Kalinga Seneviratne*
ORISSA, India, Oct 30 2007 (IPS) – When Gram Vikas, one of India s largest non-government organisations (NGOs), began work to uplift rural Adivasi (tribal) communities across this eastern Indian state, it started by building toilets.
In 1992, after a Gram Vikas study found that 80 percent of deaths in rural Orissa could be traced to water contaminated by faecal matter, the NGO launched a rural health and environment programme. This situation has arisen because of an abysmal attitude towards the disposal of human waste, said Gram Vikas executive director Joe Madiath.
We thought water and sanitation was where everyone can be united. So we got into water and sanitation on 100 percent basis for co-habitation, he said.
Adivasi communities make…
Nqabomzi Bikitsha interviews KATE GILMORE, deputy executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Kate Gilmore, deputy executive director of the United Nations Population Fund, says we have failed to protect our girls from early marriage, from gender-based violence and from early pregnancies. Courtesy: Livia Maurizi/UNFPA
JOHANNESBURG, Feb 28 2014 (IPS) – “The future is today aged 10 and it’s an adolescent girl,” Kate Gilmore, deputy executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said in an interview with IPS in Johannesburg.
Gilmore discussed the impact on African youth of the last two decades of action on se…
In 2009, nearly 5,000 Kibera residents were relocated to the KENSUP Soweto East settlement, pictured here. However many say the housing project has become a slum. Credit: George Kebaso/IPS
NAIROBI, Jul 22 2014 (IPS) – At the eastern edge of Nairobi s Kibera slum, children gather with large yellow jerry cans to collect water dripping out of an exposed pipe. The high-rise grey and beige Soweto East settlement towers above them. A girl lifts the can on top of her head and returns to her family s third floor apartment.
Inside, 49-year-old mother Hilda Olali is sweeping the floor. She’s had enough. Her family of five has no running water or electricity in their two bedr…
Sungjoon Ham, Souta Oshiro, and Alex Yoon are middle school learners living in the USA and Asia. This is the first in a series of opinion pieces written by young people under the banner of Youth Thought Leaders.
Souta Oshiro, Seoul, Korea. “This is a meme that I created. It is about donating foods that you overbought to food banks. I tried to make it funny and effective.” Credit: Souta Oshiro
Seoul, Tokyo, Boston, Jun 13 2022 (IPS) – Johnny, living in the United States (US), goes to his school and g…
CHINA – Constructing an irrigation network in Qinghai Province. Workers were paid part of their wages in food supplied by the World Food Programme. Credit WFP/Sarah Errington
LETHBRIDGE, Canada, Sep 8 2022 (IPS) – As our planet continues to heat up, extreme weather has affected many of us. From the west coast of North America across Europe, the Middle East and Asia to Pakistan and New Zealand, wildfires and flash floods have destroyed homes and property and disrupted the daily lives of millions.
Supply chains, already badly affected by COVID, have been further complicated by drying rivers and waterways. In the more developed countries, insurance covers much of the short…