In Mozambique, A Fight To Keep Babies HIV-Free – NPR features Gaza province, located in Mozambique, where 30 percent of women are infected with HIV. Health officials say “the AIDS epidemic has reversed the steady progress Mozambique had made in reducing child mortality” and while the country receives large amounts of funding for prevention and treatment from many international donors, a third of pregnant women in the country who know they are HIV positive, “aren’t getting the drugs to prevent transmission.” (Melissa Block, NPR)
Uganda activists protest court inaction on case over maternal mortality; 16 women die each day – Hundreds of women in Uganda marched Thursday protesting the nation’s “high rate of maternal mortality,” which is 435 deaths for every 100,000. The women also called attention to “a delayed lawsuit stemming from two such deaths” after a court canceled a scheduled hearing of the case for the second time since it was filed in March. (Associated Press)
Favorite or Prodigal Son? U.S. – Africa Policy under Obama – Mwangi S. Kimenyi, director of the Africa Growth Initiative, argues that while “President Obama has engaged Africa in a noteworthy manner during his firm term in office,” the President must send the message that “Africa is a much better place to invest and that he supports policies that provide business incentives to invest in the continent.” He says this will “not only help Africa, but will also contribute to economic growth in the United States.” (The Brookings Institution)
Fleeing to find food: Drought, hunger batters millions in Horn of Africa; refugee camps fill – Thousands of families in the “triangle of hunger,” the “epicenter of the drought” where the borders of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia meet, are “walking for days in search of food.” Somalis “caught between violence and hunger” are entering the world’s largest refugee camp in Kenya, which is “see some 10,000 new arrivals each week.” (Associated Press)
ICYMI: How Should We Cover Africa? – Nicolas Kristof asks “what do we do to call attention to problems without exaggerating them in the public mind?” He points out that Journalists, aid agencies and academics “focus on Africa’s wars, poverty and humanitarian disasters,” which inevitably discourages tourism and investment in the continent. Kristoff says one solution is to “provide a broader context and a reminder that plenty is going on that is very hopeful,” but points out this is a very difficult balance to achieve. (New York Times)