Our Stories

A new opportunity for the disabled in Timor-Leste elections

By Louise Stoddard Car mechanic Joel Fernandes paid no attention to the two steps that he climbed as he entered the polling station for local elections in 2005. His mind was on one thing - casting his vote. As he posted his ballot into the box Joel did not know that this would be the last vote he wo more

Croatia: Witness support offices help to deliver justice

By Sunčica Pleština Vukovar, Croatia – “As an employee of a retail chain, to my greatest regret, I was the witness of an armed robbery. It was an extremely traumatic experience that forced me to change my job,” writes M. K., who requested anonymity in her letter to the President of the Vukovar Court more

Kyrgyzstan: Protecting the privacy and dignity of people living with HIV and AIDS

By Larisa Bashmakova and Jyldyz Kuvatova Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan – When he learned that he had acquired HIV from injecting drugs, 35-year-old Mirlan (not his real name) sought help from the Regional AIDS Prevention Centre in Jalalabad, Kyrgyzstan. One day in 2005, television reporters showed up with a r more

Timor-Leste: Bringing out the rural woman vote

By John Fenech, third place of UNDP's storytelling contest Senora Mendonça Côrte-Real, a grandmother from the capital city of Dili in Timor-Leste, is now the country’s oldest registered voter after having finally been given the chance to exercise a democratic vote for the first time at the ripe old more

Bangladeshi micro-credit model helps empower Zambian women

Just two years ago, Elizabeth Sakala-Banda, a mother of seven in Zambia’s eastern Petauke district, was unemployed and had no way of knowing that an Asian micro-credit scheme could turn her life around, and help put her children through school. During 2010, Elizabeth and some 829 other women j more

"Now I exist": Delivering identity cards in Burundi

By Aaron Nsavyimana, second place of UNDP's storytelling contest. Those of us possessing an identity card can imagine how things would be without one. Those of us who don’t possess one don’t need to imagine. We know. We know we can’t vote, can’t be heard, and certainly can’t run for office. But it more

Playing soccer for peace in Colombia

Only eleven, Kevin Dagua is quite familiar with war. At the slightest sound of gunfire, he and his family run for shelter. Kevin lives in the northern part of the Cauca department in Colombia, one of the areas hit hardest by the dispute between armed groups, including the FARC and the Colombian Army more

More water, better lives for Sudanese farmers

Until recently, farmers in northeast Sudan used to rely solely on rainfall for their subsistence crops, despite fertile land and groundwater close to the surface. “There is a big difference now,” said Aisha Sharief, who heads a farm run by women in the rural community of Arabaat. “Nowadays we have p more

Mobile one-stop shops help recover lost IDs in Pakistan

Mobile one-stop shops offering free legal services have travelled across some of the most remote but accessible flood-hit areas and, so far, helped 3,850 people reclaim identity papers and other essential documents washed away during the floods. Additionally, twenty units run by the United Nations more

More than 50,000 Timorese finally land property rights

Teresa de Jesus clutched her land papers and gave a shy grin. The 60-year old woman from Liquica, an hour east of the capital Dili, was one of 16 landowners who earlier this month received the first land certificates ever issued in independent Timor-Leste. “I’m very happy,” she said. “And I wa more

Thousands get clean water in Sudan

Before the development of a new water reservoir in the El Ganaya district of South Sudan, members of the Turab family, often the women, had to trek four hours just to collect enough water to survive. Some 40 percent of people living in the state do not have access to groundwater through wells or bor more

Tanzania: Clay stoves make life easier for rural women

Until January of this year, Stella Fungameza – a 30-year-old mother of three children –wandered into the forest twice a week for 12 hours, bringing home up to 30 kilograms of firewood from each her trips. Now Stella can cook with half the amount of firewood thanks to an energy project piloted by the more

Strengthening education in Bangladesh

It is 8:30 a.m. in the village of Matiranga, in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. School is about to begin and, unlike in years past, the children arriving for their preschool and primary school classes know they will have no trouble understanding what is said in their lessons. The Hill Trac more

Georgia: Microloans offer new starts in war-torn regions

Dali Chilachava and her family fled their home village in Abkhazia, Georgia, after separatist conflict broke out in the region in 1993. For 12 years they endured extreme poverty, until a microfinance programme helped them to start a small business growing and selling lillies. In regions of Georgia more

Ion casts a vote of hope for Moldova's future

"Lume, lume", "Voteaza, lume!". « People, people », « vote, people! ». Spurred by a campaign based on a popular folk song, the people of Moldova cast their votes during the early parliamentary elections on 28 November 2010. Thanks to the introduction of an adv more

Mana Dulce: spurring change in Timor Leste

36 year old Dulce Junior from Timor-Leste is playing a key role in reshaping the future of the world's second youngest country. Known as “Mana” (Sister) Dulce to her colleagues and friends, she is one of many prominent women activists in the country working to put women’s needs at the center of th more

Women play major role in building Liberia's peace

Nearly 1.7 million Liberians, almost half of them women, had a chance to vote in the October 11th elections in 2011, the first organized nationally since the end of the country’s civil conflict in 2003. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) worked with UN and other partners to support Libe more

Kyrgyzstan: Community development provides relief during harsh winter

The village of Kazybek, at the foot of the mountains in Naryn province, Kyrgyzstan, endures extremely harsh winters, with temperatures averaging around -20Cº and sometimes dropping as low as -40Cº. “Previously, the kindergarten was only open during the warmer seasons and closed for nearly five month more

Reducing maternal death in Eritrea

In the market town of Senafe, in southern Eritrea, Fethawi Berhane has just undergone three days of painful labor and complications during childbirth that resulted in the death of her baby, despite the best efforts of a traditional birth attendant. Fethawi herself is lucky to have survived, given th more

Gender-based violence awareness program opens eyes in Rwanda

Emmanuel, a pastor in northern Rwanda, had always considered himself a model husband. That is, until he attended a gender-based violence awareness programme in his community that showed him he had been violent to his wife to a degree that is considered illegal. “When I learned that my behavior was n more

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