Living in the UK I was aware of the television show Big Brother, but nothing quite prepared me for the African version, Big Brother Africa. Whereas the show in the rest of the world is a simple country specific affair, Big Brother Africa is different. Very different. It’s the first ever version to feature contestants from multiple countries and on a completely different scale. Now in its seventh season, the show is a continent wide phenomenon, screened 24 hours a day,...

8 Goals for Africa

In the run up to the football World Cup, which kicks off next month in South Africa, some of Africa’s most renowned musicians have joined the United Nations to call for a commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – a set of 8 internationally-agreed goals designed to reduce poverty, hunger, disease, and maternal and child deaths by 2015. Watch the video here: The ‘8 Goals for Africa’ song features 8 of Africa’s best known musicians: Yvonne Chaka Chaka from...
There’s been a lot of discussion over the last few days following a recent BBC report on the alleged misuse of funds during the famines in East Africa of 1984-85. Several former British to Ambassadors to Ethiopia, senior US government figures, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Oxfam, The Band Aid Trust, Save the Children, Christian Aid and others have all responded saying the report is unfounded. Paul Valley from the Independent newspaper in the UK has posted an interesting analysis...

Primary health care in Ethiopia

Dr Gebreab Barnabas, Head of the Regional Health Bureau in Tigray province, talked to ONE recently about a primary health care programme that has been running in Ethiopia. The scheme, which started 5 years ago, involves the training 30,000 female health extension workers nationally, including 1,800 in Tigray. Supported by the Ethiopian government, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, UNICEF and other partners, it also involves the building of more than 3000 heath centres. Programmes such as this...
Megan Gieske is a storyteller and photographer based in Cape Town, South Africa. In South Africa, women are at risk. South Africa has one of the highest rates of violence against women and girls in the world, and a femicide rate that is five times the global average, with an estimated 12.1 in 100,000 victims each year. South Africa’s gender-based violence statistics (GBV) are equal to a country at war. South Africa held its yearly 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence,...