ewalin

TANZANIA: Zanzibaris overcome cultural barriers to seek family planning services

ewalin — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:07:33 +0000

(irin) More people are turning to family planning in Tanzania’s semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar as the government seeks to improve access to reproductive healthcare. Funding, however, remains a challenge. “We have been moving on well in the recent months as the turn-up for family planning by both men and women is impressive. Acquiring enough contraceptives for our clients remains the biggest challenge,” Hanuni Ibrahim Sogora, the director for family planning in Zanzibar’s Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, told IRIN. Health officials say a culture of polygamy and low male contraceptive use has limited the number of women accessing reproductive healthcare services. “The major problem is a lack of male involvement in family planning. For example, if a mother comes to the clinic with her baby, there is no harm if the husband can escort her because whatever information is given is important for both,” Kassim Issa Kirobo of the Zanzibar reproductive health programme, told IRIN. “The men say we are busy looking for a livelihood.” Kirobo, the programme’s behaviour change officer in charge of communication and information, said: “The women may also want to use the [family planning] services but the men have the last word.”

SENEGAL: Koranic students kept in “slave-like” conditions – HRW

ewalin — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 11:03:33 +0000

(IRIN) – Hundreds of religious leaders running Koranic schools in Senegal are keeping their students in “slave-like” conditions, forcing them into exploitative labour through begging on the streets and depriving them of food or medicines, says US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a new report.

The governments of Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, Islamic leaders and parents are failing to stop the practice and protect children from such exploitation and abuse, it says.

“As the forced begging is done with a view towards exploitation, it is a practice akin to slavery,” says HRW. “For at least 50,000 children in Senegal, economic exploitation is masquerading as religious education, as children are forced to beg for long hours to benefit the teacher, and are subjected to severe physical abuse for failing to meet his quota,” Matthew Wells, report author, told IRIN.

These children, who live with a `marabout’ (religious leader) and attend his school or `daara’ are known as ‘talibés’ in Senegal. Over half of them are under age 10 and some as young as four. They spend over seven hours each day pacing the streets to reach their quota – on average 87 US cents – and the “overwhelming majority” HRW spoke to, are regularly beaten if they do not bring back the full amount.

Some 99 percent of the `talibés’ HRW spoke to must beg for their own food and medicines.

“When I could not bring the quota, the `marabout’ beat me – even if I lacked five CFA [francs], he beat me. It was always the `marabout’ himself,” a 13-year-old former `talibé’ told HRW. “He took out the electric cable and… I stood there and… he hit me over and over, generally on the back but at times he missed and hit my head.”

KENYA: “Merry-go-round” micro-finance keeps slum residents fed

ewalin — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:14:25 +0000

IRIN – Josephine Awuor, 34, always looks forward to her turn to receive “merry-go-round” contributions from fellow members of Msingi Bora (Good Foundation), a micro-finance group she belongs to in Kibera, Nairobi’s largest slum.

Meeting weekly, the 23 Msingi Bora members each contribute 50 shillings (60 US cents), which is pooled for members to take loans from. At each meeting, the members also contribute 20 shillings (26 US cents) each – to be given to one member in what they term their “merry-go-round” as they draw lots to determine the order of receiving the money.

“Numbers are written on small pieces of paper and folded and each member picks one; the number you get determines your position in the order of receiving the merry-go-round money,” Awuor said. “Previously, supporting myself and my four children was really difficult; things like school fees, food and rent were hard to get but since I joined Msingi Bora, things are looking up,” Josephine said.

Without a steady income – she mostly survives by doing casual labour in more affluent residential areas neighbouring Kibera – Awuor uses the merry-go-round money to buy food and other

Micro-finance keeps slum residents fed in Kenya

ewalin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:33:47 +0000

IRIN – Josephine Awuor, 34, always looks forward to her turn to receive “merry-go-round” contributions from fellow members of Msingi Bora (Good Foundation), a micro-finance group she belongs to in Kibera, Nairobi’s largest slum.

Meeting weekly, the 23 Msingi Bora members each contribute 50 shillings (60 US cents), which is pooled for members to take loans from. At each meeting, the members also contribute 20 shillings (26 US cents) each – to be given to one member in what they term their “merry-go-round” as they draw lots to determine the order of receiving the money.

“Numbers are written on small pieces of paper and folded and each member picks one; the number you get determines your position in the order of receiving the merry-go-round money,” Awuor said. “Previously, supporting myself and my four children was really difficult; things like school fees, food and rent were hard to get but since I joined Msingi Bora, things are looking up,” Josephine said.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88795

ZIMBABWE: Food insecurity threatens rural villages

ewalin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:27:16 +0000

IRIN – The villagers of Nkalanje, in Zimbabwe’s arid Matabeleland South Province, use bells tied around the necks of their livestock to track animals that roam ever greater distances in search of sparse tufts of grass as a dry spell tightens its grip in the already food insecure country.

Nicholas Ntepe, 40, told IRIN he often spent days away from home to find his livestock and bring them closer to home. “It is a tough life, because I have to divide my time between looking for my livestock and looking for food to feed my family.”

