As darkness falls on a cool evening in Luanda, a group of women sit huddled under threadbare blankets outside one of the city's few maternity hospitals. "I have to be here," Paula Silva, 45, said, shivering slightly.

As she leaves the community health centre in Abobo-Baule with her newborn baby, Abiba Tahoué is doubly satisfied.

With her arms loaded with flowers and leaves, Mohini Indrawan negotiates the dusty village track leading up to her house in this northern Indian state, pausing now and then to exchange pleasantries with a passing acquaintance. Her spending a few hours away from home each day was once labelled "immoral", but Indrawan is now hailed as a role model for other women.

Forum for African Women Educationalist Uganda Chapter (FAWEU) has urged the Government to support arts students at University so as to cater for FAWEU beneficiaries.

Women Affairs and Social Development Minister Iyom Josephine Anenih said those who want to contribute to the women political trust fund should not place stringent conditions that will make it impossible for women to use it to achieve their aspiration for the 2011 General elections.

By Mong Palatino

Based on an article written by Vinh Dang, about 40,000 Vietnamese citizens married foreigners between 2005-2008. The author also identifies the possible reasons why many Vietnamese are marrying foreigners.

Twenty-eight minors have been documented as victims of last month's four-day raid of more than a dozen villages centred around Walikale, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), U.N. officials told reporters here today. Children, including one 12-years old boy were identified. The Walikale victim toll has risen to over 240.

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As per a study conducted by NGO Navsarjan, elected women gram panchayat members from the marginalised and minority communities fight much more than just the elections.

According to the report, they also fight for acceptance and basic rights, rather unlike someone representing the masses.

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For more information, please visit DNA.

Ghana's hopes of getting their campaign at the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup off to flier failed as the Black Maidens lost 1-0 to Canada in Arima.

Peter Dedevbo, the coach of Nigeria's U-17 female team, Flamingoes, attributed their 3-2 victory over World Cup defending champions, North Korea, to hard work.

Mavi Susel, the first transsexual in Cuba to undergo sex reassignment surgery, back in 1988, has found herself trapped in the traditionally assigned gender role of a housewife.

From all indications there is a breath of fresh air currently circulating within the fold of the Nigeria Police Officers Wives Association (POWA). Going by the numerous telephone calls I have received from within and outside the country, as well as those that I missed, which also necessitated this piece, the new president of the association, Mrs. Mary Onovo, wife of the Inspector General of Police (IGO), Ogbonnaya Onovo, is on a mission to sanitize the entire body, and the Police community. It is on this note that I have to first of all, congratulate her having started quite bold stride in that direction.

The head of the NUEW branch in Afabet sub-zone, Ms. Saediya Mohammed Adem, said that women are becoming not only beneficiaries of the newly available social services but are also being competitive in various aspects thanks to the vigorous efforts made to promote the all-round participation of Eritrean women.

Investing first in the world's most disadvantaged children and communities can save millions of lives and help spur progress towards achieving internationally agreed development targets, according to a new study by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) warned today that thousands of flood-affected pregnant women face the risk of death and disability unless relief efforts can be scaled up quickly to meet their needs.

As she leaves the community health centre in Abobo-Baule with her newborn baby, Abiba Tahoué is doubly satisfied.

By Jillian C. York

Canadian women at the 19th Annual Missing Women's Memorial March in February 2010

As August 30 marked the International Day of the Disappeared, news from Canada that nearly 600 native women have gone missing over the past three decades has spread far and wide and throughout the Canadian blogosphere. Human rights activists claim that the Canadian government has not done enough to investigate the disappearances. Most of the women are thought to have been murdered. There is also suspicion that some may have been the victims of extra-judicial killings.

A racist system?

American blogger Kera Lovell was surprised to learn of Canada's high rate of missing native women:

Everyone loves Canada, eh?  And no one can give you any specific details about Canada other than: two Olympics were held there, in Quebec they speak French, and, that it’s known for ice wine, ice hockey, and syrup.  And Michael Moore is from there.

But what about their issues?  Assuredly Canada deals with similar problems of race, class, gender, etc, but you never hear about Canada, so it must be fantastic there. Right?

I recently learned from this Rabble news article posted on Racialicious that Canada has a high rate of missing and murdered native women, totaling nearly 600 women over the past 25 years, and half since the year 2000. And more than half of these murders remain unsolved.  WTF?

Native American paper Indian Country Today is publishing a four-part series on the disappeared women. Part 4, published on August 25, discusses Canada's policies toward its indigenous population in relation to the disappearances. In a comment on the post, NY Indian Girl writes:

A SYSTEM is to blame. That system has been planted in the minds of Natives in Canada, the U.S., etc. The system has become a mindeset of no self worth, forced assimilation, forced removal from homelands,etc. Just as the slaves had a systemic mindset put in them, the same was done to ALL Indigenous people. When your people are murdered for their land by a foreign nation and then forced to take on the thought process and lifestyle of that nation, it breaks down who you are and gives the oppressor the hold on you that is needed to keep you down. None of these people asked for what has befallen them. And once the cycle started, it has been hard to break. So do not put blame at the door of those who did not ask for what happened to them, put blame on those who stole from them and forced them to take on lives that were not and still are not their own. My ancestry is both of slaves and Native Americans, so I see both sides. Thanks for the story.

