Category Archives: Global development

‘For me, it was everything’: the trailblazing school for trans people | Natalie Alcoba

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At 15, bigotry drove Viviana Gonzalez from school. Decades on, a dedicated school in Buenos Aires is putting wrong to right

Viviana Gonzalez vividly remembers her first day of high school.

She was 12, and imagined a future as a doctor, a teacher or an artist. But the school administrator in her home town in Argentina looked at her long hair, noticed the boy’s name on her ID and kicked her out “like a dog”, admonishing her for wearing “a costume”. She refused to cut her hair and wear a tie. “I was already Viviana. I didn’t want to dress up like a boy.”

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Portable kit to treat babies with jaundice goes on trial in Peru

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Jaundice affects 60% of babies. Left untreated it can be life-threatening. But treatment has always been difficult to access in rural Peru

Health workers in a remote province high in the Peruvian Andes are trialling a revolutionary method to treat babies with jaundice – with nothing more than a colour-coded ruler, blood reader and carrycots.

Their goal is to screen, diagnose and treat jaundice in 12,000 newborns over the next two years in a country where 90% of the public health facilities lack the capability to adequately diagnose or treat it in newborns.

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Egypt referendum: No one believes this vote will be fair but we won’t be silenced

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President Sisi is playing cat and mouse with us, shutting down our websites and blocking our social media but we won’t give in

As the world watches the peaceful revolution that is changing Sudan in awe and amazement, it is clear that in Egypt, Sudan’s neighbour to the north, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi is getting nervous. On the same day as the protests in Khartoum reached a head, several of us who oppose Sisi’s autocratic rule launched an online petition to declare any result from Tuesday’s referendum on proposed constitutional amendments “void”.

Among the amendments Sisi is trying to force on the Egyptian people is a provision that could allow him to remain in power until 2030. The amendments would also increase the control of the military, which would be given powers to police the political sphere in Egypt. They would also give Sisi control over the appointment of judges and the public prosecutor.

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‘We’re excluded from the table’: Somali UN staff say they struggle in ‘two-tier’ aid sector

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International organisations accused of ignoring local people’s knowledge and expertise and promoting foreigners to top jobs

When Sahra Koshin first returned to Somalia from the Netherlands in 2008, she was full of hope and courage.

Eager to use her expertise in gender development to rebuild her wartorn country, she immediately started work with one of the many UN agencies in Mogadishu.

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Fear and despair engulf refugees in Libya’s ‘market of human beings’

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Long the target of reported abuses, refugees in Libya now claim they are being recruited by militias – a potential war crime

On the roofs of the highest buildings in Tajoura, a military complex and migrant detention centre in southern Tripoli, snipers are taking position.

“Tonight nobody will sleep because of fear,” said a refugee locked up there. “We can hear the sound of guns and explosion of bombs very close to the detention centre.”

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Rape and abuse: the price of a job in Spain’s strawberry industry?

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Ten Moroccan women say Spanish authorities have ignored claims they were trafficked, assaulted and exploited

Last April, Samira Ahmad* kissed her baby goodbye and boarded a bus, leaving her home in Morocco for the strawberry fields of southern Spain.In her bag was her Spanish visa and a contract that promised €40 a day plus food and accommodation. In the three months she’d be away, she hoped the pain of being separated from her family would be softened by the money she’d be sending back to them – a fortune compared to what she’d be able to earn at home.

A year on, and Ahmad’s life is in ruins. She is destitute, divorced and for the past 10 months has been living in hiding, surviving on handouts with nine other Moroccan women who – like her – claim they faced human trafficking, sexual assault and exploitation on the farm where they were hired to work. She says her biggest mistake – other than coming to Spain – was going to the authorities.

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Cloth, cow dung, cups: how the world’s women manage their periods

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For women living without access to basic sanitation, menstruation can be especially challenging. Their resourcefulness knows no bounds

All photographs courtesy of WaterAid

From animal skins and old rags to cow patties and silicon cups, women around the world use all sorts of materials to manage their periods each month.

Basic necessities for dealing properly with menstruation, such as access to clean water or a decent toilet, are simply unavailable to millions of women and girls.

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‘No more old men in uniform’: on the ground with Sudan’s protesters

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Public defiance crosses religious divides as protesters in Khartoum sustain united call for military to relinquish power

In front of the military headquarters in Khartoum, where protesters have refused to leave following the ousting of president Omar al-Bashir, came an extraordinary show of support.

In stifling heat, a group of Coptic Christians – a minority and persecuted group in Sudan – set up shelters to allow their fellow Muslim protesters to pray away from the glare of the Friday morning sun, and without leaving the spot they’ve occupied since Saturday.

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Red Cross aid to Venezuela to triple as Maduro stance softens

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International Committee of the Red Cross to increase budget to $24m after president approves humanitarian assistance

The International Committee of the Red Cross is to triple aid to Venezuela, a day after the crisis-riven country’s leader approved the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

The organisation announced the increase in the face of mounting calls for the UN to recognise the scale of the crisis facing Venezuela, and amid continued moves by the Trump administration to persuade other countries to back its calls for the removal of President Nicolás Maduro.

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Abandoned at sea: the crews cast adrift without food, fuel or pay | Karen McVeigh

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Seafarers on board the Azraqmoiah have spent 18 desperate months stranded off the coast of UAE, owed $260,000 in wages

When Captain Ayyappan Swaminathan set off from his home in Kumbakonam, southern India, in January 2017, to work on a ship in the Persian Gulf, he told his four-year-old daughter, Aniha: “Don’t worry, I’ll be back shortly.”

