After 16-year-old Benard* was diagnosed with HIV, all he needed was meaningful engagement, counselling and proper medication to achieve viral load suppression and continue his normal life without being constantly down with sickness, but factors such as poor parental care, ignorance, non-adherence to a regimen, poor nutrition and poverty among other things deprived him of…
View on Zencastr Melkamsew Selomon is a journalist with over 15 years of experience and also a Board Member of the Ethiopian Media Women Association (EMWA). Melkam shares her inspiring journey from growing up in Addis Ababa to becoming a prominent journalist and advocate for gender equality in media. She discusses her early life challenges,…
Banjul The sky looked misty and cloudy on a sunny day just like the rain was going to fall, an obnoxious smell filled the air around the famous Gambia Mall in the capital Banjul. An adjacent street led straight to the dumpsite. Suddenly, there was a thick cloud of smoke which forced many women vendors…
In a world where men are termed as behaving like women when they choose to remain calm amidst disagreements and women are termed as behaving like men when they react violently, one may wonder if a certain mode of reaction is specially designed for men and another for women. As children, boys are trained to…
Nairobi Mud houses roofed with rusty iron-sheets stretch many kilometres inside Kiambiu, a low-income neighbourhood in Kenya’s capital Nairobi. The dusty pathway leads to hundreds of densely packed homes. In one of these many overcrowded houses, live Fauziah Mbarak and her grandchildren. Years ago, when the prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which is cooking…
Cases of girl child abuse in Zambia are increasing and many go unreported. This has caused great concern over the safety of young girls and women in the country. Hope Nyimbili reports on a recent incident of GBV and investigates where change needs to happen to ensure peace and security for women and girls. This…
More journalists in Nigeria are finding themselves with unpaid jobs in the media. Underemployment is becoming a growing issue for media professionals and those aspiring to join the industry. Reporter Omowummy Olaseinde investigates the matter and speaks with Femi Adefila the CEO of Rave 91.7 FM and Western Spring Television who describes what underemployment looks…
The high levels of unemployment in Uganda have resorted a number of women and girls to opt for domestic work but the industry is not easy. Domestic workers in and out of Uganda are facing a number of challenges. According to the International Labour Organisation, domestic workers are employees who perform work in or for…
Faith’s hands are calloused, her nails stained with soil and ore. But when she smiles, there’s something golden about it, something earned. Each scar on her fingers tells a story: not just of digging for survival, but of learning, adapting, and rising. A few years ago, she crossed into Zimbabwe from Mozambique with nothing…
Cairo Have you ever thought that your wardrobe is piling pressure on our planet? Have you ever thought of the environmental cost of a single pair of jeans that you have? The cost of your clothes in the wardrobe goes beyond the mere price tag. Our choice of clothing could be an expression of self-care….
As days turn into months, months into years and years into decades, the clamour for equal participation of both male and female gender in all sectors continues to increase. This clamour is seen to be more rampant among women who are always seen playing the gender card on issues and situations where they do not…
Queenter Mbori-Saina is the president of the Standard Group Women Network, in Kenya’s second-largest media house (Standard Media Group). The network came into existence when the country was still struggling with the one-third representation of women in parliament. The situation of women in positions of power in the media was not better either. In the…
