by Urmila Chanam –India– “I believe we still have not reached the last sex worker and we will walk until we reach her.” – Ashodaya Samithi member, Mysore, India. In 2004, a handful of women visited Sonagachi in Kolkatta’s Shobha …
Sex Workers in India Move from Stigma to Empowerment Read more »
by Lerato Manyozo –Malawi– Even before we begin talking, Kheliwe* has tears in her eyes. She is HIV positive and still battling to come to terms with the fact that her husband, now deceased, infected her on her matrimonial bed. …
Kheliwe’s Story: Male Polygamy and HIV Infection in Malawi Read more »
by Alexandra Marie Daniels Arts, Culture & Media Editor Although it feels like it is a film from the 1990’s recently stumbled upon and re-discovered high up on a shelf in a dusty box, How to Survive a Plague directed …
How to Survive a Plague – A Model for Human Rights Social Activism. Read more »
by Michelle Tolson –Cambodia– Entertainment venues are very popular in Cambodia. They are well supplied with beer and young women to serve it. Karaoke clubs and beer gardens are frequented by Khmer men who expect women to sit and drink …
Despite Profits, Beer Companies Do Not Provide Living Wage For Cambodian Promoters Read more »
• Photograph by Flickr user khym54 and used under a creative commons license. • Festus Mogae who currently is the head of the Botswana government-backed Aids Council approves a decriminalization of homosexuality and prostitution in order to prevent the spread …
Botswana HIV: Mogae in call to legalise homosexuality Read more »
by Jessica Mosby –USA– Life, Above All tells the story of 12-year-old Chanda who takes responsibility for her family after her baby sister dies and her mother falls ill. Fueled by rumors, the rural village outside Johannesburg quickly ostracizes the …
Director Oliver Schmitz and Actress Khomotso Manyaka on Life, Above All Read more »
by Liz McGinn –UK– Every year the BBC runs a huge televised fundraising event called Comic Relief. Its aim is to raise as much money as possible for worthwhile causes in the UK and Africa. The fundraising, undertaken by both …
“Informal Settlement” Status Discriminates Against Residents in Africa’s Largest Slum Read more »
by Rachel Muthoni – Kenya – If only Kenyan society would choose to understand their kin and friends who are HIV-positive, deaths resulting from this virus could be reduced significantly. But the stigma associated with being infected or affected by …
by Chumile Jamela –Zimbabwe– Lisa Kunene’s* path to higher learning has been a painful one. A 20-year-old first-year engineering student at one of the top universities in Zimbabwe, she was born to a poor communal farmer in rural Matebeleland South, …
The Price of Education: Sexual Abuse and HIV/AIDS At Zimbabwe’s Universities Read more »
by Jessica Mosby – USA – The most striking element of the new documentary Tapestries of Hope is not the hell that the young rape survivors profiled have lived through, but their unbreakable spirit. The film is a vibrant international …