Isaiah Esipisu
NAIROBI, Sep 7 2011 (IPS) – Agnes Kalunda s doctor feared that because of her slight frame there was a high chance of her developing complications during delivery.
Turkana Women in Kenya. Less than half of all Kenyan women give birth in a medical facility. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS
So he referred her to the Pumwani Maternity Hospital in Nairobi to give birth to her first child. But Kalunda may as well have had her b…
Fabíola Ortiz
RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 20 2011 (IPS) – Brazil is keen to take part in the international effort to expand access to medicines and to produce its own drugs, and will start by becoming the world supplier of medicines to treat Chagas disease.
The announcement was made by Health Minister Alexandre Padilha at the , which opened Tuesday Oct. 19 in Rio de Janeiro.
Brazil plans to double its production of medicines to treat Chagas disease, in response to requests from multilateral aid organisations.
This South American country will take on the commitment of guaranteeing worldwide production of medicines for . This is possible only because of our strategy of partnerships with public and private laboratories, the health minister said.
Brazil already m…
Kara Santos
A headshot to focus on AIDS awareness. Credit: Niccolo Cosme/Project Headshot.
MANILA, Dec 2 2011 (IPS) – A unique campaign in the Philippines is using stylised online photos to raise awareness on HIV/AIDS. Fashion and conceptual photographer Niccolo Cosme first initiated Project Headshot Clinic in 2007 as a way of merging profile photos online and advertising.
BRUSSELS, Feb 3 2012 (IPS) – If the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had 1.28 billion dollars it could help 97 million people around the world.
UNICEF s funding shortfall could leave millions of children like these searching for a living in garbage. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS
It could relieve five million children in Ethiopia, give 360,000 children in Kenya access to quality education and tr…
Desmond Brown
Potworks Dam is the largest freshwater lake in Antigua, holding about one billion gallons of water. Credit: Desmond Brown/IPS
ROSEAU, Dominica, Mar 9 2012 (IPS) – Two years after a severe drought wreaked havoc with a number of Caribbean countries, some are now adopting new strategies in a bid to prevent a repeat of a situation where countries were rationing water and imposing strict restrictions on residents.
We have embarked on a programme geared towards management of the catchment areas, which includes preventing deforestation, agricul…
Innovation at the service of food production in Mexico. Credit: Mauricio Ramos/IPS
WASHINGTON, Apr 20 2012 (IPS) – Continuing near-record high food prices around the world are highlighting international inattention to a looming threat, observers here warned on Friday.
According to speakers at the launch of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund (IMF) , on the sidelines of the Bank-IMF spring meetings, a lack of focus on agriculture and nutrition in development priorities could prove disastrous in the event of another spike in food prices.
The sudden rise in food prices in 2007-08 is thoug…
TOKYO, May 23 2012 (IPS) – To meet the demands of a rapidly ageing population, Japan has loosened its notoriously strict immigration and nursing regulations to accept foreign caregivers. But new evidence indicates deep cracks in those piecemeal gestures.
This month, in a surprise move, two qualified Indonesian care workers who had arrived in 2008 to obtain Japan’s difficult caregiving licence, left the country. They were among 35 Indonesians who had passed the exam and found employment here.
In an interview with Japanese television, one of the workers, Peramono, cited family concerns before he left Japan. My wife is asking me to return to the family, he explained simply.
The Indonesian caregiver had entered Japan under a bilateral economic partnership agreement…
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 10 2012 (IPS) – Knowledge-sharing has become a cornerstone of successful cooperation among developing countries, in areas ranging from agriculture to health and renewable energies.
Helen Clark and John Ashe are joined by representatives from Japan, South Africa, India, Brazil and South Korea at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the South-South Cooperation exhibition. Credit: Shari Nijman/IPS
There is a feeling that there are some solut…
The economic recession in Spain is taking a toll on mental health. Credit: Photostock/IPS
MÁLAGA, Spain, Aug 29 2012 (IPS) – Rising rates of depression and suicide are among the most obvious signs of the increase in mental illness resulting from the economic crisis in Spain.
“Between December 2011 and March or April 2012, the number of suicides presumably linked to economic problems has increased significantly,” a forensic investigator in the southern Spanish city of Málaga, who asked to remain anonymous, told Tierramérica*.
During the first months of 2012, two well-known businessmen were found burned to death in their own cars in seaside towns in the prov…
WASHINGTON, Oct 15 2012 (IPS) – Tobacco use led to almost six million deaths in 2011, according to new research released here on Monday, of which nearly 80 percent were in low- and middle-income countries.
Philippine cigarettes are among the cheapest in the world, costing less than one U.S. dollar for a pack of 20. They are available right outside schools, in parks, in streets and other public pl…