NYTimes: Stigma of H.I.V. Is a Barrier to Prenatal Care – A study based in the rural Nyanza Province in Kenya found that “fear of being stigmatized as an AIDS patient is still a major barrier to good medical care for pregnant young women in many countries.” According to the study, only 44 percent of mothers in the province delivered in clinics, and a major obstacle was their fear of H.I.V. tests. (Donald McNeil Jr.)
VOA: Where Do the World’s Poor Live? – New research indicates that most of the world’s poor do not live in poor countries, as nearly 80 percent are actually in middle income countries. Two billion poor people – those living on two dollars a day or less – live in middle income counties, as opposed to 500 million who live in low income countries. This research speaks to the debate about the rising importance of inequality around the world. Half of the world’s poor live in India and China, one quarter live in “heavily populated middle income countries, and the remainder are in low income countries. (Joe DeCapua)
LATimes: Somali diaspora see hope and opportunity in Mogadishu – Somalia’s capital city of Mogadishu “teeters on the razor edge dividing war from peace” where the “vacant windows of bullet-pocked ruins give the city a haunted, mournful air, and a new government is yet to form.” Yet the city has been experiencing relative peace and a “revival of business unlike anything since 1991.” (Robyn Dixon)
Huffington Post: Tackling Extreme Poverty in Northern Ghana – Jeffrey Sachs, UK Secretary of State Andrew Mitchell and Ghana’s President John Mahama traveled to Ghana today to “announce a new five-year development program for one of the poorest regions of West Africa.” By combining “public leadership, community participation, cutting-edge technologies, and private investments” they hope to slash poverty, hunger and disease and achieve high and sustained economic growth. (Jeffrey Sachs)
