a very basic right

How to battle against the spread of HIV? Sadly it turns out that just teaching people about how HIV spreads is not enough. Why? Because it assumes that the women involved in any relationship have the power to say 'no.' Here is an example of how HIV spreads: a wife may be aware that her husband is infected, yet she will agree to dangerous sex with him because she fears he will deny her access to her own children. This happens all the time because in many societies a mother does not have the right to her own offspring. As soon as she gives birth, her child 'belongs' to her husband and his family. If she wants to keep seeing and being with her child, she is effectively at the mercy of the child's father. She has almost no power with which to negotiate. Hence the futility of telling people to abstain, when the woman has almost no rights whatsoever. There is a very fundamental problem underlying the social symptoms of powerlessness such as HIV and domestic abuse, etc. Women's status is very low, even in countries that pay lip service to women's rights, and where the government has enshrined women's rights within its constitution. The reality at village level among uneducated people is that women are unaware of their rights. Yet another reason to bring women one of the greatest gifts - literacy. That's why we are so proud of the partners with whom we work in Africa. They are providing women with the building blocks to realise their own potential and to take control of their lives.

a sobering thought at Christmas

Most of us think of Christmas meals as a time when we give in to temptation and eat too much. But spare a thought for too many people in Africa for whom Christmas is the one day of the year when they splash out and eat meat. The rest of the year they consume cheap, tasteless, starchy foods lacking in protein. They fill their stomachs, but there isn't much more to be said in their favour/favor. That is why we are keen to give chickens to the Rwandan women in our projects. Not only can the women sell the eggs produced and use the income to feed and educate their children; but they can also feed their chidlren eggs, improving their chances of developing into strong, bright teenagers. A chicken costs about £5 or $8, and it transforms a family's life chances.

statistics that matter

Save the Children, describing their work in South Sudan, report that a girl there has more chance of dying in childbirth than finishing primary/elementary school. They also conclude that only a quarter of people have access to healthcare, which no doubt contributes to the incredibly high rate of death in childbirth.

Looking at the rate at which young women die in pregnancy and childbirth is much more useful than using the UN's 'life expectancy' rates. They give only a national average, rather than an accurate picture of when the greatest risks occur. If a child makes it to 10 years of age, they'll probably make it to old age. Those first years are when malnutrition, lack of access to healthcare and malaria take the greatest toll. The chance of surviving childhood is also massively influenced by how much education the mother has had. All the more reason to be focusing on educating girls and young women.

Good news about landmines

In 2009, fewer than 4,000 people were killed or injured by landmines and other unexploded war weapons, like submunitions or grenades – a drastic drop compared with the estimated 26,000 annual deaths in the 1990s. This is according to a report by Human Rights Watch and other members of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL).

Here is proof that campaigns to try to pressure the military-industrial complex (as President Eisenhower called it) are worth the effort. Anyone working in the developing world, or as we do, wth survivors of genocide and war, can be forgiven for having their low moments. The progress made on landmines and more recently cluster bombs is a reminder that positive change is possible. Soemtimes the good guys do win.

Women are the answer

At the annual United Nations summit in New York delegates are discussing the eight millenium development goals, set ten years ago. There will be a lot of hot air about putting women at the centre of attaining these goals.

It is undoubtedly true: none of the goals can be achieved without the involvement of women in the developing world, because women generally do most fo the work and raise the children.

However, many of the nations swapping platitudes about improving the position of women remain fundamentally opposed to genuine and meaningful female empowerment. In their societies, where men take the decisions and women labour in the fields, women continue to have very low status. They are denied the right to the money they earn in agriculture, they cannot own or inherit land, and they do not even have the right to the chidlren they have brought into the world.

Human Rights Watch found that one of the reasons HIV spreads in some countries is that infected husbands threaten to torture their own children unless their wives will have sex with them. Their wives have to stay within such abusive relationships because they have no legal rights to their own children. If they want to escape from their husbands, they have to also leave their children behind. As long as this situation persists in so many develooping countries, lip service to women's rights is hypocritical nonsense.

I AM SLAVE

Channel 4 screened an important drama recently about a young Sudanese woman taken into slavery, who ended up as a domestic servant in London. Her story reflects the vile experiences of thousands of young women. Sadly, the slave trade never went away.
Click on the link below to hear an interview with the woman on whom the drama is based. Essential listening for those interested in the continuing slave trade in Africa.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/2010/09/100907_outlook_slave.shtml

Welcome Penny Marshall to N4A

Network for Africa is delighted that the distinguished journalist Penny Marshall has become our patron. She is a particular hero of mine because she uncovered the death camps run by the Serbs in Bosnia. Her reports finally prompted President Clinton to act, which in turn caused the Serbs to run away.

Penny has had an unrivalled career. She was the first woman in Britain to be appointed as a foreign correspondent based abroad for the national TV news. She has won an EMMY, a BAFTA and an RTS award for her work in Eastern Europe and Russia in the 1990s. For three decades she was one of the key faces of ITN’s news coverage: from the revolution in Romania to the release of Nelson Mandela from prison.

Her exclusive reports revealing the Serb-run detention camps of Northern Bosnia in 1992 had an impact across the world and remain one of the most important TV exclusives of this era.

Her work on the Sudan border in 2005 was the first to highlight the refugee crisis in Eastern Chad. Her reporting has been recognised by Amnesty International for its insight and courage. She has lived and worked as a foreign correspondent in Moscow and South Africa. Penny now works as a freelance broadcaster and reporter appearing regularly on ITN and Radio 4. She also teaches TV reporting to professional journalists in emerging democracies.

We are honoured to have her on our team.