When Reinhard Nyandire was small, he lived in a mud hut and ate one meal per day. But that never stopped him from dreaming he would one day become a wildlife conservationist. Ignoring the teasing from his friends, he went on to study Environmental Planning and became a successful conservationist. Thanks to his social media […]
The Man Who Saved Nairobi National Park | Reinhard Nyandire Read More »
When Ayesha Amin, a renowned Pakistani women’s rights activist, first saw a condom in a workshop, she refused to touch it. “I felt so embarrassed that I just wanted to disappear,” she says. Her shame, however, turned into curiosity and this moment helped Amin realize that talking about sex and reproduction shouldn’t be taboo. In
Ayesha Amin | The Pakistani Feminist Who Loves Breaking Taboos Read More »
Even though child marriage might seem like a thing of the past for some of us, one in five girls globally are still married off under the age of 18. This means that for millions of these child brides, their childhood, education and future have been stolen forever. Uneducated women often end up having worse
Fighting for a world without child marriage | Joan Kembabazi Read More »
When Nadine Goodman, a young social worker and public health graduate from Columbia University arrived in Mexico in 1981 to learn Spanish, she had in mind to stay a few months and return. But that never happened. Instead she settled down and co-founded the Center for Adolescents of San Miguel de Allende (CASA) – one
Lessons from Mexico: Reproductive justice doesn’t end with contraception Read More »
If we truly want to liberate women, access to contraception is just the tip of the iceberg. We also need to feel comfortable talking about our bodies, our sexuality and sensuality, menstruation, post-partum depression, parental burnout and menopause. Because if we feel ashamed or embarrassed about these topics, we’re still being repressed. That’s just one
This is one of my most favorite articles that I’ve ever written. I interviewed four amazing activists – Joan Kembabazi (Gufasha Girls Foundation, Uganda), Joan Castro (the Path Foundation Phillippines Inc, the Philipines), Carina Hirsch (Margaret Pyke Trust, UK) and Carissa Patrone Maikuri (climate and community development expert, USA) – and talked to them about
Coming from a family of seven children, Chidera Benoit knows better than anyone how challenging it is to grow up in a big family in Nigeria and achieve a good living standard. Convinced that Nigerian women and men should be free to decide their family size, this young and motivated teacher and Executive Director of
Meet the Nigerian Teacher Who Advocates for Family Planning Read More »
To have a large family, and at least one son, are such strong cultural and religious norms in Nigeria that when women don’t meet them they’re often considered failures. Not only is this unfair to women, it’s also becoming nearly impossible to provide for a big family in Nigeria, where poverty is rampant and the
Meet the Nigerian Teacher Who Advocates for Smaller Families Read More »
Being a girl in any patriarchal society is tough. But living in a place where girls are married off as teenagers, are expected to have 7+ kids, and are regularly beaten and expected to keep mum about it? That’s damn hard. In the northwestern region of Pakistan, this is women’s daily bread. The worst thing?
Reshaping Gender Norms in Pakistan Read More »
Imagine that you were a 14-year old girl, and instead of chatting with friends or monitoring Instagram, you’d be married off to an elderly man and expected to run a household. Imagine that you gave birth to your first child, a cute baby girl, and instead of receiving cheerful reactions, people would start crying and
The Catalyst for Change in Pakistan: Women’s Empowerment Read More »