Source: Voice of America
Abuja — More than five days after the abduction of more than 100 teenage girls in Northeastern Nigeria, 85 girls remain missing, believed to be deep within a dangerous forest.
Source: The Daily Observer
The National Enterprise Development Initiative (NEDI) recently presented fertiliser, vegetable products to different youth and women groups, at a presentation ceremony held at NEDI office.
Source: Tanzania Daily News
MATERNAL mortality and morbidity remain a critical global problem. In 2010, estimates suggests that globally there were 287,000 maternal deaths-- down from 543,000 in 1990.
Source: the New Times
The Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion has said that it was on course to fully implement all programmes for which funds were allocated in the 2013/2014 national budget.
Source: The Observer (Kampala)
Police in the eastern district of Iganga recently arrested a 40-year old father who allegedly married off his eight-year-old daughter to her 32-year-old primary teacher for Shs 300,000 and a rooster.
Source: Times of Zambia
APPROXIMATELY every two minutes, a woman dies during pregnancy or child birth. However, most of the causes of maternal deaths are highly preventable. In Zambia alone, there are an estimated 600,000 births, with about 2,600 maternal deaths and about 20,200 infant mortalities.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) presented a new Continent-Wide Initiative on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment at the Seventh Joint Annual Meeting of the Economic Commission for Africa Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and the African Union Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance in Abuja, Nigeria, from 25 to 30 March 2014.
A traditional two-year mourning period for widows during which women are expected to be confined and not work, is meeting growing resistance in Swaziland.
Source: Tanzania Daily News
THE government has achieved tremendous success in enforcing various international and regional conventions in the fight against the discrimination of women and children.
Progress on gender equality is being eroded by new laws that violate the constitution and indoctrinate discrimination. News of the death of a 13-year-old girl from Kajiado in southern Kenyaafter she underwent female genital mutilation (FGM) brings to mind another 12-year-old Maasai girl, Sasiano Nchoe, who died in very similar circumstances after undergoing FGM in 2008.
Source: Tanzania Daily News
LACK of adequate family planning education is the reason for insufficient resources among many families, resulting in unwanted pregnancies and maternal death.
Source: Gender Links
Economic dependency has been cited as one of the causes for gender based violence (GBV), whose many victims and/ or survivors are women. It is often cited as the reason that forces women to stay in abusive relationships or marriages because they feel they cannot survive without an income from their spouses or male relations.
Source: Capital FM
A couple has been remanded in custody for seven days after a 13-year-old girl under their care died after undergoing Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
Source: Gender Links
Nora Schimming-Chase, former Namibian Ambassador and Member of Parliament, has expressed her disappointment with the current situation surrounding the lack of positive and progressive action towards a 50-50 initiative on gender representation in Parliament. She made the remarks at the official opening of the Namibia SADC Protocol@Work Summit held on 14 April.
Source: Vanguard
The Foundation for the Victims of Child Abuse, (VCAF), has warned that the abduction of school girls could discourage parents from embracing girl-child education.
Source: Voice of America
More than five days after the abduction of more than 100 teenage girls in Northeastern Nigeria, 85 girls remain missing, believed to be deep within a dangerous forest.
Source: Voice of America
Women rights campaigners have intensified their 50/50 drive to have equal representation in the May 20 elections. Malawi ranks as one of the countries with low female representation not only in southern Africa, but globally. At the moment, only 22 percent of 193 parliamentary seats are held by women.
Source: Global Post
Sexual violence against women has been rife since the 2011 uprising in Egypt, where hundreds of female protesters have been the target of attack with apparent impunity, rights groups said Wednesday.
Source: Al Jazeera
True gender equality in Africa might seem a remote dream. But in Mozambique, small steps are being made in the fight for women’s rights thanks to the passion and determination of one 18-year-old girl, Suzete Sangula.
Source: Women For Women International
Yar's Story
20-year old Hellena Yar Maguen has been with Women for Women International- South Sudan since 2007. She is a successful participant on the CIFI farm, farming six plots of land and earning enough to support herself and her family, all despite paralysis in her right hand. She is one of WfWI-Sudan's best success stories, and living proof that one's abilities are not only skin-deep.