In the historic 2005 general elections women streamed to the ballots, many despite threats, sending 91 women to parliament. Yet, many Afghans remain unaware of women’s rights to political participation, to earn an income, and to legally defend themselves against discrimination and domestic violence.

What’s it mean to be a woman in Afghanistan? Chances are you can’t read or write, you married before you were 18 years old and have around 6 kids, and you may be working — but you’re getting paid half of what your male counterparts make.

On International Women’s Day, take a look at how women in Afghanistan fare, according to the 2010 report from the United Nations Development Fund for Women.

Maria is a ChangeMaker student (Stage 2) who lives in Kenya. She is engaged with several environmental projects. To work with “own projects” is the main activity for all Stage 2 students. One of the projects that she is working with is “Save Lake Naivasha”. She had been in the area around the lake and made some interviews with people who live there.

She has made some documentary footage from the interviews. A part of her documentary is on courses “ChangeMakerTube”. We try to gather different environmental clips (look at “Spellistor”) and eventually those made of the ChangeMaker students (look at “Uppladdningar”) on this Chanel.

Take a look at them and help us even with your interesting links.

ChangeMaker (Stage 1 and Stage 2) is a one-year course driven by MKFC Stockholm Folkhögskola.

MHealth Alliance and Orange Healthcare team up to develop mobile health solutions for West Africa

At the GSM Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Orange Healthcare announced last week that they will be joining the mHealth Alliance, a partnership which leverages rapid advances in mobile technology to improve public health, health care systems and patient care in the developing world. Orange Healthcare will begin working with the mHealth Alliance on projects focused in West Africa.

The mHealth Alliance was announced by the United Nations Foundation, Vodafone Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation at the February 2009 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and builds off these Foundations’ investments in innovative technologies to support global health goals. It acts as an umbrella organization to complement, draw together and expand upon the mobile health initiatives of multiple organizations around the world.

Orange is the key brand of France Telecom, one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators. With 123 million customers, the Orange brand now covers Internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries where the Group operates.

Watch the story of human rights and videos of the 30 articles from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Sign the online petitions to teach human rights education in schools or report violations and abuses of human rights law.

This Website is a suggestion by Tetteh who has started his studies on ChangeMaker course Stage one (MKFC Stockholms Folkhögskola). Thanks Tetteh!

This post has been out before but I think it’s so good that I post it again. Please look at it!

At the recent London Conference on Afghanistan, Afghan women expressed concerns that peace talks with the Taliban means sacrificing hard-earned rights.

At an international conference in London last week, seventy countries pledged to back Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s plan to negotiate and reconcile with some Taliban.

Despite reassurances from Karzai and western allies that reconciliation will not betray hard-won gains in social and political freedom, much of the rhetoric from power players at the summit gave civil society observers the impression human rights –and especially the rights of Afghanistan’s women– will be on the negotiating table. Read more