News story
With bicycles, impoverished indigenous girls in Guatemala get a taste of freedom
Guatemala
Like many girls in Pecajbá, in Guatemala, Gladys Azucena Cho Cuc was forced to drop out when she reached secondary school. The high school was simply too far from home. In rural communities around here, girls travel an…
Read story
News story
Study shows meeting adolescents’ health needs would yield tenfold return
A study published today in The Lancet shows that improving the physical, mental and sexual health of adolescents, at a cost of about $4.60 per person per year, would yield more than 10 times as much in benefits to…
Read story
News story
Taekwondo champion fights gender inequality in Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
“As you know, in this society, we have problems with equality between men and women,” said Farida Azizova, a 21-year-old taekwondo champion from Azerbaijan. She knows all too well the barriers women face. “I would say…
Read story
News story
Sexuality education offers life-saving lessons to Zambia’s young people
Zambia
“I have seen girls become pregnant, become victims of violence and become HIV-positive, and I don't want to become one of those girls,” said 13-year-old Lydia Mwelwa, a student at Kabulonga Basic School in Lusaka,…
Read story
News story
UNFPA responds to gender violence in conflict-scarred Kachin
Myanmar
“Some women are very upset and are not able to immediately explain what has happened,” caseworker Daw Lu Bu explained in Myanmar’s conflict-ridden Kachin State, where she treats survivors of gender-based violence. “I…
Read story
News story
Over 1 million affected by brutal flooding, landslides in Peru
Peru
More than 1 million people have been affected by an unprecedented level of flooding, landslides and heavy rains in Peru. Twenty-four out of the country’s 25 departments are grappling with the crisis, including Lima,…
Read story
News story
Traditional leaders stand up to protect youth from HIV, unintended pregnancy
“We have high youth unemployment and high teenage pregnancy,” Mr. Obed, a traditional leader in Shiselweni, Swaziland, told UNFPA. Yet many conservative, rural communities have resisted publicly discussing topics that…
Read story
News story
Cambodian midwives hone skills to save lives
Cambodia
In Cambodia, giving birth is often called “crossing the river.” Both can be dangerous – even deadly – if something goes wrong. This is particularly true for women living in the remote areas, who may lack information…
Read story
News story
Teen mothers in Kenya become powerful advocates for change
Purity Bahati was only 15 when she started dating her boyfriend, a 28-year-old man. “He told me he loved me, and I believed him,” she said. She was pregnant by the time she was 17.
The pregnancy forced…
News story
At two-year mark, Yemen’s conflict takes heavy toll on women and girls
Yemen
On 26 March 2015, the conflict in Yemen dramatically escalated. Two years later, it has become one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
News story
Girls in crisis settings overlooked for life-saving care, say health advocates
Lebanon
“To be pregnant in the middle of a humanitarian setting is already a dangerous situation, but for girls aged 15 to 19 the risk of pregnancy-related death is already twice as high than for somebody in their twenties. For…
Read story
News story
Efforts to end FGM must be intensified, leaders urge
Egypt
“I will soon be the happy mother of a baby girl,” Shaimaa Ahmed Ali told UNFPA in Egypt last summer. “I will definitely not have her circumcised. My husband and I agree on that. She will grow up to be a strong and…
Read story