The Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement has threatened to pull out of a broad-based transitional government that is due to take power next month, claiming there are plans to deny it key government posts.

The Ruth First Fellowship awards R25,000 for a research project in her tradition of critical, independent, socially-engaged writing. A four-page proposal is required by 26th September. Further information available from Anton Harber, Wits School of Journalism. fax (011) 717 4039.

Botswana's antiretroviral Aids therapy programme last week launched a tool designed to teach Batswana about HIV/Aids and get more communities talking about treating the disease.

The HDN Key Correspondent (KC) Team is providing on-site reports from the 13th International Conference on AIDS and STDs in Africa (ICASA), taking place in Nairobi, Kenya between 21-26 September 2003. Join AF-AIDS to receive all on-site reports and updates as the ICASA conference takes place. To join AF-AIDS, send an email to: [email protected] To view the official ICASA web site, go to: http://www.icasanairobi2003.org/ AF-AIDS is the regional forum on HIV/AIDS in Africa, coordinated by Health & Development Networks (www.hdnet.org).

In the week of the WTO 5th Ministerial meeting in Cancun, a GDNet Special Feature highlights research on trade and development from the global south. GDNet is a global network of research and policy institutes working together to address the problems of national and regional development and the feature offers some perspectives from researchers in the global south on key elements of the social and economic impacts of the WTO on developing countries. It features resources from a range of Southern research organisations, which relate to the issues under discussion at Cancun as well as regional research on the broad topic of trade and globalization.

Cameroon is not known for the famine and drought that devastate much of Africa each year. Blessed with abundant rainfall, it is part of the equatorial forest where surplus food is always produced. The problem, as Jacques Boyer, coordinator of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Cameroon, recently found out has to do with the lack of balanced diet and poverty. ''Some 54.1 percent of Cameroon's children have stunted growth because of malnutrition,'' he said.

The Red Cross Children's Hospital Trauma Unit Appeal total is nudging towards the R12 million mark, but time is slowly running out and another R4m must be raised by the end of December.

Ethiopia has been awarded US$5 million to help prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to their babies, officials announced on Monday. Health Minister Dr Kebede Tadesse warned that HIV/AIDS could soon become the biggest killer in children under five years old in Ethiopia.

Poverty, unemployment and inequality appear to be increasing in South Africa. At least 45% of the South African population live in absolute poverty, and many households still have unsatisfactory access to clean water, energy, health care and education. This was part of the rationale for a workshop organised as part of an ongoing effort to consolidate data and advance a co-ordinated approach for the further collection of child well-being indicators.

Neo-liberalism with its focus on freemarket economics is eroding traditional labour structures and livelihoods. Impoverished women and children, especially in the Global South, are particularly vulnerable to the excesses of such global capitalist forces. Furthermore, various forms of discrimination, including sexism, classism, and racism, combine in exploitative practices in factories, domestic jobs, in the sex industry and in the overall structure of the labour force. However, it is important to analyze issues affecting sex workers in ways that go beyond the traditional discourse on prostitution, trafficking and migration, which tend simply to stigmatize women as victims.

This conference, focusing on children with severe disabilities in Africa, aims to highlight the progress made and the challenges faced in the areas of early childhood intervention, inclusion, human rights and the use of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) with children who have severe disabilities. It will provide an unprecedented opportunity for individuals with disabilities, parents of children with disabilities, advocacy groups, professionals, policy makers and academics to be involved as planners, presenters and delegates.

We are keen to recruit a number of Technical Advisors for mine clearance operations in Africa. Applicants must have: A comprehensive understanding and experience of mine clearance and survey procedures; Practical experience of training and preferably some formal training qualifications; A track record of hands-on practical work, self-sufficiency and an ability to adapt to difficult or adverse circumstances.

LWR is now recruiting for a Program Manager for HIV/AIDS Projects - based in South Africa - to support churches and related ecumenical or faith-based organisations in Southern Africa to develop programs to address the AIDS crisis in impoverished communities - based on need rather than on race, ethnicity, religion, or creed. This is a temporary position with a two-year contract with no possibility of renewal.

Some welfare organisations in the Northern Cape have received an injection of funds and vehicles from the provincial government. The Truly Blessed Day Care Centre, the only facility for children with multiple disabilities in the Frances Baard Region and Gopalanang Service Centre for the elderly in Warrenton each received a 23-seater minibus.

Umsobomvu Youth Fund (UYF), established in January 2001, with a mandate to create a platform for job creation, skills development and transfer for the South African youth, has committed approximately R470-million to 61 projects over the past 24 months.

Parents and some volunteers taking care of about 20 disabled children have continued to run the Oponganda Centre for Children with Disabilities at Grysblok in Katutura, after its formal sponsors withdrew in 2001.

Wired.org is a four-day international virtual conference geared to nonprofit and non-governmental organisations, socially responsible companies and educational institutions. You’re invited to join together with practitioners, thought leaders and representatives from leading organisations, in an online learning community to share ideas about using the web: For four days, September 16-19, leading professionals will come together for online presentations from experts in the field – all focused on how nonprofit and non-governmental organisations can work the web to achieve their missions and objectives.

Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has called on the Sudanese government to allow the daily newspaper Alwan to resume publishing immediately. The paper was suspended on 2 September 2003 after state security officials accused it of "inciting sedition." "This is the third time this year the newspaper has been censored," said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard in a letter to Justice Minister Ali Mohammed Osman Yassin calling for the ban to be lifted.

More than 1,200 children who were sold by poor families on the coast of Ghana to fishermen on Lake Volta will be returned to their parents next week in an operation organised by the International Organisation of Migration (IOM). The programme is voluntary and involves measures to boost the incomes of parents who sold children into virtual slave labour for as little as US $180 to dissuade them from continuing the practise.

The Nigel Caring Community Child Care Committee, shoes for orphans project leader, Juksy Kganyago, was delighted to be one of only two projects in South Africa approved for funding in 2003 by Alliance for Youth Achievement, an American based donor organisation making a difference in the lives of orphans or children living on the streets around the world. The Dollars arrived and Mr Rob Cattell, the owner of Cattell’s Shoe Centre in Springs, supplied the shoes. It was therefore with great excitement when the day came to hand out shoes to the AIDS orphans from Duduza and surrounding areas.