Interights' Equality Programme is pleased to invite applications from African lawyers for an internship as part of the development and implementation of its work. The internship will last 3 months and will start in September 2004.

The Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) is a project which aims to create a network of experienced and committed researchers, policy makers, activists and donors who will work together to ensure that the many aspects of sexual violence are addressed. The SVRI will focus on the sexual abuse and coercion of adult and adolescent women, child sexual abuse, sexual torture and sexual violence in war situations, and trafficking in women and girls for sex. For more information about and to join the Sexual Violence Research Initiative please look at http://www.who.int/gender/violence/sexviolresearch/en/

The Small Grants Programme (SGP) of the International Deaf Children's Society (IDCS) is offering grants of up to £10,000 for projects that offer measurable and sustainable improvements to the individual lives of deaf children and their families. This could be either by piloting new services or improving existing services in the area of health and education or by promoting the empowerment and participation of deaf children and their families.

Applications are invited from South Africans who in the past were educationally disadvantaged by law and resource allocation. The Fellowship offers an opportunity for study of one academic year at Harvard University and includes payment of all tuition, a subsistence allowance, and a return air ticket.

Shut down for a year by civil war, schools in Nimba county in northern Liberia are finally starting to reopen. But pupils are taught in wrecked classrooms with no roof to keep out the rain. They are forced to bring their own chairs from home to sit on. And their teachers have yet to receive a salary. Authorities in the town of Sanniquelle, near Liberia's northern border with Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire, have managed to reopen a few primary schools with unpaid volunteer teachers since UN peacekeeping troops were deployed there two months ago.

A new labour survey is set to highlight the situation of working children in Zimbabwe. About 140 enumerators are currently engaged in a three-week National Labour Force Survey being conducted by the Central Statistical Office (CSO), with support from the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). It is expected to cover more than 10,000 households in Zimbabwe's 10 provinces. The survey will not only deal with the employment situation of adults, but also of children.

As leaders of the "Group of Eight" met with leaders from six African countries on the final day of the G-8 summit in Sea Island, Georgia, Africa Action dismissed announcements of new initiatives on debt relief and HIV/AIDS as "wholly inadequate and off-target." It also condemned the failure of the G-8 to call for immediate intervention to stop the unfolding genocide in Darfur, western Sudan, and address the urgent humanitarian crisis, where more than one million people are now at risk as a result of an ongoing government-sponsored campaign of ethnic cleansing.

The Distributing Agency for Charities, established in terms of the Lotteries Act (No. 57 of 1997), is once again in the position to consider applications for funding from the proceeds of the National Lottery. In adjudicating applications received by the advertised deadline, the Distributing Agency will focus on the following areas:
* Capacity-building and development of under-developed organisations, communities and groups.
* Literacy and numeracy programmes (ABET).
* Organisations supporting or assisting school-going children from underprivileged communities.
* Community and residential programmes for children; the youth; women; families; the disabled; the chronically/ terminally ill; drug and crime prevention and rehabilitation programmes; and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programmes.
* Rural and informal settlement projects aimed at meeting the basic needs of the community.

Preference will be given to applications for areas that are under-resourced and under-served. Applications will be considered from registered non-profit organisations that have 2 consecutive years’ signed audited financial statements. However, those who are not registered or do not have 2 years’ audited financial statements should seek assistance from, and enter into partnership with, a registered organisation.

Former circumcisers have called for the enactment and firm implementation of comprehensive laws against female genital mutilation (FGM) in Africa. FGM is criminal in only 14 African countries, and in many of those countries the anti-FGM law is often poorly implemented, said the international women's rights group Equality Now.

The 500 students at Morgenster Teacher's College in Masvingo were on Friday left stranded after the indefinite closure of the institution as a result of intermittent strike action by the students. Heavily armed policemen maintained presence at the Reformed Church in Zimbabwe institution where the students were given 30 minutes to pack their belongings and leave.

