Girls & Women
DFID is working to give girls and women choice, voice and control over their lives. Across the developing world, women and girls bear a disproportionate burden of poverty - but we know when we invest in girls, they have the potential to transform their prospects, their communities and the world. In these blogs various voices will show why this is important and how the UK is helping.
Defending any form of gender-based violence (GBV) on the basis of tradition, culture or religion is no longer an option. Certainly, this is one of the strongest messages to emerge from this year’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) …
This blog comes directly from a UK aid-supported project on the frontlines. The Ni Nyampinga project is a magazine and radio show for teenage girls in Rwanda that focuses on empowering young women. It reports on issues and stories that matter …
My name is Vida W. I am 19 years old. I am the middle of 8 children. I should be in form 3 but at the moment we don’t have the fees for me to continue secondary school. I have …
I'm posting this from a chilly New York, where I'm attending the UN's Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). It's a sight to see so many women in colourful national dress, queueing in snow flurries to get past security …
Do you have your own special space where you feel free? When I'm in the pool it’s 'Becky’s World' and no matter what is going on around me, I can just be myself. And in Zambia I visited a place …
In Zambia one in four people live in slums. Finding regular work is really difficult and many families are forced to go hungry. Parents often can't send their children to school because there's not enough money to put food on …
Today is Human Rights day and the last of 16 days of activism to end violence against women. Around 140 million women are living with the effects of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C). In Africa alone, there are around three million …
Given current events in eastern DRC it seems strange to be writing about anything else. M23’s capture of Goma and ongoing push to the South has been widely covered in the international press (Reuters’ coverage has been particularly good). I …
I am writing this sitting in Johannesburg airport on my way back from a fascinating week in South Africa, where I have been conducting a review of a UK aid supported programme on maternal and child health. The programme supports …
"Out of seven children, I am the only one who went to school. I look and think differently from my siblings. I am able to make informed decisions and can never be cheated by any one. I am loved, respected …
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