Commonwealth News speaks to four women entrepreneurs who have been sponsored by the Commonwealth Secretariat to showcase their products at Spring Fair International in Birmingham, UK. "We have to recognise the potential of women, and encourage their entrepreneurial spirit"
Inside a smoky makeshift kiosk, Julie*, 16, can hardly cope with the demand from her clients for a cup of tea and a snack - the men are parched from their work as gold miners in the western Kenyan district of Nyatike.
As U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro once put it, "Women hold the keys to unlocking the barriers to sustainable development."
Source: Africa Review
Sometime in 2010, a young Kenyan woman received an invitation to meet a couple she had earlier encountered at a Christian convention in the capital Nairobi.
Source: VOA
As presidential hopefuls began campaigning for Senegal's February 26 election, the sole female candidate, Amsatou Sow Sidibe, was touring the country's coast shaking hands and speaking to the market women along the beaches of the country's capital. "I'm with the women along the sea who sell the fish," she said from Dakar. "I'm doing a tour of the coast and talking to fishermen and those who sell the fish, because without them the country cannot properly feed itself."
Source: Sierra Express Media
Schoolgirl Nomasonto Masango giggles as she lists the things she and her friends want boyfriends to buy them. "If you have an older boyfriend, he can buy you things and it is nice to show your friends that you have things," says Nomasonto. The most prized items are cell phones, jewelry and fashionable clothes.
Source: Health-e
About 1 in 10 women of reproductive age suffer from a chronic and painful condition known as endometriosis. The disease can impact on the lives of women in a considerably adverse manner.
A new United Nations report shows that almost 2,000 communities across Africa abandoned female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) last year, prompting calls for a renewed global push to end this harmful practice once and for all.
Source: The Gazette
A Calgary imam will take the bold step of issuing a fatwa — an official religious edict pronounced by a scholar of the Muslim faith — against honour killings and domestic abuse on Saturday.
IT IS widely accepted that strategies aimed at ending violence against women have to focus on perpetrators and survivors.
At 72 years, Hon Anna Margareth Abdallah has an enormous of experience as a Member of Parliament (MP). She has had eight terms of five years each in Tanzania's Parliament and is still a member of the house which she first entered when she was 32.
Schoolgirl Nomasonto Masango giggles as she lists the things she and her friends want boyfriends to buy them. “If you have an older boyfriend, he can buy you things and it is nice to show your friends that you have things,” says Nomasonto. The most prized items are cell phones, jewelry and fashionable clothes.
When Ahfad University for Women in Omdurman began offering a course in community development in the 1990s meant for mature, illiterate women farmers, the main goal was to expand the students’ role in the economic life of their communities. But over the years, many such courses have expanded to touch on more intimate subjects, including reproductive health, early marriage and even female genital mutilation/cutting, a longstanding tradition in the area.
Source: UPI.com
More women should be involved in the international peacekeeping process, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday in Munich, Germany.
Africa is a deeply patriarchal society; this is the part of the “Traditional African Value System.” Men dominate the socio-economic and political machinery and organizations. Men are regarded as natural leaders, who are superior and born to rule over women. Women are considered weaker vessels-extensions of men and secondary human beings. The pride and dignity of women are derived from and dependent on men.
The role that many women played in the history and formation of the ANC has barely been recognised, President Jacob Zuma said on Saturday.
On the night of Jan. 25, on the anniversary of the protest that launched Egypt’s 18-day uprising, Tahrir Square was still packed from the day’s demonstration: shrouded in an ominous haze of pollution, burning garbage, celebratory fireworks and smoke from baked sweet-potato stands.
Women politicians in the Upper West Region have called on political parties to institute a quota system that will enable more women candidates to contest for parliamentary seats.
Source: Daily Trust
The Federal Government has promised to support programmes aimed at boosting the entrepreneurial spirit of Nigerian women to improve their economic fortunes.
Source: Tanzania Daily News
A NATIONAL centre which will conduct research and publish information, statistics and documentation on Gender Based Violence (CBV) has been established.