PRB

(March 2011) PRB Women’s Edition journalists around the world have written articles, features, and editorials to commemorate the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. Below is a portion of their work. Women’s Edition is part of PRB’s IDEA project, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Women’s Edition is an international network of senior-level women journalists from developing countries interested in women’s health and development. Current Women’s Edition members include 13 print and broadcast journalists from 12 countries: Cambodia, India, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia.

India

Women Fight Back: Campaign to End Violence (PDF: 39KB)
by Shai Venkatraman, NDTV

Liberia

Women Speak Of Disadvantages In Early Marriage
by Ora Garway, The Punch
Ora Garway is managing editor of The Punch, a biweekly newspaper that she started in Liberia, and a current member of Women’s Edition. In the run-up to International Women’s Day, she addressed the problem of early marriage in her country.

Malawi

International Women’s Day: Reflecting on Family Planning and Reproductive Health (PDF: 1.31MB)
by Edyth Kambalame,The Nation
“As we celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, let us reflect this year’s theme of “Equal Access to Education, Training, Science and Technology: Assurance to Safe Motherhood and Total Empowerment to Women and The Girl Child” by focusing on issues of sexual and reproductive health and family planning.”

Nigeria

Case for Equal Access for Women
by Rose Moses, Daily Champion
“As Nigerian women join their counterparts the world over to celebrate International Women’s Day today, the issue of gender inequality in the nation’s polity remains on the front burner, waiting to be comprehensively addressed.”

Child Marriage, VVF, and National Development (PDF: 505KB)
by Rose Moses, Daily Champion
“Amina Abdullahi (not real name) is one of the hundreds of teenage-patients at the Vesico Virginal Fistula (VVF) Ward, Gambo Sawaba Hospital in Zaria, Kaduna state. Her parents married her off at the age of 13 to a man old enough to be her grandfather…Amina is just one out of teeming young girls whose lives have been so traumatised for the simple reason that they married before their bodies could fully develop.”

Nigerian Women and 100 Years of International Women’s Day: The Journey So Far
by Rose Moses and Onyinyechi Nwangwu, Daily Champyio, Daily Champion
“So while Nigeria today, joins the rest of the world to mark the International Women’s Day (IWD) with theme ‘Equal Access to Education, Training, Science, and Technology: Pathway to Decent work for Women,’ the importance of girl child education must be stressed, after all, it is said that when you educate a man, you educate an individual but when you educate a woman you educate the whole nation.”

Pakistan

Against All Odds
Maternal healthcare remains a challenge under the harsh conditions of Thar
by Farahnaz Zahidi Moazzam,The News

Colours of Hope in Tharparkar
by Farahnaz Zahidi Moazzam,The Dawn blog
“Travelling to Tharparkar for the first time, I experience excitement and nervousness in anticipation. My friend, a fellow journalist, had forewarned me that ‘Tharparkar is not for everyone. Not everyone can take it.’ As the scenery whizzes past on our six-hour journey by car from Karachi to Mithi, I wonder what my friend meant by that fleeting remark.”

Photo Gallery: Tharparkar
Farah Zahidi Moazzam of Pakistan is one of 13 journalists from around the world in PRB’s current Women’s Edition. In honor of International Women’s Day, she recently traveled 6.5 hours by car outside of Karachi to the remote and food-insecure district Tharparkar. She wrote: “As this day celebrates the success and courage of women of the world, this write-up celebrates the women of Pakistan, particularly of Tharparkar. The success of these women and the people helping them is in fighting the odds and living with dignity.” These photos capture what she found there.

Philippines

Happy Women’s Month!
by Rina Jimenez-David, Philippine Daily Inquirer
Women’s Edition member Rina Jimenez-David is a columnist for the Philippine Daily Inquirer and contributed her thoughts about International Women’s Day, and in the Philippines, Women’s Month.

Rwanda

Family Planning Can Improve Women’s Lives in Rwanda, But Is Still Feared for Its Possible Side Effects (PDF: 45KB)
by Emma-Claudine Ntirenganya, Radio Salus

Uganda

Maternal Health on Top As Women Score
by Shifa Mwesigye, The Observer
Women’s Edition member Shifa Mwesigye is a staff reporter at The Observer, which publishes twice a week in Uganda. After recent months on the campaign trail where she covered the presidential election, she has returned her attention to her country’s health and development agenda, including this story about how Uganda celebrated International Women’s Day.

Zambia

Poverty Perpetuating Child Marriages
by Brenda Zulu, Times of Zambia
Brenda Zulu is a freelance journalist and Women’s Edition member who, with the Times of Zambia, produced a special supplement marking International Women’s Day. One of the stories in that supplement addressed child marriages.