By Kristin Palitza

A health worker explains the sexual transmission of infections at the family planning clinic in Yopougon. / Kristin Palitza/IPS

ABIDJAN, Mar 15 (IPS) – "I would like to use contraception, but my husband is against it," says Bintou Moussa*. The 32-year-old mother has just given birth to her sixth child at the [...]

By Kristin Palitza
 

Dr. Tenedia Soro-Coulibaly (right) with patient Angama Ouattara, and her mother Minata (left). / Kristin Palitza/IPS

ABIDJAN, Mar 14 (IPS) – One-year-old Angama Ouattara lies on a rusted hospital bed, a drip attached to her tiny, left foot. Her mother, Minata, sits on the edge of the mattress, smoothing out the sheets she had [...]

By Badylon K. Bakiman
KIKWIT, DR Congo, Mar 9 (IPS) – The outlook for people living with disabilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo remains bleak, despite a variety of efforts to improve their lot and bring them in from the margins of society.

"There are roughly 9.1 million people with disabilities in Congo, 11 percent of [...]

By Louise Redvers

Joaquina Xavier – who currently collects water from the river – in front of the new AQUAtap machine in her village. / Louise Redvers/IPS

LUANDA, Mar 9 (IPS) – The brightly painted old shipping container with solar panels on its roof and high-specification filtration devices inside looks out of place in this dusty [...]

By Moustapha Keita

Guinea faces acute problems in the supply of clean water and electricity to its citizens, slowing the country's economic development. / Soman/Wikkicommons

CONAKRY, Mar 1 (IPS) – Guinea faces acute problems in the supply of clean water and electricity to its citizens, slowing the country's economic development. A major project to address [...]

By Jonathan Migneault and Berlinda Chochoe Nortey

Florence Ali, the president of the Ghana Association for Women’s Welfare, has dedicated her life to the fight against female genital mutilation. / Jonathan Migneault/IPS

ACCRA, Feb 29 (IPS) – When Jack Sabadgou left Ghana for Switzerland 10 years ago, he left his infant daughter behind to be [...]

By Mekonnen Teshome*

The newly completed African Union building in downtown Addis Ababa. / Mekonnen Teshome/IPS

ADDIS ABABA, Feb 21 (IPS) – Ethiopia says that the double-digit economic growth the country has experienced over the last seven years has started benefitting its majority by boosting their income and productivity in agriculture and small-scale businesses.

While the International [...]

By Isaiah Esipisu
 

Soon parents in rural Kenya will be able to receive the HIV tests results of their infants as soon as the relevant blood tests have been done. / Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

NAIROBI, Feb 20 (IPS) – Jesse Mtembe, a nursing officer at the Akithenesit Health Centre in Teso North, in Kenya’s Western Province, cannot [...]

By Kristin Palitza

Recurring droughts have destroyed most harvests in the Sahel. / Kristin Palitza/IPS

NOUAKCHOTT, Feb 15 (IPS) – Seven out of the eight governments in the Sahel – the arid zone between the Sahara desert in North Africa and Sudan’s Savannas in the south – have taken the unprecedented step of declaring emergencies as [...]

By Brahima Ouédraogo
OUAGADOUGOU, Feb 14 (IPS) – Burkina Faso's Network for Access to Essential Medicines (RAME) has called on the Burkinabè government to increase the budget allocation to the health sector to avoid interruptions to AIDS treatment.

Despite an emergency plan announced in January, which will see the government spend around one billion CFA francs – [...]

By Jonathan Migneault and Jamila Akweley Okertchiri

Bernard Akumiah said that government needs to recognise mental illness as a legitimate health concern. / Jamila Akweley Okertchiri/IPS

ACCRA, Feb 13 (IPS) – The incessant buzzing of mosquitoes was the first sign that there was something wrong. While Bernard Akumiah could clearly hear the small insects, there were [...]

By Kristin Palitza
 
NOUAKCHOTT, Feb 10 (IPS) – Mariem Mint Ahmedou sits cross-legged on a worn-out carpet in a basic tent built with mud bricks and layers of sewn-together fabric. Her eight-month-old twins, Hussein and Hassan, lie weakly against her body. Both of them have been malnourished since birth, because Beydar, undernourished herself, cannot produce enough [...]

By Ignatius Banda

The Zambezi River Authority told villagers living downstream on the Zambezi (pictured) to evacuate their homes because of possible flooding. / Zukiswa Zimela/IPS

BULAWAYO, Feb 8 (IPS) – Sibongile Dube knows the devastation heavy rain can leave in its wake. A villager in the lowveld area of Mberengwa in Zimbabwe’s Midlands province, Dube’s [...]

By Ousseini Issa

A young child suffering from malnutrition at a nutritional recovery center in Maradi region in central-east Niger. / UNICEF/Giacomo Pirozzi

BOBOYE, Niger, Feb 4 (IPS) – Women have been left in charge of many of the households in the village of Zamkoye-Koïra, in western Niger, as food shortages have driven male family members [...]

By Kristin Palitza

HIV/AIDS has caused a steady increase in the number of orphans in South Africa. / Kristin Palitza/IPS

CAPE TOWN, Jan 27 (IPS) – If there was no HIV/AIDS, South Africa would have 4.4 million more people than today, the size of a major city. This significant slow-down in population growth is causing [...]