News stories by Kristin Palitza, page 5

Projects to fight climate change are being designed all around the world. But only five percent of them can be financed with the current international funds available, which means resources have to be used more wisely. Microfinance could be one solution.

Of the millions of dollars spent on climate change projects in developing countries, little has been allocated in a way that will benefit women. Yet, in Africa, it is women who will be most affected by climate change.

Access to treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) remains compromised, especially in developing countries, because too few pharmaceutical companies manufacture quality-assured drugs. Lack of competition has led to skyrocketing prices and this means that public health budgets are quickly spent.

At the age of 13, Chantal Kifungo* is mother to a ten-month-old baby girl. It wasn’t her choice. Almost two years ago, she was raped by her stepfather — and fell pregnant with his child.

A grouping of six civil society organisations (CSOs) has called on the South African government to ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

Frances Mandla is visibly filled with pride. Together with her colleague, Nouniform Nqevu, she stands tall and smiling in front of a wide bed of lush spinach. The harvest will be their ticket to a better life. A life where there is enough money to buy food, clothes and pay school fees.

When asked if they have already felt the effects of climate change, Mary-Anne Zimri and Katrina Scheepers eagerly nod their heads. The two small-scale farmers say lack of rain this winter has foiled their planting season, ruined their harvest — and drastically slashed their income.

'I had a lump in my breast for a few years that I ignored [mainly because] it didn’t hurt. It’s so easy to try to deny illness,' says Tracey Derrick. When she finally went to see a doctor for a biopsy, she got a big shock. The result came back positive: breast cancer.

By the time Thandi Khumalo* brought her seven-month-old daughter to the Red Cross Children’s hospital in Cape Town, help came too late. The infant had developed acute diarrhoea and Kwashiokor, a condition caused by severe protein and calorie deficiency, and died a few days after being admitted.

African medical experts have realised they need to make a much bigger effort to educate rural communities if they want to effectively contain the continent’s tuberculosis (TB) epidemic.