Gone are the days when learners sat in desks facing frontward in homage to
the all-mighty teacher who stood with chalk in hand and had control over the
classroom. New ideas in school architecture in South Africa reflect changes
in educational philosophy.

In early 1998, the former Somaliland President's wife Edna Adan Ismail used her retirement benefits to begin constructing what would be the country’s first and only teaching Maternity Hospital. Construction of the hospital is scheduled to be completed during the spring of 2002. The currently existing maternal and gynecological facilities in Somaliland are over-crowded, ill-equipped and understaffed. The establishment of the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital will provide much needed high quality reproductive healthcare, as well as standardized, professional training for the first nurses and midwives to be trained in the country in 16 years.

Children are the victims of a shocking 41% of all rapes and attempted rapes reported in South Africa. But only 9% of child rape cases result in a conviction. According to the South African Police Service (SAPS), over 15% of rapes are committed against children under the age of 11. A further 26% of all reported rapes are committed against children between the ages of 12 and 17.

The latest South Africa Survey shows that enrolment numbers of African students and the awards they receive are on the rise, but this educational transformation is not benefiting ‘historically black' universities, and African graduates tend to be confined to specific disciplines.

The latest jobs from OneWorld Jobs - the place on the internet for jobs in sustainable development, environment and human rights.

Dozens of people died and hundreds were displaced in clashes that broke out a week ago between local farming communities and nomadic Fulani herders in Mambilla plateau, northeastern Nigeria, police and local officials said.

Descriptions of approximately 100,000 grants from over 1,000 of the largest independent, corporate, and community foundations provide an excellent indication of their future funding priorities.

The British Red Cross has launched a new fund that will raise money for victims of disasters year round and allow the relief agency to respond to disasters worldwide with increased speed and efficiency.

The Certificate in Managing NGO Resource Centres will provide participants with the opportunity to gain or improve skills in managing information, as well as to analyse the dynamics of indigenous knowledge, appropriate media, information sharing and networking. During the program participants will develop an action plan for their resource centre's contribution to the community-based development, information and education strategies of their organization.

The Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs will sponsor up to eight non-residential Fellows for the program year June 2002 - June 2003. Among the topics and areas eligible are: Human Rights; Environment; Conflict; Justice and the World Economy; and History and the Politics of Reconciliation.

GW Elliott School of International Affairs will award three fellowships to mid-career professionals from AFRICA, Eastern Europe, Russia, the former Soviet Republics, South Asia and Latin America to pursue the Master of International Policy and Practice program during the 2002-2003 academic year.

Community human rights initiatives in over 20 countries, nine of them in sub-Saharan Africa, are to receive small grants of up to US $5,000 from the United Nations, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNDP announced on Monday. UNDP said the project, which began in 1998, supports activities that can have a significant local impact.

The GASHAKA GUMTI TCHABAL MBABO PROJECT, funded by GEF-UNDP aims, through a partnership of local communities, government agencies and NGOs to address the root causes of biodiversity loss in the ecosystems of Gashaka Gumti (Nigeria) and Tchabal Mbabo (Cameroon).

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson announced on Thursday the publication of the Declaration and Programme of Action of the World Conference against Racism, which clears the way for the implementation of measures adopted in Durban, South Africa, last autumn.

There is currently "no agreement on program infrastructure, a standardized [HIV treatment] regimen, drug procurement and distribution and no agreed-upon monitoring levels" in Kenya, making it difficult for a "common strategy and coordinated approach" against HIV/AIDS to be mounted, Miriam Taegtmeyer of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Kenneth Chebet, director of the AIDS Control Program in Kenya, write in the "Personal View" column of the January issue of the Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Awareness, acceptance and use of condoms are increasing in Uganda thanks to an open government policy, widespread public awareness campaigns and aggressive social marketing. But it is still difficult for young people to learn about condoms. How can HIV prevention programmes overcome these barriers?

Mention the word terrorism and, no matter what the context, people will sit up and take notice. In the Japanese city Yokohama Carol Bellamy, the executive head of Unicef, declared that employing children as sex workers (a term that seems to have displaced prostitution for the world's oldest profession) is "nothing less than a form of terrorism."

Save the Children has launched a new web site for young people. Packed with
information and resources, Rightonline aims to inspire young people to learn
about and actively promote children's rights, locally and globally.