The role of the media

Blogger Patricia, writing for Citizen Shift, reporting on a Montreal workshop on violence against women, writes of the media's role in the disappearances:

There are 520 cases of reported missing native women in Canada. What is so alarming, says Robertson is how the police and media fail to acknowledge this. “Native families don’t know who to turn to.” Robertson used a horrible example of three young native women who went missing in Quebec in 2006. Around the same time a lion cub disappeared from a zoo. This got a lot of coverage but the women’s stories did not. Police did not want to interfere because the reserves come under federal jurisdiction and these young women were from reserves. The story had a very tragic end when the body of Tiffany Morrison from Kahnawake was found this summer near the Mercier Bridge.

Trisha Baptie, writing for She Loves Magazine, calls on the public to pay equal attention to the plight of indigenous Canadian women:

My Facebook news feed has been a constant stream of two things this past week: one is of a white, 30-something, tall (very tall, actually) man with size 16 feet named Tyler who went out hiking two weeks ago and has not been seen nor heard from since. Tyler is great. We have many friends in common; he’s a pro hiker and I hope and believe he will be found soon…

…Truth be told there are hundreds of missing–mostly aboriginal–women all across Canada. What is different in these two stories is that there is no expense being spared for Tyler. In fact, there are fundraisers being held in the search for Tyler, yet no one is pulling out all the stops to find my sisters. In the words of Laura Holland, a member of the Aboriginal Women’s Action Network (AWAN): “My sisters, my perfect sisters were not considered perfect enough victims and witnesses for the Vancouver prosecutors and police.” And therein lies the problem. Understand this is a hard topic to tackle. Understand I want Tyler found. I pray he is safe. I want helicopters, infrared cameras, rescue teams and everything that can be used, to find him.

My question, though, is why society is not doing it for the women missing across this country? Why in the name of “unstable lifestyle” “addiction issues” “homeless” and “prostituted women” do we get to abandon them? Why is their marginalization by society the very excuse we use not to pursue them with all our heart. With God’s own heart? Didn’t he seek out the one sheep that got away from the flock? Isn’t Jesus’ take-home message Love the least of these?

Photo by nofutureface made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

By Janine Mendes-Franco

Barbados remains shell shocked today as it struggles with the reality that what local media are calling “a scene straight out of the drama series CSI” could happen in the relatively peaceful island. What appears to have started as a robbery turned into a murder scene as the suspects reportedly set the building ablaze before fleeing, leaving the victims trapped inside.

Barbados Free Press immediately began blogging:

Sorrow first. The outrage will wait – but no window bars will contain it.

There will be time later for the righteous outrage that is building across this country – outrage that is not directed only at the two pieces of worthless garbage who cutlass chopped and threw gasoline bombs at these young women.

No, there will be time for all that later.

For now, we grieve, we pray and we do what we can for those who cannot stop sobbing.

In another post, the blog posts information on the suspects, prefacing it by saying:

Somebody knows something – it’s a small island.

Meanwhile, Barbados Underground's “Gospel Knight Rider”, noting that “people are again crying out for hanging” in the wake of the incident, comments:

THIS IS RIDICULOUS…You see we have leaders that are void of principles, they take stands based on public opinion and in the case of hanging; they (our leaders) stand with the international community (Amnesty International and the likes).

The post goes on to extoll the virtues of “Biblical principles that made western civilization so strong”, summing up by saying:

Let Tudor Street be a wake up call.

Barbados Free Press is concerned about the way in which the country's leadership has (or has not) responded to the tragedy:

The second largest* mass murder in our country’s modern history has produced not one word of condolence or concern from Prime Minister David Thompson. Not so much as a press release, let alone a personal appearance.

And that is not the David Thompson we all know.

In light of this, citizens are naturally questioning if the Prime Minister is fit enough to return to his duties after returning a week ago from two months of medical treatment in the USA.

Prime Minister Thompson must be unable to appear in public – or he would have by now.

The concern over the PM’s lack of appearance is not really about this horrible crime.

We know that David Thompson’s heart goes out to the families and friends of the victims. Of course he cares and grieves with the rest of us. The David Thompson we know would want to show some leadership and compassion in all the circumstances. Normally, he would have appeared by now – but that means that he is unable to appear.

At a time when the country needs strong leadership, the Prime Minister's illness is just one more thing Barbadians must grapple with. Global Voices will continue to follow discussions in the island's blogosphere.

The thumbnail image used in this post, “Agni's Dance or Drawing with Fire”, is by addicted Eyes, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license. Visit addicted Eyes' flickr photostream.

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The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Josephine Anenih, has promised to cross party barriers to ensure that women seeking elective offices in the 2011 general election are empowered to adequately match their male counterparts.

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for more information, please visit Punchng.com.

The Women in Agribusiness in Sub-Sahara Africa Alliance (Wassa) says women should economically empower themselves by starting their own businesses.