown. Yesterday I had the...
Women and girls are negatively and disproportionately impacted by disasters and conflict. These crises affect their life expectancy, education, maternal health, livelihoods, nutrition, and the levels of violence they experience. At the same time, women are also often first responders and leaders in humanitarian response, though they are often portrayed only as victims and passive beneficiaries...
Even as countries buckle under the devastating social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, they must consider the links between gender inequality and crisis, particularly in communities affected by climate change and conflict. That’s the premise of a new UN report which argues that understanding these connections can help policymakers and donors to mitigate...
Group of protesters on Friday stormed the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters in Abuja, and police command in Lagos to protest the rising spate of rape, sexual violence, assault against women, incest in the country. Unanimously, they demanded that there should be declaration of state-of-emergency on gender-based violence in the country. The protesters who demanded justice...
JOHANNESBURG, June 5 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – As the world races to stem the coronavirus, Democratic Republic of Congo is racing to also stop the spread of measles and a new outbreak of Ebola, leaving women delaying reproductive health needs, aid groups warned. Congo is also facing armed conflict, bringing with it sexual violence against...
The Federation of Women Lawyers (Fida) has moved to court seeking to have the electoral agency compelled to present to Parliament a list of nominees that conforms to the gender principle. Fida has sued speakers of National Assembly and Senate as well as the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and the Attorney-General while protesting lack...
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — In war-weakened Burkina Faso, several aid groups are still in the early stages of gender data collection. Attacks linked to Islamic militants, local defense forces, and the army have ravaged the once-peaceful country, making it hard for organizations to reach vulnerable populations — including some 850,000 internally displaced people — and to collect...
“Since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Ethiopia, one-stop crisis centres and shelters haven’t been able to support survivors because of the lack of isolation rooms for newcomers and insufficient human resources and personal protective equipment. To fill this gap, a transitional shelter was opened to serve as a space where survivors could...
