African Woman and Child Feature Service

Women want fair share of Constitution spoils

2010-08-24T17:50:50Z

As the country gears up to the promulgation of the new Constitution on August 27, the women of Kenya under the umbrella of G-10 are already worried that their hopes might be shattered if the spirit of the Constitution is not captured from the onset in the Constitutional Oversight Implementation Committee.

During a planning meeting to set up their priority areas within the implementation process, the women said they do recognise and affirm the importance of the implementation process and that is why they are calling upon the political leadership to honour the letter and spirit of the new Constitution by ensuring that women's issues are taken seriously and are not glossed over.

Workshop on Reporting on Reproductive Health

2010-08-23T16:50:58Z

The Media Diversity Centre (MDC), a project of African Woman and Child Features Service is organising a workshop for journalists on reporting on reproductive health. The workshop is a two-day event bringing together correspondents from various parts of the country.

The workshop will cover various topics such as the importance of Reproductive Health reporting, Maternal Health in the context of MDG 5, Ethical issues in reporting on Reproductive Health, Media Ethics and using internet resources to enrich your stories

The Media Diversity Centre works with correspondents to produce a bi-monthly online newspaper The Reject. For the past three months,it has also been inserting the newspaper in The Star to reach a wider audience countrywide.

Doctors baffled by HIV+ persons neutralising the virus without ARVs

2010-07-20T14:34:02Z

Scientists are following with keen interest an HIV positive pregnant woman who has managed to control the amount of the virus in her body at undetectable levels for the past nine years without being on drugs.

Now four months pregnant, doctors want to see if she can deliver an HIV negative baby without using ARVs or caesarean section, the key interventions used to significantly cut-down the chances of the mother transmitting the virus to her unborn baby.

Kenyans to be buried in cardboard coffins

2010-07-20T12:18:46Z

Kenyans are likely from next month to start burying their dead in coffins made from corrugated cardboards or cartons following a local company decision to invest in this venture.

The first samples of such coffins, the Eco Jeneza, have already been made and are on display in some major coffin outlets in the city.

AWCFS wins Highway Africa Award 2010

2010-07-04T21:00:00Z

The AWCFS website (www.awcfs.org) was selected winner of the Not-for-Profit-Category in the 2010 Highway Africa New Media Awards held in Grahamstown, South Africa between the 5th & 7th July 2010.

Mobile phone and internet interface to revolutionize farming

2010-07-02T06:42:30Z

In an attempt to help farmers in Kenya and sub Saharan Africa improve their productivity, a group of scientists known as geospatial experts have develop an internet based information hub that will avail instant information to farmers on relevant seeds and potential markets for their produce.

Dubbed a “commons” approach, the service is aimed at offering appropriate farming techniques and markets to farmers as a motivation to improve their productivity.

African Union Member States urged to support and adequately fund the African Women’s Decade

2010-06-29T15:40:53Z

Over 50 leaders working on women’s empowerment and gender equality in Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, convened in a three day meeting in Dar‐es‐Salaam, Tanzania to deliberate on the outcome of the Beijing +15 review and strategize for the African Women’s Decade (2010‐2020).
The three day meeting organized by African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) and Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP) brought together Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), women politicians, Members of Parliament, Cabinet Ministers and representatives from African Union Commission , UN agencies namely UNECA, UNIFEM, UNFPA, and the Media.

Couple spends four million in search of a baby

2010-06-24T14:39:15Z

Kenyan women and men are taking huge bank loans, selling their properties, withdrawing all their savings and then investing the millions of shillings into baby projects. Those in this desperate search for a baby are infertile couples who will do anything to conceive.

One of them is Janet (not her real name) who has used in excess of Sh 4 million before giving birth to her 10 month old baby girl. For her, it all started five years ago when she and her husband walked into a clinic to solve one of the basic problems: infertility.

Test-tube baby term stigmatizing us, infertile couples complain

2010-06-24T13:53:27Z

Women who have delivered through IVF are complaining that the use of the term test tube babies is stigmatising them, their children and husbands, making it difficult for them to share publicly how they conceived their babies.

“Why then does the society not refer to those children conceived through natural means as sex babies? This is unfair to babies conceived through IVF,” wonders Flora.

Financial shortfall cripples IVF task force

2010-06-24T13:17:08Z

Efforts to develop a policy framework to regulate the provision and practice of the In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) services and other assisted reproduction technologies in the country have stalled due to serious financial problems.

A technical IVF Task Force formed in 2007 to develop the policies has been unable to wrap up its work after the government failed to release money for the completion of the remaining phases.