-
MYANMAR: Farmers lament post-Nargis harvest
THAUK KYAR, 7 January 2009 (IRIN) - U Nay Aung, a resident of Thauk Kyar village in Dedaye Township, is one of thousands of farmers across the cyclone-affected area who never gave up, succeeding after the fourth attempt to yield some harvest.
-
YEMEN: Poverty, lack of education boosting HIV/AIDS - experts
SANAA, 7 January 2009 (IRIN) - Maha (not her real name), 22, has been a commercial sex worker since she was 17. She told IRIN she and her sister were forced into prostitution to provide food and medical treatment for their ailing mother.
-
AFGHANISTAN: HIV-positive patients to get ARV therapy for first time
KABUL, 7 January 2009 (IRIN) - Forty of the 504 people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in Afghanistan will be provided with standard antiretroviral therapy for the first time, as efforts are made to boost control of the killer disease, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has said.
-
SRI LANKA: World Bank housing project found wanting
COLOMBO, 7 January 2009 (IRIN) - When Typhoon Nisha lashed northern Sri Lanka in the last week of November 2008 it caused extensive damage to the roofs of thousands of newly constructed homes, forcing the World Bank to reassess the type of roofing used in its multi-million dollar housing projects.
-
ISRAEL-OPT: Gaza short of food
GAZA CITY/RAMALLAH, 7 January 2009 (IRIN) - Civilians are finding it increasingly difficult to find food in Gaza. Markets opened briefly in Gaza City on 5 January, but they had little to offer, according to residents. Queues for bread formed, with buyers limited to five shekels worth per person - about 35 flat breads - not enough for families with an average of six children.
-
PHILIPPINES: Smoked fish transforms women's lives
OLANGAPO, 7 January 2009 (IRIN) - For years, Daisy Balingit and other housewives in Santa Rita, an impoverished riverside village in Olangapo city, north of Manila, were statistically invisible - not enrolled in the social security system, they had no access to basic healthcare and eked out an existence.
-
ISRAEL-OPT: Aid workers’ movements in Gaza severely restricted
GAZA CITY/RAMALLAH, 6 January 2009 (IRIN) - The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has over 10,000 staff in Gaza, but their deployment has been severely restricted due to Israeli bombing and tank shelling, UNRWA spokesman Sami Mshasha said.
-
LESOTHO: Feeling the pinch of soaring food prices
JOHANNESBURG, 6 January 2009 (IRIN) - Urban families in Lesotho, a small landlocked southern African country, are struggling to cope with rising food prices, according to a recent survey.
-
WEST AFRICA: But is it really trafficking?
LOME, 6 January 2009 (IRIN) - For years children's rights groups have been fighting child trafficking in West Africa. Now, some of those groups are questioning how children have benefited from anti-trafficking interventions as they launch a project to understand children's perilous migration throughout West Africa.
-
PAKISTAN: Sex work a dangerous game
KARACHI, 6 January 2009 (IRIN) - On Napier Road, the notorious red light district in Karachi, Pakistan's commercial centre and largest city, thousands of women regularly risk contracting HIV or other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) by having unprotected sex for as little as 50 Rupees (US$0.60).
-
ETHIOPIA: New law on charities passed despite objections
ADDIS ABABA, 6 January 2009 (IRIN) - Ethiopia's parliament has passed a law to regulate charities, despite strong criticism from opposition politicians, international human rights groups and national civil society organisations.
-
SUDAN: The land is fertile yet food is scarce
KADUGLI, 6 January 2009 (IRIN) - Southern Kordofan state used to produce surplus food and cash crops, but poor infrastructure, limited access to markets, conflict and landmines have left large numbers of residents without enough to eat or sell.
-
SOMALIA: "Too poor to escape the fighting"
NAIROBI, 6 January 2009 (IRIN) - Fadumo Mohamed Hassan and her seven children are among the few families left in Yaaqshid district of north Mogadishu, after worsening conflict forced most residents to flee the capital.
