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Cambodian smash hit Love9 tackles taboo subject: sexual health
Cambodia
“My engine is still working!” a young man in a clinic yelled gleefully, having just testing negative for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Patients in the waiting room turned to gawk at him. It was a scene from…
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Thousands of pregnant women displaced by Boko Haram in Niger
Niger
DIFFA, Niger/UNITED NATIONS, New York – Tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee south-eastern Niger following an attack by Boko Haram militants in early June. UNFPA estimates some 3,000 pregnant women are…
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Carmen Barroso and Childbirth with Dignity Foundation win 2016 UN Population Award
Women's health and rights took centre stage at yesterday's United Nations Population Award ceremony, held at UN Headquarters in New York. The UN honoured Brazilian social scientist Carmen Barroso and the…
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Nuns schooled on sexual and reproductive health in Bhutan
Bhutan
Nuns might seem like the last people needing sexual and reproductive health education. But in the tiny, landlocked Himalayan nation of Bhutan, holy women are being empowered by this information – and they, in turn, are…
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"Best friends" save women’s lives in war-weary Central African Republic
Central African Republic
Mathilde learned she was pregnant under the direst of circumstances: in a displacement camp in the war-ravaged Central African Republic, where she was struggling to support herself with no partner or parents.
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Youth with disabilities face staggering loss of rights
Burkina Faso
Stripped of their most fundamental reproductive rights, women with disabilities are too often denied access to contraception, subject to forced abortion or sterilization, or denied information about their bodies and…
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The Very Important Girls Group: Investing in youth to invest in the future of Tanzania
Tanzania, United Republic of
Unlike 95 per cent of girls her age in Tanzania’s Shinyanga region, at 17, Rahuba Kenedy was enrolled in secondary school – and excelling academically. Then, she met a charming man and started dating him; however, in…
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Caring for the crisis-affected mothers of Quneitra, Syria
Syrian Arab Republic
As the explosions of an aerial attack on Syria’s Quneitra governorate rained down around her, teenaged Batool struggled through her first childbirth, to twins – without access to a health care facility or guidance from…
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Midwives deployed in Uganda to prevent ‘social calamity’
Uganda
A funeral changed Carolyn Akello’s life forever. “A young woman had died while giving birth at home,” she explained.
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Ending AIDS through integrated care: Combining sexual and reproductive health and HIV services in Malawi
Malawi
Five years ago, people living with HIV could only receive HIV services and antiretroviral therapy (ARV) at Mzenga Health Centre in Malawi’s Nkhata Bay district on Tuesdays. As a result, anyone seen entering the clinic…
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After childbirth trauma, Afghan women emerge from life in shadows
Afghanistan
Noorjahan lived with fistula for 49 years until her recent surgery. During those years she hid in one room, rarely leaving, sewing to make a living.
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Global leaders sign unprecedented commitment to address the needs of youth in crisis settings
“When we go to schools and shopping centres, we have to go to the bathroom in groups of three, so that gang members cannot abuse us. They can choose us to be their wives, and if we refuse, we could be killed, and our…
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