Inaki Borda
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 7 2011 (IPS) – This year, tobacco use will kill nearly six million people. Of that number, 600,000 will die because of exposure to second- hand tobacco smoke.
If current trends continue, the annual death toll could rise to eight million by 2030, according to a by the World Health Organization (WHO), with more than 80 percent of the deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries
We have the means to prevent this needless tragedy. Political will is the key, Timothy O Leary, WHO communications officer, told IPS.
On Thursday, the WHO launched its third periodic report on the effects of tobacco, with a focus on the proliferation of smoking bans in work places, restaurants, bars and other indoor public places. It notes while t…
CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Aug 9 2011 (IPS) – Only six sub-Saharan African countries have failed to reduce the number of women dying in childbirth over the last two decades. High-spending South Africa is among them, with maternal mortality rates more than quadrupling since 1990. Human Rights Watch researcher Agnes Odhiambo says this is largely due to a lack of accountability.
Maternal mortality rates in sub-Saharan Africa as a whole have been reduced by a quarter compared to 1990 levels. But the continent s most developed economy is moving in the opposite direction: South Africa s maternal mortality rate in 1990 was 150 per 100,000 live births; in its 2010 MDG progress report, the country reported this had risen to 625 per 100,000.
HIV is a big factor in maternal mortality i…
Kanya D’Almeida
WASHINGTON, Sep 14 2011 (IPS) – Kakenya Ntaiya was engaged at age five and would have been married by 13 if her mother had not insisted that she attend her small village school in Enoosaen, Kenya.
As she got older, Ntaiya made a bargain with her father that she would be circumcised only if he allowed her to finish high school, then negotiated with her village elders to be granted permission to travel to the United States for university.
It was in college that I learned for the first time that genital mutilation and cutting were illegal, that I had rights, that I had always had rights and there were people out there ready to defend them, Ntaiya told a group of human rights advocates in Washington D.C. Tuesday.
Ntaiya went on to found the Kakeny…
RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 4 2011 (IPS) – News that the government of South Africa was inspired by Brazil s health system in setting up its own universal coverage scheme might meet with scepticism in this South American country.
Pediatrics waiting room at the Albert Schweitzer hospital in Rio de Janeiro. Credit: Agência Brasil Marcello Casal Jr/EBr
Sociologist Walkiria Dutra de Oliveira was one of the many Brazilians who had a negati…
Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore
BEIJING, Dec 19 2011 (IPS) – In a country which houses 21 of the world’s 100 most polluted cities, outcry over official underplaying of pollution is escalating as residents refuse to take government readings of the problem at face value.
Beijing environmental authorities claim that the capital had already reached its annual ‘blue sky days’ target for 2011, stating that the air quality this year was better than the Olympic year of 2008.
The latest claims have been met with derision online, amid fears among the population that the government is covering up pollution.
On Sunday the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that Beijing has enjoyed 274 days of ‘blue sky’ in 2011.
Beijing has seen an overall decline in the c…
SRINAGAR, India, Feb 14 2012 (IPS) – Drug abuse, known to be widespread among youth in India s northern Kashmir state, is now showing a new trend whereby teenage girls and women are increasingly turning into substance abusers and addicts.
At the police de-addiction centre in Srinagar. Credit: Sana Altaf/IPS
That young women and college-going girls are abusing substances, especially toluene, a common thinner, is testified to by officials at the de-addiction centre run by the police control room in Srinagar.
Toluene abuse or glue…
Bari Bates
BRUSSELS, Mar 19 2012 (IPS) – Decades ago, 15 of Europe s wealthiest nations made a promise to allocate .7 percent of their respective gross national products (GNP) to official development assistance. Yet despite a commitment that comprises such a small fraction of a nation s wealth, only a handful of countries are on track to reach this goal by the 2015 deadline.
Among the few leaders who have prioritised this target is Denmark s Prime Minister Helle Thorning- Schmidt, who was recently celebrated by the confederation of European non-governmental organisations known as CONCORD, together with the ONE Campaign, for Denmark s aid commitment to help the world s poorest.
Volunteers and activists donned masks of the Danish Prime Minister s face on Mar. 16, under …
Aline Jenckel interviews SAMUEL KISSI, executive coordinator of Curious Minds, a youth advocacy organisation in Ghana
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 28 2012 (IPS) – With a whopping 40 percent of Ghana s population under the age of 24, the government s ability to foster their development and include them in the country s development are critical to the country s future.
CHIMALTENANGO, Guatemala, Jun 4 2012 (IPS) – Midwives in Guatemala attend to women during pregnancy, the birth and the post-partum period. They give the women warmth and support, because they speak the same language and belong to the same culture, said Silvia Xinico with the Network of Organisations of Indigenous Women for Reproductive Health.
Xinico, a member of the Cakchiquel indigenous community, told IPS that the midwives are treated as part of the family; they give people advice about how to solve their difficulties. They are also called on when there is a health problem in the community.
GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Jul 19 2012 (IPS) – Pedro Melville, 62, a father of nine from Guyana s northwestern gold and manganese mining district of Matthew’s Ridge, sees the impacts of unchecked prospecting on the local environment every day.
One major problem is contamination of water sources. Melville says some residents who previously depended on river water to drink now dig their own pits or trenches, allow the water to settle, and let the rain replenish it.
The miners don’t care anything about the communities. All they want is what they could get, he told IPS. Hygiene is also a problem, and by that I mean the disposal of human and other waste. That is why we have diseases like malaria and typhoid. The situation is getting out of hand, to tell you the truth.”
Relat…