27 July 2010

The Board has appointed Eunice Mwesigwa as the Manager of Women'sNet.
We would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude and appreciation to Sally-Jean Shackleton for her huge contribution to the development and growth of Women'sNet during the past 8 years. Sally has resigned as the Executive Director and has relocated to Cape Town. Sally will still be involved as a consultant / programme officer and working on Women'sNet programmes.

 DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA and VIENNA, AUSTRIA (July 20, 2010) — UKZN researchers have achieved an important scientific breakthrough in the fight against HIV and genital herpes with a vaginal gel that significantly reduces a woman’s risk of being infected with these viruses. The results of the groundbreaking safety and effectiveness study of an antiretroviral microbicide gel study were reported today by the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) at the XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria.

 Empowering women could more effectively help in curbing the spread of HIV, Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman and philanthropist said at the AIDS conference in Vienna on Monday. Speaking to reporters at the 18th International AIDS conference, he cited the example of Avahan, a national HIV prevention programme in India supported by the Gates Foundation co-founded by him. The active participation of women, he said, has worked successfully in slowing the spread of the virus among India's high risk population.

VULINDLELA, South Africa — With an AIDS vaccine still out of reach, two rigorous new studies have found different ways to sharply cut H.I.V. infections among women and schoolgirls, who make up a majority of the newly infected in sub-Saharan Africa.

Chairman, chairwoman, chairperson or chair? Housewife or homemaker? What is so controversial about contraception, the word ‘family’ or ‘sex worker’? Does being gender-sensitive in news mean hiding the genders and sexes of people who appear in them? Inter Press Service announces a third edition of “The Gender and Development Glossary” to offer journalists and writers a guide for picking their way through the sometimes tricky terrain of gender, media and development, and the use of gender-related terms and language in media.

Empowering women could more effectively help in curbing the spread of HIV, Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman and philanthropist said at the AIDS conference here Monday.

In her 30s, Muza has been married for years but has managed to remain financially independent. In fact, she was even able to help build the home she has with her husband, using the money she earned as a teacher.

The 'Maryam', an all-female Lebanese aid ship, currently docked in the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli, is getting ready to set sail for Gaza in the next few days. The ship, which aims to break Israel's siege on the Palestinian territory, will carry about 50 aid workers, including some U.S. nuns keen to deliver aid to the long-suffering women and children of Gaza.

With women having achieved little in terms of representation in decision-making positions in Zambia, a national women’s lobby group is hoping to change this in the 2011 general elections.

At a local maternity clinic in one of Bulawayo’s high density suburbs, midwives are at pains to explain to a pregnant 15-year-old girl why she must be tested for HIV before she gives birth.

Leaning back in a squeaking plastic chair, one leg crossed over the other, the lieutenant is at once relaxed and commanding. She smiles often, absent- mindedly running her hands through short brown hair before speaking. Her words are thoughtful, her manner candid.

It was a typically hot, humid day in this eastern coastal village. The sun burned down from a cloudless sky, roasting the skin as an angry sea breeze swatted the faces of the few foolish enough to venture out onto the deserted main road that runs through town.

It is a paradox, all right. Women make up more than half of those who take part in protests and other activities organised by her political party on issues affecting low-income workers, says Rani Rasiah of the Socialist Party of Malaysia.

Giving young women small, regular cash payments can reduce their dependence on sexual relationships with older men, which also lowers their HIV risk, according to a new study by the World Bank.

Six days a week Bernadette Ndizigiye puts her skillful hands to work. Stretched out on the floor of an empty classroom in Kigali, Ndizigiye and 20 other women weave baskets to earn their keep.