But the merchant seaman’s hope of returning home soon with good money for his family turned into a nightmare. His cargo ship, the MV Azraqmoiah, became a floating prison from which he and his 10-man crew could not escape without losing their claim to thousands of dollars in unpaid wages.

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Emergency panel meets as Congo Ebola outbreak gathers pace

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Faltering national response to epidemic prompts experts to consider official announcement of public health crisis

Experts will convene for an emergency meeting on Friday to determine whether the recent escalation of Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo should be declared a global health crisis.

More than eight months into the epidemic, which has killed 751 people, agencies warned the disease is still not under control. The response to the outbreak has been complicated by conflict, political instability, and distrust of Ebola services.

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Lithuanian workers win exploitation case against Kent gangmasters

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Firm that supplied major UK supermarkets ordered to compensate trafficking victims forced to live and work in inhumane conditions

Eleven Lithuanian trafficking victims who suffered severe exploitation while working as chicken catchers on British farms have won a high court case against “the worst gangmaster ever”.

Three of the Lithuanian workers told the court about the brutal conditions experienced by workers between 2009 and 2012 while under the control of DJ Houghton Chicken Catching Services, a Kent-based gangmaster firm.

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Women are suffering silently in Pakistan – is #MeToo the answer?

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Inclusiveness and an appreciation of cultural nuances are key to changing attitudes in a society where harassment is the norm

When I was in seventh grade in Pakistan, a classmate tapped my best friend’s shoulder and remarked: “Nice bra”. We were 12, and accustomed to friendships with boys. But youthful idealism meant less tolerance for unsolicited sexual innuendo. We marched to the headteacher’s office ready to change the world, only to be asked to repeat verbatim, several times, the words that had been spoken.

“These things happen in co-education,” we were told. The headteacher downsized our trauma, reducing our complaint to a cheap, inflated scandal. The boy escaped without punishment and the message was clear: girls, pick your battles.

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Poorest countries bear the brunt as aid levels fall for second successive year

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Experts warn of ‘step backwards’ in fight against global poverty as latest figures show 3% drop in aid to most vulnerable states

Experts have warned that the fight against global poverty has taken a backward step after the publication of new figures showing foreign aid has fallen for a second successive year.

Aid levels dropped last year by 2.7% from 2017, with the poorest countries worst hit, according to figures published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

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‘I was raised to love our home’: Sudan’s singing protester speaks out

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Alaa Salah, 22, talks to the Guardian about having her image seen around the world

The young woman in a photo that has come to symbolise the protest movement in Sudan has been identified as Alaa Salah, a 22-year-old architecture student in Khartoum.

Salah told the Guardian she was happy that the image, taken on Monday evening at a demonstration in the Sudanese capital, had been viewed so widely.

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Men charged with trafficking women into Italy to appear in court in Sicily

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Trial of five Romanians accused of labour exploitation and forced prostitution follows Guardian investigation

Five men will appear in court in Sicily on Friday to face charges of trafficking women into the country from Romania after a Guardian investigation exposed the conditions in which the women were living.

The men, all of whom are Romanian, are accused of trafficking at least seven women into Sicily and forcing them to work in greenhouses in Ragusa for paltry wages, as well as forcing them into prostitution.

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Why should we Yemenis stop having babies and surrender to war? | Elle Kurancid, Elham Hassan and Amira Al-Sharif

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Four years into the world’s worst man-made humanitarian crisis, three Yemeni women ask – exactly what is required of people living in warzones?

A news report from December 2018 lays bare the depths of the crisis gripping Yemen. Mothers watch doctors measure the arms of their children. “When the tape shows red,” the TV correspondent narrates, “it means they’re severely malnourished.” After more than four years of a civil war and proxy conflict, these Yemeni children, mothers, and doctors are trapped in what the UN has called “the worst man-made humanitarian crisis of our time”.

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The women leading the calls for revolution in Sudan – video

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As a wave of protests continues against President Omar al-Bashir's 30-year rule, viral images reveal women spearheading the demonstrations, despite the dangers of speaking out against this oppressive regime. Price rises and food shortages first sparked unrest in December 2018, but the biggest demonstrations so far have taken place in recent days, shaking authorities in Khartoum

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Penny Mordaunt says UK will defend abortion rights amid global pushback

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Development secretary vows government will ‘hold a strong line’, after attempts by Trump administration to weaken commitments

Britain’s international development secretary has promised to stand firm in her support for abortion rights in the face of growing opposition.

Speaking at an event hosted by the Canadian embassy on Monday, Penny Mordaunt said: “Leadership means not shying away from issues like safe abortion when the evidence shows us these services will save women’s lives.”

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‘You often get sick’: the deadly toll of illegal gold mining in South Africa | Christopher Clark

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Driven by need, tens of thousands of women are risking death, disease and sexual violence to scrape a living in the country’s informal mining sector

On the outskirts of Durban Deep, an abandoned mining town with a labyrinth of underground tunnels long since abandoned by the big gold companies, Elizabeth goes rhythmically about her work.

Grinding piles of rough stones into white, gold-flecked silt on a large concrete slab, the 40-year-old is one of the ghostly dust-covered zama zamas – artisanal miners, mostly illegal – who have turned to scavenging in disused gold and diamond mines across South Africa.

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