There are lots of barriers standing between girls and education. School fees, uniforms, food and water, and safe travel conditions all play a role in whether a girl can go to school. But there’s another crucial factor that often gets overlooked: access to period products.
Women and girls living in poverty struggle to afford menstrual products. As a result, young girls often miss school during their periods. Some even resort to creating makeshift pads out of torn rags and old...
ONE
It starts off small. Often, you don’t even notice what’s happening. But before long, it grows, spreading through the population like wildfire. Before you know it, it’s everywhere, and it’s your job to defend yourself against it!
If you’re a fan of zombie stories, this scenario probably sounds familiar to you. But it doesn’t just apply to the undead in TV and movies—it also applies to zombie stats!
Zombie stats are false or misleading, yet widely thought to be true. Often,...
This story was originally reported by Alina Paul-Bossuet for the Thomson Reuters Foundation and International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
The United Nations’ scientific panel on climate change report (October 2018) highlights worsening food shortages as one of the key impacts of global warming.
Tackling the monumental challenges set out in the report may seem like a mountain to climb, given the policy changes and rapid government action required. Yet, on her 4-acre farm on the foothills of Mount Kenya in Embu county,...
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is among the top 5 most dangerous places to be born in the world: one in every fourteen children will die before reaching the age of one.
Glorie Sibamona is hoping that her newborn baby girl will beat those odds. And thanks to the innovative financing model of the Global Financing Facility (GFF), her chances are improving.
The GFF was set up in 2015 to increase funding to improve maternal and child health and end...
In this series, we’re introducing you to strong and savvy female entrepreneurs from Ethiopia who have partnered with social enterprise and lifestyle brand ABLE.
Semhal Guesh grew up in Ethiopia hearing a phrase many young girls her age did not: “You can do whatever you want.”
Now 27 years old, it’s no coincidence that Semhal has become a designer, architect, and entrepreneur. She now runs Kabana, a leather production company in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital and largest city, and through her...
Humans of New York took its platform to Lagos, Nigeria and the stories collected from this visit are incredibly inspiring.
Humans of New York, or HONY, began as a photography project in 2010 with an aim to catalogue those living in New York City. Since then, Brandon Stanton, the man behind the camera, has turned HONY into a visual storytelling platform by interviewing his subjects and asking them to share their stories.
Some stories inspire readers to make a change in...
What does your future hold? University, your own business, fame and fortune? Whatever your hopes, you will not have imagined a future in which you got married off as a child, were denied an education, or infected with HIV by a husband that’s twice your age. But this is the reality for millions of girls living in extreme poverty. And it’s time to call it out for what it is: Sexist.
Nowhere on earth do girls and women have the...
This post was originally written by Emma Batha. Editing by Claire Cozens for Thomson Reuters Foundation
The Zambian slum of Chibolya is notorious for crime and drugs, but acrobat Gift Chansa wants to get the township’s youth hooked on a very different high – circus.
Chansa is co-founder of Circus Zambia, the country’s first social circus, which provides disadvantaged young people with education and job opportunities while teaching them everything from unicycling and fire-eating to tumbling and juggling.
The circus also runs...
Il 25 settembre, il terzo anniversario dell’adozione degli Obiettivi di sviluppo sostenibile, ONE ha lanciato la campagna ONE Vote Italia con una “invasione” del Parlamento italiano da parte dei nostri fantastici giovani attivisti, gli Youth Ambassador (YA).
I Giovani Ambasciatori hanno incontrato 28 tra Deputati, Senatori e Ministri appartenenti a diversi schieramenti e hanno chiesto loro di firmare una dichiarazione di intenti. Sottoscrivendo la dichiarazione, i rappresentanti politici si sono impegnati a combattere la povertà estrema facendo ciò che è...
This story was originally reported by by Isaiah Esipisu. Editing by Sebastien Malo and Laurie Goering for the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
When local authorities in eastern Kenya slapped a ban on trading charcoal earlier this year in an effort to save the region’s dwindling forests, charcoal producers worried their income would disappear.
“It was a chilling announcement,” said Peninah Kilungya, 42, a mother of five with the bright red traditional fabric of the Maasai people tied around her waist.
“We always turn to...