Togo's main university has reopened after being closed for most of May following student demonstrations to demand better grants and living conditions, but the students at the University of Lome have now decided to boycott their end of year exams. The protest action is being taken to demand the release of several student leaders jailed after the earlier disturbances.

A Training Session for 50 Libyan officials and police representatives, organized by the International Organisation for Migration and the Libyan People's Committee for Public Security will discuss issues such as border migration management and assisted voluntary return for stranded migrants. Libya is a country of transit and destination for migrants and is therefore engaged in addressing the phenomenon in a comprehensive manner both bilaterally and multilaterally.

In March 2004 the Resource Alliance held the 5th International Workshop on Resource Mobilisation in Johannesburg, South Africa. The event was the most successful in the series, with 271 participants attending from 48 countries. The Resource Alliance wishes to thank those who supported the event including: the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), Plan International, the Commonwealth Foundation, the South African Institute for Fundraising (SAIF) and Downes Murray International, South Africa.

The Shuttleworth Foundation supports Maths, Science, Technology and Entrepreneurship initiatives and invites proposals from innovative educational pilot projects.

The project focus areas are:
Maths, Science, Technology and Entrepreneurship in General Education and Training (GET) phase; and
Numeracy in the Foundation Phase.

The project should demonstrate cost-effective management of resources and innovative teaching and learning methodologies on the specified subject matter.

For more information contact the Shuttleworth Foundation at tel: 021 970-1200

The South African government's neglect of schools on commercial farms prevents thousands of rural children from receiving an adequate education, Human Rights Watch says in a new report. Farm schools provide the only educational opportunity for farm workers’ children in South Africa. The 59-page report, "Forgotten Schools: Right to Basic Education for Children on Farms in South Africa," found that the government's failure to negotiate contracts with farm owners impedes children’s right to basic education. In the worst cases, farm owners have deliberately obstructed children's access to the schools.

Worldphilanthropists.org is a non-denominational, non-political organisation designed to bring together on one site as much relevant information as possible on the subject of philanthropy.

There are no books, no chalk and little hope as children are forced out of class. Deep in the Zimbabwean bush, 65 miles west of Harare, four teachers start each day by washing goat droppings from their primary school’s concrete floor. They have no textbooks, no stationery and no chalk. Five years of economic collapse, political oppression and rampant lawlessness, compounded by the scourge of Aids, are threatening to deprive an entire generation of Zimbabwean children of any meaningful schooling.

African Trade Ministers meeting on 27-28 May in Kigali, Rwanda, have issued a "Kigali Consensus" on the World Trade Organisation welcoming the emerging consensus to drop from the work programme the three Singapore issues of investment, competition and transparency in government procurement. They stressed that they "have been consistently concerned with the potential serious implications of the Singapore issues on African economies," but that they had remained engaged in the discussions.

An anti-child labour body's efforts to renovate schools and increase access to water has helped reduce school absenteeism among communities in Malawi's Central region. "We have recorded a 22.1 percent increase in school enrollment in the 100 villages that we work in, and a 36 percent decline in absenteeism," Bobby Maynard, coordinator of the initiative for the NGO, Together Ensuring Children's Security (TECS), told IRIN. The organisation, based in the capital, Lilongwe, has been working in the tobacco-growing region for the past two years.

CIVICUS is inviting bids to host its next three World Assemblies. These are major international meetings of civil society leaders and activists aimed at creating a space where a diversity of civil society voices can be heard exchanging experiences, challenges, successes and dreams and, most importantly, concrete ideas for a more equitable and just world. The CIVICUS World Assembly was previously organised as a biennial event in a different venue on each occasion. As a result of its success over the years, CIVICUS now wishes to organise the conference as an annual event in a fixed venue for the next three years. The tentative dates for the 6th World Assembly are 25-29 March 2006. The 7th and 8th are scheduled for the end of March 2007 and 2008.