When a mentally ill Somali man was shot and killed by police in March 2002, Omar Jamal was there. When a 66-year-old Somali was beaten to death at a bus stop in Oct. 2001 and the FBI was hesitating to investigate it as a hate crime, Omar Jamal was there. When brawls were breaking out between African-American students and Somalis at a large high school in Sept. 2001, Omar Jamal was there. And when the FBI began investigating Somali charities and currency transfer businesses after Sept. 11, he was there as well.

The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) has just released a report on the activities of its Anti-Censorship Programme (ACP), which has been in existence since June 2002. A decision was taken to establish the Programme last year, after the FXI experienced a sharp rise in the number of censorship cases it was being called on to handle. In the report, the FXI notes that its decision to establish the Programme has been vindicated, as censorship is clearly increasing in South Africa.

In his December 2002 report to the UN Security Council, Secretary-General Kofi Annan identified Burundi as one of five conflict-ridden countries across the world where children were being used as soldiers. However, while most of the armed groups named by Annan were opposition factions, his UN report pointed a finger at the Burundian government for abusing children by sending them to the frontline.

Like many developing countries, Lesotho gives high priority to improving its education system. The government's targets by 2011 include universal primary enrolment and improvements in higher secondary enrolment, coverage of early childhood provision and national levels of basic literacy. What implications do these targets have for teacher education? Can the country afford the teachers it needs?

Does secondary education meet the needs of girls in rural Africa? What is being done to make curricula more relevant to girls and to reduce the excessive focus on examinations? Why have official statements on the shortcomings of curricula and examinations not been translated into policy changes?

Can non-formal radio and correspondence courses provide basic education to Africans bypassed by the school system? What are the key constraints, problems and success factors in the field of distance education in Africa? Could greater commitment of resources to distance education plug discriminatory gaps in African formal education systems?

Witches haunt Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo's violent capital. With pinched faces, bloodshot eyes and swollen bellies, they are horrifying to see; plaguing the city's streets by day, and retiring when nights falls to stinking graveyards and typhus alleys. And all of them are children. Olivier's plight is all too common in war-ravaged Congo. According to Save the Children, of Kinshasa's estimated 30 000 street-children, virtually all have been abandoned by their families, having been accused of witchcraft.

Red Cross officials have described the situation in eastern Caprivi as "very serious" after floods from the raging Zambezi River submerged settlements and schools. "The floods have so far claimed two lives," they said. The Emergency Management Unit dispatched a team to assess the floods. Humanitarian agents from the Namibia Red Cross Society, assisted by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies from Botswana, are also in the area assessing the situation.

This document produced by the Southern African Regional Poverty Network (SARPN)
argues that a more prominent role should be given to child poverty issues in the southern African PRSP process. The review points to a significant role for child poverty research and advocacy in the implementation, monitoring and review of the Southern African PRSP processes. Child advocacy organisations and child rights actors may play a valuable role in a variety of ways, the document suggests.

The Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) of governments in Southern Africa generally do not consider the long-term socio-economic implications of child poverty, according to the author of a review of PRSPs from the region. The review, "Children First In The Poverty Battle", commissioned by Save the Children Sweden and compiled by Shirley Robinson, critiques the PRSPs of five countries in relation to their focus on child poverty and child rights.

NDI seeks a short-term Political Party Advisor in Mozambique. The political party development program provides support to parliamentary parties, focusing particular attention on equipping political parties with skills and techniques that will enable them to participate effectively in the upcoming local elections scheduled for October 2003.

The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, which unites leading NGOs working on this issue, is seeking candidates for the position of Great Lakes Regional Coordinator, with significant project management and capacity building experience.

Founded in 1978, Human Rights Watch monitors and promotes human rights in some 70 countries worldwide. It is known for its in-depth investigations, its incisive and timely reporting, its innovative and high-profile advocacy campaigns, and its success in changing the human rights policies of abusive governments and forces as well as influential governments and international institutions.

The Country Director is required to have a master's degree in International Relations, Public Policy or related field with a minimum of five years of international management experience; or a bachelor's degree with a minimum of seven years of international management experience. Experience in Nigeria preferred – the Director should have excellent knowledge of Nigeria and a realistic view of the economic, social and political conditions in country, not only their effect on the development of reformed election systems, civil society and local governance issues, but also on practical daily living in country.

OneWorld is looking for online volunteer editors for a range of new Country and Topic Guides for the In Depth section of This is a fascinating opportunity to contribute to one of the internet's best known sites covering human rights and sustainable development. The OneWorld Volunteer Editors Project aims to provide opportunities to people living and working in the developing world to bring their knowledge and enthusiasm to an online global audience.

Sundowns president Patrice Motsepe has contributed R50 000 to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) towards the Disaster Fund set up to help families of the victims of last week's bus tragedy on May Day. More than 60 workers attending a May Day rally drowned when their bus took a wrong turn in QwaQwa and plunged into a dam. Only 10 people survived the tragedy that has shocked the entire nation.

The R1,5-million raised after the Workers' Day bus disaster is not to pay for the victims' mass funeral, a Congress of South African Trade Unions spokesman said. Other sponsors were being sought for this, said Fusi Nchabeng from Cosatu in the Free State. The trust fund would be distributed after the funeral among the victims' families.

Nelson Mandela has dedicated the brand-new Nelson Mandela Foundation House in Johannesburg to the late ANC father figure Walter Sisulu. The Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF) previously operated from Mandela's Houghton home, but it expanded to such an extent that new premises were needed. Therefore the R15-million Nelson Mandela Foundation House was built a short distance away.

An estimated $4,9bn spent on reform of public sectors in Africa has not been justified by results. Foreign donor support for public sector reform in Africa, while substantial, was not perceived to have had much long-term effect, a pan-African conference of ministers of public service and administration has heard.

Emeritus Professor Sampie Terreblanche, Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch recently published the book "A history of Inequality in South Africa 1652-2002", which has generated a great deal of discussion. Prof Terreblanche's talk follows on from last month's meeting on poverty and will address the question of whether there has been an increase in poverty and a worsening of inequality in South Africa. In his talk he will focus on the last chapter in his book.