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Tigray conflict decimates maternal health services, overwhelms health workers
Ethiopia
“When the conflict broke out, I was two months pregnant. We were forced to flee and walk for days under the blazing sun."
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Partnering with traditional birth attendants to reach Afro-descendant and indigenous women in Colombia
Colombia
The maternal death rate in Colombia has been falling for years, yet many of these gains have not been seen by Afro-descendant and indigenous communities. Traditional birth attendants can play a critical role in…
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Bodily autonomy becomes a global rallying cry at Paris Forum on gender equality
“Our clarion call is this: There can be no gender equality without bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health and rights, and no bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health and rights without full gender…
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Gender equality is the key to a better future for all, world leaders and youth activists agree at Paris Forum
Malawi
Today, world leaders gathered in Paris to issue a rallying cry for women's rights. “In Beijing 26 years ago, the world made promises,” UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem said at the opening ceremony of the…
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Pandemic, conflict continue to upend life for women in Yemen
Yemen
Fatima Mujawash speaks about the struggles of displacement amid the pandemic – and finding new strength amid the hardship.
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Entrepreneurship flourishes among Filipino populations at risk for HIV
Philippines
Necessity is the mother of invention, as the saying goes, and COVID-19 created needs of sweeping depth and breadth all over the globe. Many newly unemployed had to reinvent themselves to find an alternative stream of…
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Empowering Kenyan women and girls with disabilities in managing menstrual health
Kenya
Anne Wanjiru found out she had gotten her first period when a boarding school classmate told her she had stained her dress. No one had ever explained menstruation to her, so the then-14-year-old, who had a congenital…
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As Afghanistan grapples with surge in COVID-19 cases, one midwife shares her strength
Afghanistan
When the pandemic struck, around February 2020, tens of thousands of undocumented Afghans were deported, flooding the Gazargah Transit Centre. “Everybody was scared and the camp received thousands of deportees daily,”…
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Indonesian religious leaders, health workers advocate female genital mutilation’s end
Indonesia
“I was about seven years old when my mother organized a female genital mutilation ritual for me. The paradji [traditional birth attendant] used a piece of sharpened bamboo stick. I was screaming in severe pain, and I…
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Helping women and girls claim their bodily autonomy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Gender-based violence, including domestic violence, conflict-related sexual violence, and harmful practices, are widespread in many parts of the country. UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem
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Increasing access to sexual and reproductive health and HIV programmes for gender-diverse communities in Bangladesh
Bangladesh
”I have never been loved or respected by anyone in my life except a few early years by my mother,” said Shohan, a transgender woman living in Dhaka who left her family when she was 11.
Her experience is…
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After giving birth under a bridge amid hurricane wreckage, recovery remains a distant prospect for Honduran mother
Honduras
Fabiola Ulloa, 23, gave birth under a bridge where she had taken shelter from a raging hurricane.
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