Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Nov 2 2006 (IPS) – Mbya Guaraní children living in the subtropical rainforests of Argentina s northeastern province of Misiones are dying from preventable illnesses, and extra provision by the government of money, medicine and food seems unable to halt the catastrophe.
In the last two months, 21 Mbya children have died from respiratory problems or malnutrition, and another 13 are in the hospital. These are large numbers in proportion to the size of the ethnic group 4,083 people according to the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC), or just over 3,000 according to private counts.
Indigenous people and environmentalists say that the root cause of this crisis is deforestation, which is making inroads into Mbya Guaraní territ…
José Adán Silva
MANAGUA, May 28 2009 (IPS) – The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) described the criminalisation of abortion under any circumstances in Nicaragua as a violation of human rights.
At its 42nd session in Geneva, the CAT expressed its profound concern about Nicaragua s strict ban on abortion, urging the government to repeal the 2006 law that banned therapeutic abortion and to make its legislation on abortion more flexible, especially in cases of rape or incest.
In October 2006, the Nicaraguan parliament approved a draft law to revoke article 165 of the criminal code, which had permitted abortion for medical reasons since 1893.
Under that law, therapeutic abortion had been legal in cases where the mother s life was in danger, the foet…
Louise Redvers
LUANDA, Sep 29 2009 (IPS) – Angelina Silva doesn t remember the exact dates when her sons died. She just remembers their ages.
Many Angolan children don t reach their fifth birthday. Credit: Louise Redvers/IPS
One was one year old, the other was one year and nine months, she said. They had an illness. We think it was malaria, but we don t know for sure.
The 30-year-old, who has five other children and lives in a shantytown on the outskirts of Angola s capital Lu…
Model of Hope activist Sulemana Sulley lives positively with HIV and teaches others how to do it. Credit: Albert Oppong-Ansah/IPS
TAMALE, Feb 19 2014 (IPS) – With tears rolling down her cheeks, Zainab Salifu queued at the fevers unit of the Tamale Teaching Hospital in northern Ghana. Earlier in the day, the 18-year-old had been diagnosed HIV positive.
Despite the kind counselling offered by senior nurse Felicity Bampo, Salifu felt her world was crumbling. She wanted to die.
As Salifu told IPS, she began sobbing hysterically and dropped to the floor. People gawked at her. Then a middle-aged man approached her, took her hand and led her to a quiet corner.
F…
Nepalese people carry UK aid shelter kits back to the remains of their homes, 10 days after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the country on 25 April 2015. Credit: Russell Watkins/DFID
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 26 2015 (IPS) – Blessed with more than 4.4 billion dollars in pledges at an international donor conference in Kathmandu on Thursday, the government of Nepal is expected to launch a massive reconstruction project to rebuild the earthquake-devastated South Asian nation.
But the…