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Stunning plunge in maternal deaths recorded in Maldives
The Maldives has seen a stunning 90 per cent plunge in its maternal death rate over the last 25 years, the largest such drop in the world over this time period, according to joint United Nations estimates.
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“What our daughter has done is a miracle” – the power of one adolescent girl
Three years ago, Sibongile Majaura was on the cusp of dropping out of school, a misfortune all too familiar to girls in Zimbabwe. But she has defied the odds.
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Fifty years after a terrible childbirth injury, Kenyan woman gets a new lease on life
Decades ago, Jumwa Kabibu Kai was pregnant with her second child in the small village of Kidutani, Kenya. The area was poor and isolated – her nearest neighbour was 3 kilometres away – and there was no easy access to a…
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New rules to help end child marriage in Cameroon
“I was forced into marriage by my father at the age of 14,” Faouzia Yaya, now 17, told UNFPA. “My father insisted, even knowing I did not want it. I even ran away to my uncle’s place, but he still found me.”
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After harrowing escape, South Sudan woman welcomes healthy twins
Nyador Dagey, 35, was three months pregnant and bleeding from a gunshot wound when she fled her village in Rubkona County, in South Sudan’s in Unity State, in March.
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“I am a prey to all men”: Refugee women endure poverty, harassment, isolation
When 28-year-old Muna* fled the turmoil in Syria three years ago, she did not imagine she would wind up alone, shouldering responsibility for her family’s care, all while under constant threat of abuse and exploitation.
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Giving birth upright, with maté – Peru clinics open arms to indigenous women
Until recently, indigenous women giving birth in a health facility were forced to abandon their traditional labour preferences, including their tradition of giving birth in an upright position. Many women chose to…
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Astrologers, shamans and priests mobilize against child marriage in Nepal
A girl’s astrological birth chart can hold the keys to her future in this remote corner of Far Western Nepal. And in the right hands, this is a good thing.
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Organizations raise alarm over “global contraceptive crisis”
A coalition of reproductive health organizations is sounding the alarm over the unmet contraceptive needs of hundreds of millions of people. Lack of funding for contraceptives is placing millions of women’s lives at…
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