Focus on Energy

"A cheap and widely available malaria drug is an effective treatment for pregnant women, scientists said on Friday.... Malaria, a parasitic disease transmitted by mosquitoes, kills more than a million people a year, mostly young children in Africa.

NYT: "Violence against women by their live-in spouses or partners is a widespread phenomenon, both in the developed and developing world, as well as in rural and urban areas, the most comprehensive and scientific international study on the topic has confirmed. In interviews with nearly 25,000 women at 15 sites in 10 countries, researchers from the World Health Organization found that rates of partner violence ranged from a low of 15 percent in Yokohama, Japan, to a high of 71 percent in rural Ethiopia." IHT: "Nearly 60 percent of women in Ethiopia are subject to sexual violence by a partner. Domestic violence and rape account for 19 percent of disease in women in developed countries. And in Colombia, a woman is killed by an intimate partner every six days, a study from the United Nations said Tuesday.... Violence against women persists at high rates around the world, and governments are not doing enough to prevent it, according to the report from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan."

Alertnet: "As in many villages in West Africa, education is still a distant dream for many girls. The United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) says that in Senegal about 40 percent of girls 7-12 years old lack access to basic education, and those who do enroll are likely to drop out. Sixty percent of Senegalese girls are illiterate. Senegal's Ministry of Education reported that 80.6 percent of girls began school during the 2004-2005 school year, yet only eight percent finished high school."

"More than half of all children who do not go to school are girls. Achieving universal primary education is a Millennium Development Goal and one of UNICEF's primary objectives. At a panel discussion organized by the US Mission to the United Nations in New York, UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman gave a keynote address on the vital importance of educating girls in the developing world." More

"Two gunmen on a motorbike killed the provincial director of Afghanistan's Ministry of Women's Affairs outside her home Monday in apparent retribution for her efforts to help educate women, officials said.

"A few weeks ago I attended a film fest with my oldest daughter Tonya Sargent. One of the films we watched was a documentary called "Love, Labor, Loss" that told the story of women with fistulas, or holes, caused by obstructed labour.... Fistulas mainly affect women who live in poverty in the developing world and can't obtain quality health care, mostly in Africa, Asia and some Arab states. As a result of this condition, they are often shunned and ostracized by society. According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), obstetric fistula affects an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 women around the world every year." [More]

"One United Nations estimate says from 113 million to 200 million women around the world are demographically "missing." Every year, from 1.5 million to 3 million women and girls lose their lives as a result of gender-based violence or neglect.

"Gender-based violence is one of the most pervasive of human rights abuses. It covers a range of injustices - from gender abuse to systematic rape and from pre-birth sex selection to female genital mutilation - that affect as many as one in three women. Ending gender violence will take action on many fronts every day of the year. But 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is a start..." [Read more]

"Obstetric Fistula is a childbearing injury, caused by long, obstructed labors without recourse to Caesarean sections. The consequences, left untreated, can be devastating, usually including both the death of the child and the incontinence of the mother. And women in the developing world, particularly Africa, rarely get the treatment they need.... Here, then, is a classic opportunity for worldchanging action: an entrenched problem, which could be largely addressed by more funding for medical care and education, largely ignored by big international NGOs and development agencies. In short, this is a place where a small group of people could make a big impact." One By One is just such a group. [Read more]