Our Stories

Multi-use engines drive women's empowerment in 1,000 Mali villages

Before the installation of a diesel-fueled engine, Koumantou village in southern Mali would to fall into near total darkness each night. The only light would be cast from the restaurant of local businesswoman, Kadia Kone. This scene is repeated throughout rural Sub-Saharan Africa, where 9 more

Nepal census recognizes third gender for the first time

Nepal has just completed its first national census that officially includes a third option in the gender categories that citizens can select, opening the way for stronger recognition of sexual and gender minority rights in provision of public services. Official recognition of third gender rights fol more

In Burkina Faso women help stop the spread of HIV/AIDS

27-year old Assiétou was pregnant with her third child when she discovered that she is HIV positive. “I thought it was the end of the world,” she recalls. “I immediately thought about my husband and I was very worried about his reaction. In the end, I summoned up all my courage and went to talk to more

HIV-positive women weavers team up with fashion designer

Internationally renowned fashion designer and former supermodel Bibi Russell has joined hands with the ethnic Bodo women of the northeastern Indian state of Assam. Together they are creating a new line of lifestyle products that will blend traditional Bodo culture with high fashion. The collaborativ more

Fozia fights back against HIV

Weak and unable to walk, Fozia Bullen, from Nagbaka village in South Sudan, had lost all hope when she reached Maridi Hospital, one of the few antiretroviral therapy centers in the country for people living with HIV. Her doctor said she had reached an acute level of the disease, with severe body ras more

18-year-old recovers from tuberculosis

With a bright smile on her face 18-year-old Mouniratou, of Bobo-Dioulassou, Burkina Faso, is the embodiment of happiness itself. Two weeks ago she took the last of her Tuberculosis (TB) medication, putting an end to a six-month long treatment for the disease. “I was so ill that I could not eve more

From sex worker to HIV counsellor

Jennifer was just 16 years old when poverty forced her out of her native Nigeria, leaving her family and many young sisters behind. She thought she was heading for a better future as a house maid in Europe, but instead, she ended up in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, where she has been a sex worker for t more

Fishing provides new jobs in Panama

Fishermen and women in the small fishing community of Guanábano in western Panama begin their work between three and four each morning. They fire up their boat engines and set out in search of a good place to cast their fishing nets. Once a good location is spotted, they cast their nets into the wat more

Bangladesh: Disaster Risk Reduction as Development

A country of exceptional vulnerability to natural hazards Bangladesh has a long history of natural disasters. Between 1980 and 2008, it experienced 219 natural disasters, causing over US$16 billion in total damage. The predicted effects of climate change will only compound these impacts. UNDP has more

Finding hope in flood-hit Pakistan

“The waters will recede one day and I will certainly go home,” said 35-year-old Najma, a mother of three who survived the most recent floods that hit southern Pakistan affecting nearly five million people and leaving almost two million without homes in an area that had not yet recovered from last ye more

Bringing economic security to women in Nepal

Dipmala Mahato is beginning to feel the benefits that financial prosperity can bring. While she still lives in a one-room home, constructed of mud and roughly the size of a table-tennis board, she now earns a decent income selling her vegetables in the twice-weekly local market. Mahato is one of 32 more

Burundi: A new market revives a community

"Every morning, I feel like my energy is renewed when I remember I have to go to work at the Mutambara market construction site", says Alice Niyondiko who lives in Rumonge Municipality in southern Burundi. Alice returned to the country in the wake of the civil war that ravaged Burundi for more

Supporting recovery and local governance in Somalia

It is early morning and Amina[1] has another busy day ahead. The mother of two must get her children off to school and finish some housekeeping before she can attend to her small business, selling second-hand clothes and household supplies beside her corrugated-iron-roofed house. In spite of her hec more

Income brings hope to Somali families facing famine

With her two children losing weight fast and family income drying up, 26-year-old Haredo Ali, from Somalia’s southern Bakool region, was stuck at the centre of the country’s worst drought in 60 years. Her husband lost his honey-harvesting business when his bees abandoned their hive in search of nect more

Iraqi judicial reform targets gender-based violence

The Iraqi government, with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has launched a series of programmes to improve security and justice, and to tackle gender-based violence in the country. Women in Iraq have not had equal access to justice or protection by law enforcement agenci more

DR Congo: New businesses transform Kivu women’s lives

Hundreds of women whose husbands were killed or who experienced sexual violence during more than a decade of conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have started setting up small businesses to help rebuild their lives. Some 25 women’s groups in DRC, made up of 1,025 individuals in more

FYR Macedonia steps up emergency training

Silvana Abraseva is one of the 1,500 teachers in schools across the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia who helped to carry out evacuation drills to prepare students for earthquakes and fires. "Together we've trained more than 17,000 children on how to stay safe if there's an earthquake or fi more

Tackling the deadly legacy of war in Lao PDR

Rice planting season is a nerve-wracking time for 49 year-old farmer Vongphone of Xieng Khouang province, in northern Lao. He was disabled five years ago when he accidentally set off an unexploded cluster bomb. Vongphone, who lost his left hand, is one of hundreds maimed or killed each year by explo more

Helping Mexican villagers face disaster and climate risks

Marivel is a 38-year-old fisherwoman of Mayan descent whose fishing boat was one of 350 vessels in the town of Solferino, Mexico destroyed by Hurricane Wilma. Hurricane Wilma tore across Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula in 2005, claiming thousands of hectares of tropical rainforest and damaging many comme more

India: flood-damaged communities build back better

“Sometimes in my sleep I can still hear the sound of the river gushing towards my village,” said Sangeeta Devi, recalling the terror she felt one night in 2008 when the mighty Kosi river breached its embankment and inundated vast tracts of land around her home. Sangeeta Devi lives in India's poorest more

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