Megan Gieske is a storyteller and photographer based in Cape Town, South Africa.
With a country-wide unemployment rate of 32.6% and over 2.4 million confirmed cases as of August 2021, COVID-19 has been wreaking havoc on South Africa. And Johannesburg remains the epicenter of the virus‘ spread.
In western Johannesburg, however, Queen of Hearts Circle, founded by Mariam Behr, has been stepping up to support community needs during the pandemic, raising awareness and educating the community on COVID-19 safety.
How Queen of Hearts...
Arielle Witter
World hunger is a major global issue. Over 800 million people are going to bed hungry each night, and this year, 49 million people across 49 countries are experiencing an “’emergency phase‘ of food insecurity,” according to the World Food Programme. As part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) laid out by the United Nations, however, the international community has set the goal of ending chronic hunger and improving nutrition in general by 2030.
That sounds like a big goal...
Caitlin Baron is the CEO of the Luminos Fund. Photo credit in this piece goes to Mekbib Tadesse for the Luminos Fund.
Like many children in Ethiopia, Esayas hardly set foot in a classroom during the first decade of his life. Instead, he stayed home, helping his parents on their farm, a crucial source of food for the family of six.
Fast-forward 10 months and on average, 90% of Esayas‘s classmates will have transitioned into mainstream school, 75% will stay in...
Majd Mansour, a ONE activist from the UK, is sharing how the unfair vaccine distribution globally is severely impacting already existing inequalities in the world.
It is no secret that some of the world‘s richest nations have a surplus supply of COVID-19 vaccines. In fact, it was expected. However, only 1% of people in low-income countries have received at least one vaccine dose. The director-general of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, went as far as labeling this...
This guest blog was written by ONE Youth Ambassador Veerle Blokhuis.
The coronavirus has brought about a lot of change in the world. The various measures deployed worldwide to combat the pandemic have had a major impact on our daily lives, from many workers losing part, or all, of their income to children no longer being able to go to school. In African countries, however, these impacts are even more severe.
On the continent, lower incomes and less education have led...
Megan Gieske is a storyteller and photographer based in Cape Town, South Africa.
A 1-hour drive from Johannesburg, rolling amber hills replace the concrete and skyscrapers of downtown. This is Tarlton. Here Vutlhari Chauke, the woman behind the agricultural business VT Harvest, is fighting against gender stereotypes and disempowerment, and she is bringing other women along with her.
Down a long dirt road, 10 greenhouses stand out against the slanting light of the afternoon sun. Women bend over crops of rocket, mint,...
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on women and girls. From threatening girls‘ education and taking a toll on women‘s work, to impacting maternal and reproductive care, the effects of the pandemic have more severely impacted women compared to their male counterparts. Thankfully, the world has an opportunity to change that.
At the Generation Equality Forum, a global gathering in Paris on 1-2 July focused on advancing gender equality, leaders will be presented with an opportunity to ensure...
The world is over a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, and we’ve seen some progress in global coordination to end it, including the Biden administration’s deal with Pfizer-BioNTech to purchase 500 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to share globally. But we need more global action to end the pandemic for everyone, everywhere.
The fastest way to do so and beat the virus is to ensure that everyone, regardless of where they live, has access to vaccines. Otherwise, the world is at...
Aya Chebbi is a Pan-African activist, Chair of Nala Feminist Collective, CEO of Afresist, and served as the first African Union Special Envoy of Youth.
Young people may be less likely to fall severely ill from COVID-19, but in so many other ways, the pandemic has disproportionately impacted their lives.
This is especially true on the African continent. The informal, low-paying labour market, where most young people work, was hit hardest by the pandemic. In Nigeria, 45% of people surveyed said...
Megan Gieske is a storyteller and photographer based in Cape Town, South Africa.
Disclaimer: This story contains accounts of gender-based violence.
At just 13-years-old, Siyabonga Khusela was confronted with the reality of gender-based violence (GBV).
After a fight with Siyabonga’s step-father, Siyabonga’s pregnant mother arrived at the hospital to deliver her baby. With high blood pressure and other injuries, “she passed on,” Siyabonga said. “The least that the doctors could do was to protect my baby brother.” He was just 13-years-old when he...