Marwaan Macan-Markar BANGKOK, Apr 22 2011 (IPS) – A small army of volunteers from local non-governmental organisations has fanned out across Burma to inoculate 3.4 million children from a rare strain of the polio virus that has re-emerged three years after the country was declared polio free. Some 12,000 volunteers are racing against time to … Read more
Simba Russeau CAIRO, May 27 2011 (IPS) – Libya s enormous aquatic reserves could potentially become a new weapon of choice if government forces opt to starve coastal cities that heavily rely on free flowing freshwater. With only five percent of the country getting at least 100 millimetres of rainfall per year, Libya is one … Read more
Pierre Klochendler RAMAT GAN, Jul 15 2011 (IPS) – One step at a time, this fairy tale says. Wonders and miracles, these shoes brought me back my life! For Miriam Gilebsky, walking is no simple thing, it s an achievement greater than life, like walking on the moon, perhaps. One small step for health is … Read more
Ranjit Devraj NEW DELHI, Jul 10 2011 (IPS) – While data exclusivity clauses will not feature in the India-European Union free trade agreement (FTA), the threat posed by the impending deal to the world s supply of cheap generic drugs is far from over. India s commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma assured Michel Sidibe, … Read more
Kerry Kennedy* WASHINGTON, Aug 10 2011 (IPS) – More than a year after a private company operating in public waters retched 170 million gallons of crude and two million gallons of toxic dispersants into the Gulf of Mexico, creating an environmental catastrophe, we still lack reliable statistics on the BP oil disaster s impact on … Read more
BUENOS AIRES, Sep 16 2011 (IPS) – Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay have all made progress in the area of child health. But some are celebrating significant achievements while others are plodding slowly towards the goals adopted by the U.N. member countries in 2000. This was the outlook reflected by the reports of … Read more
Danilo Valladares ANTIGUA, Guatemala, Nov 4 2011 (IPS) – I learned to not be afraid, and to love myself. Before, I never wanted to talk to people because I felt like they looked down on me and that I was no good, says 12-year-old Hilda Tura, one of the participants in a programme fostering leadership … Read more
Abdul Samba Brima and Jessica McDiarmid FREETOWN, Dec 22 2011 (IPS) – Elizabeth Zainab Kargbo was a successful young woman, eight months pregnant and working in Sierra Leone s civil service, when she had her first seizure. Elizabeth Zainab Kargbo suffers from epileptic seizures. Suffers in Sierra Leone are often undiagnosed and unaware that their … Read more
LAHORE, Feb 15 2012 (IPS) – A knock on her front door throws Beenish, a 28-year-old housewife from Lahore, into a fix: should she allow the female volunteer vaccinators to administer the oral polio vaccine (OPV) to her two-year-old son, or not? The decision has not always been this hard. Last year, Beenish had no … Read more
Edgardo Ayala SAN SALVADOR, Mar 23 2012 (IPS) – You see? That s where they were going to put the antenna, says Alicia Suncín, pointing to a spot in the middle of a park in the Salvadoran capital where a private company was planning to erect a cell phone tower, 10 metres away from swings … Read more