Some 7,000 children left the battlefields when combatants in Sierra Leone's savage civil war started turning in their guns last year -- the youngest just 6 years old.

Maputo city education director Samuel Madumela reiterated on Friday that overcrowding in schools hinders the organizational work of his sector, and contributes to poor academic performance in the country.

No terrorist attack, no war, has ever threatened the lives of more than 40 million people worldwide. AIDS does.
African countries, and particularly those in Southern Africa, currently bear the heaviest burden of the AIDS epidemic - its effects permeate societies and include children, women, men, rich and poor alike. This book is one of the few on AIDS written from within Africa. Helen Jackson is the author of two previous versions of the highly acclaimed and popular resource book "AIDS Action Now", which has now been extensively expanded and improved into the current book AIDS Africa.

The Regional Coordinator will be posted to the field office in West Africa to support management of the HIV/AIDS Workplace Prevention and Education Program within Benin, Ghana, and Togo.

World Neighbors seeks an East Africa Area Representative. Responsibilities include program development, strategic planning, budgeting, evaluation, reporting, administration and fund-raising.

SciDev.Net is a recently-established website, committed to building awareness of the potential contribution of science and technology to meeting the needs of developing countries. We are seeking a creative, self-motivated and experienced individual to be the regional coordinator for the sub-Saharan African network. The coordinator will be based in eastern Africa.

The Eastern Cape Community Chest has welcomed some new donors this month: Pharmacare Manufacturing staff and a number of new manufacturing staff members at Daimler Chrysler.

Western donors this week shrugged off lingering concerns over the conduct of controversial general elections, held last December, to pledge a record US $1.3 billion in aid to Zambia this year.

American school children's pocket money has seen the beginning of a new future for a crèche in Morgan's Bay. Siyazama Crèche received a cheque for R22 700 from two United States elementary schools and celebrated with a party, said Siyazama administrative committee member Sue Warren-Smith.

Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang is not trying to "block" a R720-million grant from the United Nations Global Fund for Aids, intended for the prevention and treatment of the disease in KwaZulu-Natal, her ministry said this week.

Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang's blocking of a R720-million grant to fight Aids in KwaZulu-Natal is causing major ructions between the government, on one hand, and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), the province and international donor agencies, on the other.

The number of people over 60 years old in Ghana, as in other African countries, is steadily rising. By 2050, their number will have increased by 500 percent. For many of them the prospect of an old age lived out in poverty is becoming increasingly real, as family support is declining and no adequate pension systems exist. So far, little is being done to stave off the crisis.

An increase in adolescent suicides that is suspected to be related to difficulties in paying school fees; pupils afflicted by skin rashes because their school has no sanitation facilities; schools situated far from the communities they serve, imposing long walks on pupils; zero attendance on some wintry days because of the lack of shelter at schools: These are some of the wide-ranging problems in many South African schools that still seriously impede the right to basic education.

The number of AIDS orphans in Uganda has increased five-fold from 177,000 in 1990 to 884,000 at the end of 2001, a joint report by three development agencies indicates.

ACORD is looking for a new Executive Director to be responsible for the strategic leadership and overall organisational management of all areas of ACORD's work.

The Child Survival Program Manager is responsible for overseeing the implementation, monitoring and supervision of IRC's child survival program in Kabare Health Zone, South Kivu province, eastern DRC. All child survival activities are designed and implemented in coordination with local health authorities.

This popular and highly practical course is aimed at non-financial programme managers who work with and support local partner NGOs. Course content includes: conducting a financial health check; effective budgeting; keeping accounts; making use of financial reports; and safeguarding programme assets. The course takes place between 14-16 August in Lusaka.

The latest issue of the weekly newspaper "La Tribune" has been banned, apparently because it contained criticism of recent government efforts to interfere with the election of the president of the national bar association.

A major international report released at the XIV International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain finds that an already grim global orphan crisis is set to get much worse as more and more adults with children die from AIDS, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The report, Children on the Brink, calls for action at all levels to assist children, families and communities who are affected by the unprecedented emergency.

The Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA) is looking for a Systems Administrator.