
NAIROBI—For the past week, every morning, Akonya Shimeseru wakes up in her single-room home that she shares with her two children in Ongata Rongai, a town on the outskirts of Nairobi.

Coronavirus Locks Down the Philippines, but Children Face Threat of Online Abuse
Wearing pajamas and a pair of plastic slip-on shoes, the 12-year-old girl crouched in a doorway and texted a friend to say she’d run away. It was raining, and the mud stuck to her flip-flops…
When You’re Pregnant During a Pandemic
On February 27, I summited Mount Kilimanjaro and immediately had a desperate urge to pee. I should have known then, squatting in the snow next to the sign marking the summit, that I was pregnant.…

‘You Are Beautiful’: the Kenyan Beauty Parlour Serving Female Heroin Users
Naima Said stands back and studies her handiwork. “Not quite,” the self-taught beauty therapist mumbles, her forehead furrowed in frustration. Then she delicately dabs her client’s eyelid with a squishy makeup sponge. She’s not finished…

Meet Beauty Therapist Saving Female Heroin Addicts
Housed in the Reachout Centre Trust, which helps Mombasa residents fight drug addiction, it opened last year with a view to attracting more female users to its services that include HIV testing, counselling, methadone treatment…
In Afghanistan, Climate Change Complicates Future Prospects for Peace
Afghanistan is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change, and one of the least equipped to handle what’s to come.

The Movement Tackling Sexual Harassment at Kenya’s Universities
Diana perched on a brown bench in one of Nairobi University's large lecture theatres, twisting her fingers into pretzel-like shapes. She scanned the room. To her left, students waited eagerly to hear her story. To…

The World’s Mothers Are Watching Ever More Babies Die of Starvation
When 14-year-old Wounaba first found out that she was pregnant, she was excited—until the fear kicked in.

Gender Activists in a March Dubbed Usawa Demand Action Against GBV, Youth Empowerment, Women Land Rights
The march dubbed Usawa kicked-off at Uhuru Park’s freedom corner to President’s Uhuru Kenyatta’s office at Harambee House, where they delivered a petition on gender equality.
Childhood Lost in Darkness
With weak protections against child marriage, Bangladesh has been named one of the most dangerous countries where girls can grow up in the world.

Trafficked Nepali, Indian Women Repatriated
Five women from Nepal and India who had been trafficked into the country were repatriated to their home countries this week.

One-Fifth of Women Don’t Know if Abortion Is Illegal in Kenya, New Study Shows
A new study by Marie Stopes Kenya showed that 20.7 per cent of women seeking abortion services in Nairobi “do not know” whether the process is illegal.

African Men Try Leading the Fight to Stop Sexual Violence
When SP le Roux began to think about the sexual violence epidemic in his home country of South Africa, he put his background as an electrical engineer and inventor to work.

SEA Games: Foreign Tourist Surge to Philippines Sees Rising Risk of Sex Trafficking
There has been a surge in tourists to locations of the Southeast Asian Games this year. Thousands of women could be facing increased sexual abuse.

Meet University Student ‘Counting Dead Women’ Around Kenya
When she is not at university, Audrey Mugeni is updating her spreadsheet. Every month, she adds more names. In one column, a grim question needs answering: ‘What killed this woman?’

In Philippine Red-Light District, an Uphill Struggle to Battle Trafficking and Abuses
The Philippines sex industry and potential for continued exploitation is indirectly aided by legislative loopholes and indifference from authorities.
‘Dumped Babies Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg’: The Deadly Consequences of Curbing Reproductive Rights
Abortions are illegal in Kenya. Every day, 320 women are hospitalised – and seven die – as a result of dangerous ‘quack’ abortions in Kenya.
Bangladesh’s Child Marriage Problem Is the World’s Human Trafficking Crisis
Approximately 52 percent of girls in Bangladesh are coerced into marriage as children and left without the support they need to protect themselves.