The Kenyan government plans to make primary education free and compulsory from the year 2003, according to the Kenyan education minister.

"Qualified Teachers for Quality Education" is the theme for World Teachers' Day, to be observed globally on October 5. The slogan encompasses the dual
themes of teachers as indispensable to providing quality education, and
teachers as fundamental in helping governments to meet their commitments
agreed at recent world education conferences.

Women exposed during childhood to physical, sexual or emotional abuse or to household dysfunction have an increased likelihood of engaging in risky sexual behavior later in life, according to "Adverse Childhood Experiences and Sexual Risk Behaviors in Women: A Retrospective Cohort Study". The study, by Susan D. Hillis of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention et al., appears in the September/October 2001 issue of The Alan Guttmacher Institute's bimonthly, peer-reviewed journal Family Planning Perspectives.

Violence against children is a bigger problem than governments acknowledge, and in fact is often carried out by officials of the state. The Human Rights Watch report "Easy Targets: Violence Against Children Worldwide" documents beatings, torture, forced labour, sexual assault and murder by police or other law enforcement officials, employers, and teachers. The report was released in Geneva on September 28, a day which the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child devoted to violence against children. The report calls on governments to take stronger measures to protect children from abuse and urges the United Nations to undertake an international study of violence against children.

The Regional AIDS Training Network (RATN) is a Network of training institutions in the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) region. The mission of RATN as an advocate for training needs, is to establish and maintain linkages with training institutions in the region delivering courses in the field of STDs and HIV/AIDS. RATN is committed to keeping on the cutting edge of training needs in HIV/AIDS, in this new millennium.

A new wave of student unrest hit the country yesterday.

On 1 August 2001, Mama Cash launched a new program: Economic Empowerment for women. This means that the program is now ready to give out grants to small, innovative or starting women's groups. Overall, Mama Cash aims to broaden the economic basis of the women's movement itself, to assist groups working for economic justice worldwide, and to contribute to gathering, consolidating and mobilising the knowledge of women to engender economic changes.

The war has left an estimated 2 million persons dead in southern and central Sudan since 1983. At the beginning of 2001, approximately 4 million Sudanese were internally displaced, and 420,000 Sudanese were refugees in neighboring countries. Despite the war, some 360,000 refugees from other countries resided in Sudan.

The editor of Swaziland's state-owned newspaper was shot dead on Monday morning, apparently in an attempted carjacking, agencies reported.

South Africa’s ground-breaking Constitution outlaws discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. But despite this, particularly in the poorer communities, many gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people across the country face discrimination and prejudice. Aside from a couple of glossy publications catering for the more advantaged, this community has very little access to media through which to express their views, tell their stories, or receive positive messages about themselves. The programme, In the Pink, on Bush Radio, is the first and only radio programme dedicated to gays and lesbians, but it is a lonely voice. Idasa’s Democracy Radio Project, the Triangle Project, and Idasa’s Chapter 2 Network, are getting together to host a day-long workshop for radio producers in Cape Town and surrounding areas, focusing on the gay and lesbian community.

The South African Medical Research Council (MRC) and the South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI) invite applications for one-year travelling research fellowships in health research, with preference given to proposals which address the MRC's research priorities (see below) and particularly to those addressing HIV/AIDS research. While applications for shorter periods of three to twelve months may be considered, applications for the full twelve-month period are encouraged. The purpose of the fellowship is to build research capacity and strengthen research collaboration within Africa and between African
scientists. The fellowship may be held in South Africa for non-South African applicants, or in any other African country for South African applicants. The award will commence no earlier than May 2002, and will cover the fellow's return travel from home to host country, the fellow's salary (calculated on South African scales, in US$) in the host country, and reasonable research costs in the host country. Five such fellowships may be awarded.

Save the Children, an international relief and development agency,
seeks a Senior Research Specialist to oversee global research activi-
ties for The Saving Newborn Lives Initiative (SNL).

The goal of this publication is to make international human rights treaties more known and particularly those that consider teaching and education as effective means to shape international human rights standards into reality.

The Institute of Race Relations is set to publish a wide-ranging report exposing racism in British government policy, institutions and popular culture. The report, entitled 'The three faces of British racism', shows how racism has worsened under a government which claims to be leading the fight against it. The report focuses on asylum policy and reform of the criminal justice system as the main areas in which the promise held out by the Macpherson Report has been squandered.

Agencies involved in the ongoing battle against HIV/AIDS must target young men or risk devastating effects in the long-term, warns a new joint report from the Panos Institute and Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

The entire educational infrastructure for secondary education in Zimbabwe is in dismal shape - teachers are scarce, buildings are deteriorating and crucial educational materials are becoming a luxury. An ever-growing number of families are forced to make the choice as to which of their children should attend school. And boys are the favourites. Camfed, an organisation that works for disadvantaged girls in sub-Saharan Africa, is trying to change that.

A report which exposes the rape of children during ethnic clashes puts Kenya on the spot at a United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child meeting in Geneva.

Many more women and newborns would survive childbirth if they received the care they need when they need it. This issue is addressed by the Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness (BP/CR) tool that has been developed by the Maternal and Neonatal Health Program (a partnership of JHPIEGO, JHU-CCP, PATH, CEDPA) to facilitate the advance preparation and rapid action that can reduce delays in deciding to seek care, reaching care and receiving care.

Family Health International has published a series of online research briefs and other materials on the female condom. The briefs summarize the latest scientific data and are designed to assist program managers and policy makers to determine the appropriate role for the female condom in reproductive health programs.