Isaiah Esipisu
NAIROBI, Jul 21 2011 (IPS) – The world had an opportunity to save thousands of lives that are being lost in parts of Somalia due to the famine, if only the donor community had paid attention to the early warning systems that predicted it eight months ago.
Children from families displaced by the drought line up to receive food at a feeding centre in Mogadishu. Credit: Abdurrahman Warsa…
NEW DELHI, Mar 1 2012 (IPS) – At the intensive care unit of the state-run All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) hospital in New Delhi, a two-year-old battered baby girl is fighting to survive.
The doctors attending to her have waged a six-week battle to keep her alive, but they are quickly losing hope that she will ever live a normal life after the torture she endured at such a tender age.
When she was first brought to the hospital by a 15-year-old sexual abuse victim, Baby Falak was almost dead and covered in bite marks, apparently inflicted by the young girl who brought her in.
In medical terms, Falak is suffering from battered baby syndrome, in which an infant sustains injuries as a result of physical abuse, usually inflicted by an adult caregiver.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 24 2013 (IPS) – Sexual violence against women is alarmingly under-reported and invisible in Brazil where, for example, there are no accurate, comparable data on rape in the country s 27 states.
We are on red alert, we are going to complain and demand changes from the authorities. We are also dissatisfied with the differential treatment given to victims from lower income classes, Eleuteria da Silva, the coordinator of (CAMTRA), a women s organisation in the state of Rio de Janeiro, told IPS.
In her view, national and state public policies for preventing and combating sexual crimes are ineffective, and measures to protect victims are equally inefficient.
The problem is both circumstantial and chronic. Policies do exist, but they are ineffectiv…
Gaza is running out of drinking water. Credit: Eva Bartlett/IPS
UNITED NATIONS, May 19 2014 (IPS) – The United Nations, which is trying to help resolve the widespread shortage of water in the developing world, is faced with a growing new problem: the use of water as a weapon of war in ongoing conflicts.
The most recent examples are largely in the Middle East and Africa, including Iraq, Egypt, Israel (where supplies to the occupied territories have been shut off) and Botswana.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week expressed concern over reports that water supplies in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo were deliberately cut off by armed groups for eight day…
Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta (L) and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the United Nations Offices in Nairobi, October 30, 2014. Credit: REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya
NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 12 2018 (IPS) – One of my proudest accomplishments as the former UN secretary-general was playing a part in the ambitious global agenda for sustainable development (SDGs), including the goal of universal health coverage (UHC) by 2030.
Kenya’s leadership was key. To give momentum to the SDGs an was established in 2013. One of the co-chairs of the working group was Ambassador Macharia Kamau, who was the Permanent Representative of Kenya to the UN.
As the world celebrates …
A young child being given polio drops in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Pakistan recently reported that it had been a year since the last case of polio was detected. Credit: EOC KP
KARACHI, Feb 2 2022 (IPS) – “It was like a heavy burden had been lifted, and I could breathe easier,” said Irum Khan, a polio worker, recalling the cloudy, gloomy, winter morning of January 28, 2022, when her supervisor announced Pakistan had not reported a single case of a child afflicted with polio sin…
Patients in Africa often cannot access treatment as per the WHO hepatitis B guidelines. Now researchers have found a way to improve the diagnosis and care of people living with hepatitis B. Credit: Charles Mpaka/IPS
BLANTYRE, Mar 2 2023 (IPS) – Researchers have found that cheaper and more accessible blood testing methods can improve the care of patients with chronic hepatitis B in Africa.
In a study published in , the researchers recommend revising the cur…