All Blog Posts (8)

Child malnutrition affects other Millennium Development Goals Malnutrition increases the risk of contracting diseases such as diarrhea or measles, and of dying from them. It is one of the most important determinants of child mortality. Malnutrition reduces school achievement and results in inferior cognitive abilities that can persist throughout life. In rural Zimbabwe, childhood nutritional deficits due to civil war in the late 1970s and drought in 1982-84 led to late school entry and an estima… Continue

Canadian journalist 'beaten to death' Zahra Kazemi was arrested while taking photos of Evin prison Iran has acknowledged that a Canadian-Iranian photojournalist was beaten to death after her arrest outside a prison in Tehran. Vice President Ali Abtahi said Zahra Kazemi died "of a brain haemorrhage resulting from beatings". Ms Kazemi, 54, was detained on 23 June for taking pictures of Tehran's Evin prison. She was later pronounced dead after falling into a coma But officials in Tehran are sti… Continue

Haiti: Often Forgotten, Seldom Fed April 13th, 2008 by R.Basas *This post has also been cross-posted in the FPA’s Latin America Blog. In 2004 Haiti took the attention of the world community. With the UN making a home in the poorest country in the Americas and the fall of the leader at the time, refugees from Haiti fled on boats, across the Dominican border and through any means possible to escape the chaos of their home country. Ever since, Haitians have tried to escape a bleak future my any me… Continue

Is There Rule of Law for Women and Girls? Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 Earlier this month in a recent op-ed for the Washington post, Council on Foreign Affairs writer Michael J. Gerson asked, “What does rule of law can mean for women and children in Africa?” His answer, Justice for the Poorest . is what the International Justice Mission (IJM) hopes and works for. ‘The founder of IJM, Gary Haugen, argues that the legal empowerment of the poor is an essential precondition for development.’ While t… Continue

Child Marriage in Mali Continuing to be Ignored Thursday, September 6th, 2007 Adjaratou, pictured above, was around 12 when her parents forced her to marry her maternal cousin, where she suffered countless abuses. When she refused her husband’s demands to do such things as cover her head, she was beaten, and therefore suffered two miscarriages (Too Young to Wed). Adjaratou, is just one of the millions of girls and women in the western African nation of Mali, who was forced to marry as a child… Continue

Girls In Yemen Forced to Marry Too Young Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 Photo: David Swanson/IRIN Early marriage hampering country’s development, says report by Save the Children Sweden in cooperation with Gender-Development Research and Studies Center at Sanaa University, The report entitled Gender Based Sexual Violence Against Teenage Girls in the Middle East, illustrates how Yemeni girls are deprived of their child rights when they are prepared for motherhood at an early age. “It should not be a… Continue

HIV major factor in rising child deaths in South Africa as “every year 20,000 babies are stillborn and another 22,000 die within the first month of their lives. In total, at least 75,000 children die before their fifth birthday, while 1,600 mothers die due to pregnancy or childbirth complications, according to a report on infant, child and maternal mortality, released at a conference on perinatal care in Johannesburg this week.” The report, Every Death Counts, produced jointly by the Department… Continue

Continue