IPS correspondent Sabine Clappaert interviews MARLEEN TEMMERMAN, head of the Department of Reproductive Health and Research at the World Health Organisation (WHO) BRUSSELS, Jan 20 2013 (IPS) – Despite staggering advances in medical science and technology over the years, women around the world continue to suffer gravely as a result of inadequate access to basic…
The United Nations steps in to save Gaza from collapsing under the weight of its rubbish. Credit: Emad Badwan/IPS. GAZA CITY, Mar 31 2013 (IPS) – “For the past five years we’ve collected garbage by traditional means: donkey and cart,” says Abdel Rahem Abulkumboz, director of health and environment at the Municipality of Gaza. The…
Vandana Shiva, a scientist and environmental activist, presents plants to schoolchildren as part of the campaign “Gardens of Hope”. Credit: Silvia Giannelli/IPS FLORENCE, May 20 2013 (IPS) – As the global agricultural sector is faced with ever-greater challenges, the question of how to reform and improve the sector is a controversial and difficult one. So…
VILNIUS, Lithuania, Jun 11 2013 (IPS) – As former presidents, senior diplomats and experts meet in the Lithuanian capital to discuss a litany of rights abuses, lethal epidemics and social destruction caused by repressive drug policies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, pockets of hope for drug reform are emerging across the region. Eastern Europe…
A nutritionist assesses the health of a child: red indicates severe malnutrition. Malnutrition has become a growing concern in northern Cameroon. Credit:Kristin Palitza/IPS YAOUNDE, Jul 22 2013 (IPS) – At the Garoua Regional Hospital’s Paediatric Feeding Centre in northern Cameroon, Aicha Ahidjo* is relieved to hear that her one-year-old son will survive. The child was…
A school in Papua New Guinea. “Services” refers to an extremely broad array of sectors, including education, water and energy provision, health, banking, construction, retail and much more. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS WASHINGTON, Sep 17 2013 (IPS) – Nearly 350 international civil society organisations are urging countries taking part in new negotiations towards an agreement on…
In Zimbabwe, four out of 10 sexually active girls aged 15-19 reported taking an HIV test in the last 12 months. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS HARARE, Nov 21 2013 (IPS) – Seventeen-year-old Natalie Mlambo* has two good reasons to get tested for HIV. She has two boyfriends and has unprotected sex with them. One is a…
Former cricket captain Imran Khan administers oral polio vaccine to children in Akora Khattak in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS. PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Jan 3 2014 (IPS) – The Taliban are proving to be a huge stumbling block for Pakistan as the South Asian nation one of only three remaining polio endemic countries…
JOHANNESBURG, Mar 7 2014 (IPS) – When Phumzile Khoza* came to the central Johannesburg antenatal clinic on a chilly day in August 2013, she was feeling on edge. Not about the medical procedures – she already had two children – but about talking to the nurse. One in four South African women experience intimate partner…
Community-based volunteer Zainab Abubakar (r) administers the first dose of amodiaqune to one-year-old Inusa as he sits on his mother, Ayishetu Hamdellah. Credit: Albert Oppong-Ansah/IPS ZANDUA, Ghana, Apr 29 2014 (IPS) – Zainab Abubakar saves children’s lives. A few years ago she was just an ordinary woman with no medical training living in rural Kpilo…