Restricting Funding for Abortion Forces 1 in 4 Poor Women to Carry Unwanted Pregnancies to Term in US

14 July 2009 in Abortion Contraception, Childbirth Pregnancy, Funding, North America, Poverty, Publication

Also Causes Delays for Many Who Do Obtain the Procedure
Approximately one-fourth of women who would obtain a Medicaid-funded abortion if given the option are instead forced to carry their pregnancy to term when state laws restrict Medicaid funding for abortion, because they lack the money to pay for the procedure themselves. According to a [...]

Falling family planning funding threatens global poverty fight

14 July 2009 in Childbirth Pregnancy, Funding, Global, Poverty

A dramatic plunge in international donor funding for family planning is threatening to undermine other humanitarian goals such as fighting poverty and hunger, as well as efforts to counter global warming, according to the UN and other specialists.
An estimated 200 million women lack contraception; the potential surge in the world’s population could well reverse humanitarian [...]

Zimbabwe girls trade sex for food

22 June 2009 in Africa, Children Parenting, Poverty, Prostitution, War Conflict

Growing numbers of children in Zimbabwe are turning to prostitution to survive, the charity Save the Children says.
The aid agency says increasing poverty is leading girls as young as 12 to sell their bodies for as little as a packet of biscuits.
It also claims that the coming football World Cup in neighbouring South Africa [...]

Poverty makes surrogates of Indian women in Gujarat

4 May 2009 in Asia, Childbirth Pregnancy, Financial, Poverty

Shabnam had dreamed of owning a home for years, but with few prospects for her husband, she followed the lead of many poor women in her town in western India: she signed up to carry a baby for another couple.
At the clinic of Nayna Patel, perhaps India’s best-known “surrogate doctor” who delivered Anand town’s first [...]

UNICEF appeals for just over $1 billion to help children and women suffering in emergencies

4 February 2009 in Childbirth Pregnancy, Children Parenting, Climate Environment, Global, Health, Poverty, Violence Against Women, War Conflict

UNICEF’s 2009 Humanitarian Action Report (HAR) highlights the plight of children and women around the globe in humanitarian emergencies.
The Humanitarian Action Report is UNICEF’s annual funding appeal for protracted emergencies and is seeking just over $1 billion to assist children and women in 36 countries. The amount sought is some 17 per cent [...]

Reports on women, work and poverty unpublished from November

19 December 2008 in Africa, Employment Work, Poverty

Efforts to improve agriculture in Kenya often miss the mark by targeting men instead of women
As many as 20% of displaced families in DRC may be headed by single mothers

Food Crisis and Poverty Spur Child Marriages and Grim Realities for Girls in Afghanistan

1 December 2008 in Asia, Children Parenting, Family Marriage Partnership, Poverty, Publication

Child marriage and a lack of access to school are the norm for millions of girls around the world. In northwest Afghanistan, where the strains of a record drought and food crisis mix with traditions that harm girls and women, the challenges are particularly harsh.
A new multimedia presentations from the Christian humanitarian agency World Vision [...]

Sex for jobs in export processing zones Kenya

1 December 2008 in Africa, Employment Work, Poverty, Prostitution

At the gates of one of Kenya’s export processing zones (EPZs) men and women push and shove each other, trying to get their national identity cards taken by the guards.
Having one’s card taken increases the chances of being employed that day as a casual labourer at one of the factories set up to boost the [...]

Poverty drives tribeswomen to prostitution in the Philippines

1 December 2008 in Asia, Poverty, Prostitution

Poverty has led indigenous women, particularly B’laan women from various towns in Sarangani, to turn to prostitution.
The tribeswomen, aged 15 to 18, work in different beer gardens, fun houses, nightclubs and big hotels in General Santos City.
The women, social workers said, believe that with just 10 to 15 minutes with a “client,” they can immediately [...]

Sex for survival puts women at risk in Haiti

1 December 2008 in Poverty, Prostitution, South America

After her aunt turned her out onto the chaotic streets of Port-au-Prince, capital of Haiti, eight months ago, Marie Jessy*, 16, survived by befriending men who gave her a place to stay for the night and some money the next morning.
“I don’t want to do this kind of work, I want to finish school,” she [...]