An assessment at the beginning of April indicated that crops had failed in all seven districts of Matabeleland South, and an estimated 9,000 tons of maize would be required each month to mitigate the effects of the expected food shortages.

The governor of the province, Angeline Masuku, told IRIN: “We have not yet had distress calls, possibly because some people are still surviving on produce such as pumpkins, but we expect to stock up maize so that we are found ready when the food shortages become more pronounced.”

KENYA-SOMALIA: When a low profile is key to survival

ewalin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 11:48:36 +0000

IRIN – Asha Abdul*, a single mother of five, can put up with the rubbish and appalling roads connecting the modern shopping malls in Eastleigh, a suburb east of Nairobi’s central business district, as long as she is not questioned about her status in Kenya.

“Sisi ni Waria [Swahili for 'we are Somalis']; we don’t like attracting attention to ourselves by complaining about poor services,” Abdul said on 7 April as she fried samosas for sale outside her house in Eastleigh.

She had just paid Ksh1,500 (US$20), required of every tenant on her street, to pay some young men to deliver two lorry loads of stones to cover the dilapidated road outside their homes.

“If we don’t pay these young men to bring the stones, then the muddy water flows into our homes, especially when there is heavy rain,” Abdul said. “With the stones in place, then we can cross the road and go about our business while the children can get to school.”

Abdul fled the Somali capital, Mogadishu, two years ago to escape fighting between government troops and Islamist insurgents who are opposed to Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government.

Since her arrival in Eastleigh, she has not registered with either the Kenyan government or the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR. Her husband abandoned her and the children and she started making samosas and bhajias to survive.

Agencies call for $190 million to stem crisis in Niger

ewalin — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 12:01:14 +0000

IRIN – Aid agencies are asking donors for US$133 million to help the government feed millions of people at risk of going hungry, adding to $57 million already received or committed.

The funds are needed to improve the food security of 3.2 million people and provide nutritional assistance to 1.54 million children and 35,000 pregnant and lactating women, the UN and NGOs in Niger say.

Some 7.8 million people, almost 60 percent of the population, risk not being able to access adequate food, according to the latest December 2009 survey.

Six UN agencies and nine NGOs are launching the appeal.

“We urge the international community to respond swiftly and ensure humanitarian agencies have the required financial resources to respond to Niger’s urgent needs,” Khardiata Lo N’diaye, head of the UN in Niger, said in a 7 April communiqué.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88747

Donor aid and development

ewalin — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:10:25 +0000

IRIN – Donors have come a long way when it comes to making their aid commitments public, but tracking these donations to calculate how much is spent where and on what, is still far too difficult, say analysts.

“In developing countries people are not interested in aid commitments; they want to know about projects and activities. It’s about execution, not allocation,” Owen Barder, director of aidinfo, a programme of NGO Development Initiatives, told IRIN.

“Where’s the money? Who got paid? Where is the school? Existing data donors collect is not designed to answer these questions… The Malawian health authorities, for instance, need to know who is funding what in health so they can make their own spending decisions.”

Each aid commitment goes through an average of six contractual agreements, according to research by the UK-based Overseas Development Institute’s Edward Clay, which can complicate tracing.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88734

ANC youth wing defies party’s call not to sing ‘Shoot the Boer’

ewalin — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 12:35:46 +0000

The Guardian – The firebrand youth league of South Africa’s governing African National Congress today vowed to defy the party’s call for restraint after the murder of Eugene Terre’Blanche.

The ANC’s secretary general, Gwede Mantashe, asked members to be circumspect in singing liberation songs with words that “can be seen and be interpreted to be contributing to a racial polarisation of society”.

But the youth league, led by the controversial Julius Malema, insisted it would continue singing all liberation songs, including Shoot the Boer, blamed by some for inciting the killing of Terre’Blanche.

“He [Mantashe] did not say Mr Malema should not sing this song,” said Floyd Shivambu, spokesman for the ANC’s youth wing. “He said the songs are not banned. We’re going to sing all songs of the liberation movement until they are banned.”

For months the ruling party resisted calls by opposition parties to rein in Malema, seen as a loose cannon prone to inflammatory statements.

Then Mantashe told a press conference at Luthuli House in Johannesburg today: “The message that we’ve communicated to allour structures, including Malema himself as the president of the youth league, is restrain yourselves. Don’t put yourself in a position where you become scapegoats for other agendas.”

SUDAN: What they’re saying about the elections

ewalin — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 13:01:35 +0000

IRIN – The 11 April elections in Sudan – the first for more than two decades – and the 2011 referendum on the status of Southern Sudan have prompted a flurry of reports. Most highlight the uncertain future facing a divided country still at grave risk of renewed war, despite the 2005 signing of a Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between north and south. All were written before the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement decided to boycott some of the polls on 7 April.

Here follows a selection (in no particular order):

The UK’s Associate Parliamentary Group for Sudan warns that with less than a year left in the CPA Interim Period that ends with the 2011 referendum, Sudan’s peace process faces many hurdles and requires continued and intense international support to avoid collapse. On the brink: Towards lasting peace in Sudan provides an overview of recent armed conflict in various regions of Sudan and warns that a separate peace process in the east has had “little impact” on the ground. Issues of governance, human rights and resource management are also examined.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88712