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“Youth are the future”: Removing the barriers to success for young people in the Maldives
Maldives
MALÉ, Maldives – “What worries me about the future is that everything is becoming less and less affordable,” said Aishath Shaima Shihab, 20, from the Maldives. “Rent is rising and the cost of food and hygiene products…
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“She has given us a sense of security”: The humanitarian midwives deployed to Sudan’s Blue Nile State
Sudan
BLUE NILE STATE, Sudan – “Some women gave birth on the road,” said Sa’aida, a midwife from Bot, in Sudan’s Blue Nile State. “We provided emergency assistance and whatever support was needed. If there hadn't been…
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Leaving no one behind: Strengthening gender-based violence services for LGBTIQ+ survivors
Kenya, Zimbabwe
UNITED NATIONS, Nairobi/HARARE, Zimbabwe – “Every human being deserves to be heard [in order] to start healing when they face any form of violence,” said Thulisiwe*, who works with a mobile gender-based violence…
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“We fled with nothing but the clothes on our backs”: Bangladesh grapples with severe flood emergency
BANDARBAN DISTRICT, Bangladesh – “When the floodwater entered our home, we were stranded for two days. We couldn't hold on any longer, so we came to this shelter by boat,” explained Laila Begum, a 23-year-old…
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“I consider it a miracle”: The pregnant woman pulled from the rubble of Venezuela’s deadly earthquakes
LA GUAIRA, Venezuela – “I saw the building collapse, floor by floor. You could hear people screaming and calling for help,” said Roberto Rodríguez, 24, who survived two catastrophic earthquakes of magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5…
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New data show barriers to partnering and parenting: A “baby bust” myth-buster
UNITED NATIONS, New York – Societies are “heading towards a demographic cliff”, according to some headlines. The “global baby bust” is the result of a “feminist revolt”, others speculate. Behind the hyperbole is a…
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The maternal death crisis hidden amid Ebola’s spread in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
ITURI PROVINCE, The Democratic Republic of the Congo – “My fear left me when I saw people dying in that camp,” said Francine Evhe, who works at a health centre in the Kigonze displacement camp in Bunia, in the…
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At schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a board game teaches young people the lessons of war, peace and unity
Bosnia and Herzegovina
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA – In Foča, a small town in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Drina river winds through mountains that once hid the worst of a war. Although the conflict ended 30 years ago, many children still…
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“Women are in fear day and night”: Untold numbers suffer conflict-related sexual violence as crisis grips South Sudan
South Sudan
TIERGOL, Ethiopia – Nyajok*, a single mother of three young children, is from Akobo County in South Sudan’s Jonglei State. She fled the outbreak of violence in March and arrived across the border in Ethiopia, frightened…
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Dignity restored and lives regained through fistula repair in rural Bangladesh
Bangladesh
SHERPUR, Bangladesh — Banessa Bibi, now in her nineties, cannot remember how many children she brought into this world. She only recalls the three daughters and two sons who survived. In her village, childbirth once…
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Child marriage rising among refugees and host communities in South Sudan
South Sudan
UPPER NILE STATE, South Sudan — “I was married and had my first child at 14 years old,” said Betty*, who fled conflict in Sudan only to find further uncertainty in South Sudan. Along with more…
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"Kinder, stronger, more equal": Imagining a world where no mothers die
UNITED NATIONS, New York – “When a mother dies, a family does not only lose one person – it loses its centre,” Kindness Ngoh, a midwife in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, explained.
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