Credit: Twitter/@AntDeRosa
WASHINGTON, Oct 22 2014 (IPS) – Despite media hype, missteps by federal health agencies, and apparent efforts by right-wing and some neo-conservatives to foment fear about the possible spread of the Ebola virus in the U.S., most of the public remain at least “fairly” confident in the authorities’ ability to deal with the virus.
Concern about the potential threat posed by the virus has clearly grown over the past two weeks, especially after two nurses at a Dallas hospital who helped treat a fatally infected Liberian man contracted the virus. But a major poll released Tuesday found that a clear majority of respondents expressed litt…
Zimbabwe has criminalised gay relationships, striking fear into the hearts of many gays like these two walking side by side in the country’s capital, because they are being left out in strategies to combat HIV/AIDS. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo
HARARE, Dec 18 2014 (IPS) – Despite a mandate to eradicate HIV/AIDS under the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Zimbabwe has done little or nothing to reduce the rate of infection among vulnerable gays and lesbians, say activists here.
The MDGs are eight goals agreed to by all U.N. member states and all leading international development institutions to be achieved by the target date of 2015. These goals range from hal…
A woman on crutches walks past a row of shops in northern Sri Lanka, where over 110,000 people disabled by war struggle along with very little official assistance. Credit: Amantha Perera
MANNAR, Sri Lanka, Feb 16 2015 (IPS) – It is a hot, steamy day in Sri Lanka’s northwestern Mannar District. Mid-day temperatures are reaching 34 degrees Celsius, and the tarred road is practically melting under the sun.
Sarojini Tangarasa is finding it hard to walk on her one bare foot. Her hands constantly shake and she has to balance on a crutch. “I am just trying to get to my daughter’s house,” she says.
Her destination is just two km away, but it feels like …
Clinton Ikechukwu Ezeigwe is Director of Operations at Christian Fellowship & Care Foundation
Child defecating in a canal in the slum of Gege in the city of Ibadan, Nigeria. Credit: Adebayo Alao, Sept. 2007/cc by 2.0
OWERRI, Nigeria, Mar 22 2015 (IPS) – In Nigeria, it’s all about the numbers. My nation recently became the largest economy in Africa by some distance, with a GDP of well over 500 billion dollars.
At the same time, 63.2 million people don t have access to safe water, and over 112 million people two thirds of th…
Prerna Sodhi is an Indian journalist working with the New Delhi-based Development Alternatives, a sustainable development NGO which aims to deliver socially equitable, environmentally sound and economically scalable development outcomes.
CLEAN-India is an environmental assessment, awareness, action, and advocacy programme that promotes behavioural change among young city dwellers in India. As part of the programme, a group of female students learns about the importance of clean water. Credit: Development Alternatives
NEW DELHI, May 16 2015 (IPS) – “Swachh Bharat”, or Clean India, is a slogan that most Indians today associate with the country’s Prime Minister Narendra Mo…
A child stands amid the rubble of what was once his home, after an aerial bombardment on the city of Idlib in northwestern Syria. Credit: Freedom House/CC-BY-2.0
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 9 2015 (IPS) – Barely 10 months ago, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said the refugee population from Syria had reached the three million mark. Today, the latest data from the field show that the number has passed four million.
“This is the biggest refugee population from a single conflict in a generation,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said in a statement on Jul. 9.
“I took [my son] to the field hospital in Tafas. They tried to h…
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 2 2015 (IPS) – With 21 million Yemeni civilians caught in the grips of a conflict that has been escalating since March, the killing of two local aid workers Wednesday could worsen their misery, as a major humanitarian organisation considers the future of its operations in parts of the war-torn country.
Both victims were employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and had been traveling in the northern governorate of Amran, between the Saada province and Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, when a gunman reportedly opened fire on the convoy.
One worker died at the scene; his colleague was rushed to a nearby hospital, but succumbed to his injuries soon after.
In a released earlier today, Antoine Grand, head of the ICRC delegation …
Women working the fields in India where a vast number farm, but make little money. Credit: Neeta Lal/IPS
NEW DELHI, Jan 8 2016 (IPS) – Women constitute nearly half of the country s 1.25 billion people and gender equality whether in politics, economics, education or health is still a distant dream for most. This fact was driven home again sharply by the recently released United National Development Programme’s Human Development Report (HDR) 2015 which ranks India at a lowly 130 out of 155 countries in the Gender Inequality Index (GII). India trails behind most Asian countries, including lesser developed Bangladesh and Pakistan which rank 111 and 121 respectively, and fares n…
Processing baby vegetables at Sidemane Farm in Swaziland. An EU grant helped local farmers to buy equipment and get training in business management and marketing. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS
May 5 2016 (IPS) – As the World Farmers Organization meets for its annual conference in Zambia to promote policies that strengthen this critical sector, IPS looks at how farmers across the globe are tackling the interconnected challenges of climate change, market fluctuations, water and land manageme…
Unregulated sales of antibiotics are contributing to growing resistance. Credit: Adil Siddiqi/IPS
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 12 2016 (IPS) – Addressing antibiotic resistance will require a global political response similar to the way the world has reacted to climate change or HIV / AIDS, Sweden’s Minister of Public Health Gabriel Wikstrom, told IPS recently.
“(These problems) began with a small group of experts discussing and trying to warn the rest of us and it was not until it was politically addressed …