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Coming together to change social norms and stand against female genital mutilation in Ethiopia
Ethiopia
“We asked around and found the woman who cuts girls in the village,” said 19-year-old Bereket Merihun. “She strongly warned us to keep it a secret.” Childhood and adolescence can be a time fraught with peer pressure and…
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Floods in Yemen upend lives for tens of thousands already fleeing brutal conflict
Yemen
“The sky was full of clouds, then suddenly heavy rain washed away our shelters. Everything we owned – personal documents, blankets, food – it was all destroyed.” Qubool, 42, is the sole breadwinner for her six children…
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‘Dream and fight’: Afrodescendant nurse lifts up marginalized women in Costa Rica
Costa Rica
“I want to be remembered as a woman of African descent who always dreamed and fought for what she wanted, despite her circumstances,” Siannie Palmer Miller told UNFPA.
The brutal history of slavery and…
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After six months of war, physical and mental scars ravage generations across Ukraine
Ukraine
“He winces at sharp sounds, maybe as a consequence of the first days after his birth. Why should he have to go through this?” At just 26 years old, Mariia had expected to be overwhelmed with the excitement of new…
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Front-line workers restore health, hope and humanity in the direst settings
Bangladesh, Ukraine, Yemen
“A few weeks ago, a pregnant woman called me late at night in desperate need of help,” Molok told UNFPA. “This woman lives in a camp that intersects with the area of the clashes. I decided to go to her at night,…
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Midwives in Afghanistan defy constraints and crises to save lives of women and newborns
Afghanistan
“There was a woman who was heavily pregnant. She was injured and had lost family members in the earthquake… She was in a state of shock,” said Minaz Bibi, a newly-trained midwife in Afghanistan’s Paktika province. …
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Amid gruelling violence and economic collapse, women and girls in Haiti need urgent support
Haiti
As Haiti’s economy teeters on the brink of collapse and essential services crumble, residents of the capital Port-au-Prince are caught in a horrifying crossfire of surging gang violence, with rising accounts of murders…
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Bridging digital and generational divides in Moldova
Moldova, Republic of
Last year, retired teacher Elena Gobjila returned to the classroom. But this time, she was the student. Under the patient tutelage of Catalina Neghina, her own former student, the 74-year-old learned to use the Internet…
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Sri Lanka’s once robust health system nears collapse amid crisis – and pregnant women pay the price
Sri Lanka
When Ruchika found out she was pregnant with her second child, in October of 2021, she could not have imagined that she would find herself, hours before delivering her baby, in a crowded distribution queue, pleading for…
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In Costa Rica, indigenous youth leaders are blazing a trail toward a better future for women and girls
Costa Rica
Cheymi Gallardo Sánchez became a mother at age 15. In her rural community in the Cabécar indigenous territory, deep in the Talamanca mountains, adolescent motherhood is common. Talamanca is one of the cantons with the…
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Conflict fuelling sexual violence in northern Ethiopia
Ethiopia
"We tried to flee on the back of a truck, but they caught us. They took me away, raped me and left me in the bush.” Mahlet* was just 17 when she fled her home in November 2021 to escape the conflict raging in…
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Speaking out for sexual and reproductive health and rights in Egypt
Egypt
“The village is very conservative, so it was a challenge to earn their trust,” said Salma Abdel Moneim, a reproductive health worker in Menufiya, in northern Egypt. Through a UNFPA-supported population awareness club,…
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