Homeless people in front of the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in Washington DC, waiting for shuttles that will take them to food shelters. Credit: Ramy Srour/IPS
WASHINGTON, Oct 17 2013 (IPS) – Near the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in downtown Washington, just a few blocks away from the federal district, dozens of homeless men and women wait for the evening shuttles that will take them to their dinners at one of many food shelters around the city.
They can get by during the day with the few dimes and quarters spared by passersby, but the only daily meal they can really count on is the one they will get at the local food shelter, and so for them, hung…
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 31 2014 (IPS) – The refugee camp of Yarmouk represents one of the most severe examples of the humanitarian crisis in Syria, with foreign aid agencies unable to enter the opposition-controlled area that been effectively besieged since December 2012.
UNRWA food distribution Jan. 31, 2014 in the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, Damascus. Credit: UNRWA
Responsibility for the plight of the primarily Palestinian Yarmouk population has been almost exclusively directed toward the Syrian government, whose forces control the periphery of the camp.
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BERKELEY, Apr 2 2014 (IPS) – Mexico is fighting obesity and accompanying diseases with a one-peso per litre tax on sugar-sweetened beverages that kicked in Jan. 1. France implemented its “cola tax” in 2012. Several U.S. states tax sugar-sweetened beverages, including Vermont, Rhode Island, Arkansas, Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia. Illinois legislators are considering such a tax.
To date, no U.S. city has approved a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. Advocates of the tax in San Francisco and Berkeley, California hope they will be the first. But they’ll have to fight the “big soda” industry lobby to do it.”We don’t want to start a precedent – every time a corporation threatens to put a bunch of money in, we back down.” — San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener
A CD4 testing machine. Research by the University of Zimbabwe shows that female patients with high CD4 counts have developed a nevirapine toxicity. Credit: Jennifer Mckellar/IPS
NAIROBI, May 19 2014 (IPS) – As Africa scales up lifesaving antiretroviral therapy for HIV positive people, concerns are rife that the absence of mass routine viral load testing will hamper extending treatment to the millions who need it.
“Routine viral load testing helps catch people who are failing on treatment before they generate resistance to antiretrovirals and helps keep them less infectious,” explains Teri Roberts, diagnostics adviser at .
Viral load testing, the gold stan…
This is the second story in a three-part series on HIV and contraception in Africa
Because men wield power in decisions around pregnancy, family planning services should include them. Couple-centred family planning services are sorely needed in Africa. Credit: Mercedes Sayagues/IPS
NAIROBI, Aug 14 2014 (IPS) – Beatrice Njeri had just come home from her job as a janitor at a primary school in Nairobi. It was August 2009.
Arriving home earlier than usual, the married mother of two found her husband waiting for her in their shanty at Kisumu Ndogo, in the sprawling Kibera slums.
He had just discovered he was HIV positive. A week later, she too test…
BUENOS AIRES, Sep 25 2014 (IPS) – In most Latin American countries schools now provide sex education, but with a focus that is generally restricted to the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases – an approach that has not brought about significant modifications in the behaviour of adolescents, especially among the poor.
The international community made the commitment to offer comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) during the 1994 in Cairo.
“Although some advances have been made in the inclusion of sexual and reproductive education in school curriculums in Latin America and the Caribbean, we have found that not all countries or their different jurisdictions have managed to fully incorporate these concepts in classroom activities,” Elba Núñez, the coordinator …
Arturo Lopez-Levy is a visiting lecturer at Mills College, California and a PhD Candidate at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.
A technician sets up an assay for Ebola within a containment laboratory. Samples are handled in negative-pressure biological safety cabinets to provide an additional layer of protection. Photo by Dr. Randal J. Schoepp/cc by 2.0
DENVER, Colorado, Nov 24 2014 (IPS) – When was the last time in recent memory a top U.S. official praised Cuba publicly? And since when has Cuba’s leadership offered to cooperate with Americans?
It’s rare for poli…
Surviving in Africa, especially when you are a premature baby who requires special care, is not always a certainty. Credit: Casia Ciechanowska/Doctors with Africa CUAMM
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 10 2015 (IPS) – 20 years on from Beijing, gender inequality is still a priority at United Nations.
On the first day of the (CSW) in New York, the Permanent Missions of Italy and United Republic of Tanzania to the U.N. opened the photographic exhibition A waiting room- Mothers and children first .
The pictures were taken by Polish photographer Kasia Ciechanowska, who focused on the conditions of Tanzanian women, highlighting the risks pregnant women go through in poor heal…
Soren Ambrose is Head of Policy at ActionAid International.
The land by Boegbor, a town in district four in Grand Bassa County, Liberia, has been leased by the government to Equatorial Palm Oil for 50 years. Credit: Wade C.L. Williams/IPS
NAIROBI, Apr 23 2015 (IPS) – Parents in despair because they can’t pay the fees at the privatised neighbourhood school…
Families left without healthcare because the mining company that pollutes their river also dodges the taxes that could pay for th…
Sipho Mthathi is Executive Director of Oxfam South Africa
JOHANNESBURG, Jun 12 2015 (IPS) – Africa is known as the ‘paradox of plenty’. How can a continent so rich in natural resources be so poor?
Economic growth is predicted to increase by 4.5 percent across the continent this year, despite falling oil prices and the Ebola crisis. South Africa’s economy, the second biggest in Africa is expected to continue to grow by 3.5 percent this year; Nigeria will grow by an enviable 5.5 percent.
Sipho Mthathi, Executive Director of Oxfam South Africa
However…