-
ISRAEL-OPT: Nael, “I fear nothing now”
DUBAI, 6 January 2009 (IRIN) - January is one of the coldest months of the year… but in these cold conditions, we have to leave windows partially open to prevent them from shattering in the bombardments.
-
SENEGAL: Paul Thiao, "Farmers have become gamblers"
THIES, 6 January 2009 (IRIN) - Local farmers are feeling the impact of erratic weather patterns in Senegal. IRIN spoke with Paul Thiao, farmer and regional coordinator of the Senegalese Federation of NGOs (FONGS), which represents 32 farmer associations, about the weather-related challenges rural communities face.
-
PAKISTAN: Urgent need for better family planning - experts
KARACHI, 6 January 2009 (IRIN) - Pakistan's rapidly increasing population is placing severe strains on economic resources, development and security, say experts who are urgently calling for more effective family planning.
-
IRAQ: Budget cuts threaten IDP housing projects
BAGHDAD, 6 January 2009 (IRIN) - Lack of government funds could force the Ministry of Displacement and Migration to postpone until 2010 some housing projects designed to ease internal displacement, an official told IRIN on 4 January.
-
MALAWI: Kassim Kalukwete, "I do not have maize at home"
LILONGWE, 5 January 2009 (IRIN) - Kassim Kalukwete, a subsistence farmer in his 60s in the lakeshore district of Mangochi in southern Malawi said his family and many others in his village, Kungumbe, do not have food.
-
BURUNDI: FNL Prisoner release under way
BUJUMBURA, 5 January 2009 (IRIN) - The release of the first 80 prisoners detained over their affiliation with a rebel group, the Parti pour la Liberation du Peuple Hutu-Forces Nationales de Libération (Palipehutu-FNL), has begun, following a decree issued by Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza on 30 December 2008.
-
UGANDA: Poor TB management in the north heightens resistance risk
GULU, 5 January 2009 (IRIN) - Christopher Odong coughs incessantly in his bed in the tuberculosis ward of a hospital in the northern Ugandan district of Gulu. Diagnosed with TB six months ago, Odong did not complete his initial course of treatment and has developed a resistant form of the disease.
-
UGANDA: Sheikh Muhamad Kibudde, "Amongst Muslims...there is a conspiracy of silence on HIV"
NAIROBI, 5 January 2009 (IRIN) - Sheikh Muhamad Kibudde, 43, is the deputy imam of Masjid Takwa in Kitende on the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda. Two years ago, he tested positive for HIV and a year later surprised everyone by taking to the road to speak about AIDS and his own HIV status to fellow Muslims.
-
SENEGAL: Forecasting the future in an erratic climate
THIES, 5 January 2009 (IRIN) - In the darkness after pre-dawn prayer a village elder would squint at the sky overhead, tilting his head back until his cap fell off, looking for a cluster of bright stars that signalled the middle of the rainy season. Now many traditional methods are becoming increasingly unreliable predictors due to climate variability, and African farmers already facing fluctuations need scientific data to help them adapt, farmers and climate experts say.
-
SOMALIA: Urgent help needed for thousands displaced in Galgadud
NAIROBI, 5 January 2009 (IRIN) - Local authorities in the central Galgadud region have appealed for urgent help for at least 80,000 people displaced by fighting in the towns of Dusamareb and Guri-Eil.
-
ISRAEL-OPT: Water, sewage system “collapsing” in Gaza, says official
GENEVA, 5 January 2009 (IRIN) - The UN has warned that power networks were down in large parts of the Gaza Strip on 4 January, with hospitals relying on generators. Without power for pumps, 70 percent of Gazans are estimated to be without tap water.
-
ISRAEL-OPT: Bedouins lack protection from incoming rockets
NEGEV, 5 January 2009 (IRIN) - Israeli cities and towns within range of Palestinian militants' rockets fired from Gaza have air raid shelters, but Bedouins in the Negev desert outside Beer Sheba, southern Israel, say they are being treated unfairly and have nowhere to hide.
|
TF: Sustain. Tourism 
