UK charities launch appeal to help fragile states fight coronavirus
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation British charities launched an appeal on Tuesday to help protect millions of people at heightened risk of coronavirus in the world’s most fragile states, and provide protective equipment for frontline health workers. Aid agencies warned that COVID-19 could cause a humanitarian disaster as it hits refugee and displacement camps and war-torn […]
Caught between climate and virus threats, migrants have no safe place to go
Barcelona, SpainThomson Reuters Foundation Ali Mohammad, a 50-year-old Afghan nomad, lost most of his sheep to a harsh drought in 2018. The following year, his home was destroyed by floods that also killed his son and two daughters. These days he lives in a camp for displaced people in Herat province, with his surviving teenage […]
Cheap as bread, girls sell sex to survive hunger crisis in Africa
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation Young girls in southern Africa are selling sex – sometimes for less than the cost of bread – to survive a hunger crisis ensnaring tens of millions, aid agencies said last week. In Angola, girls of 12 sell themselves for as little as 40 cents to feed their families as the […]
Demands grow for “global justice” on climate damage at UN talks
Barcelona, SpainThomson Reuters Foundation Droughts, floods and storms are nothing new to poor communities in Mozambique – but in recent years, the weather has become so extreme that neither the people nor the state can cope, said an international charity head in the south-east African nation. After two powerful cyclones battered swathes of the country […]
Clean energy or food? Asian nations grapple with new demands on land
Bangkok, ThailandThomson Reuters Foundation Huge renewable energy projects planned in Asia, such as solar parks and hydropower dams, risk accelerating the conversion of farmland, uprooting communities and destroying livelihoods, energy experts and human rights activists warned on Tuesday. As they look to curb climate changing emissions, some of the most rapid transitions to renewable energy […]
Fear and prestige pushing Kenyan girls into FGM – and out of school
Nairobi, KenyaThomson Reuters Foundation It was during her first year of high school in rural western Kenya that Mary Kuket says she was “sacrificed to tradition” and her dreams of becoming a doctor shattered forever. With no explanation, the 15-year-old was given away to another family, who forced her to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) […]
Forced to walk miles, India water crisis hits rural women hardest
Thomson Reuters Foundation Women in villages who have to walk miles each day to fetch water are bearing the brunt of India’s worst water crisis in history, with activists warning of serious impacts on their health and well-being. About 200,000 Indians die every year due to inadequate access to safe water, and 600 million face […]