Archive for July 2012
The eve of the London 2012 Olympics is finally here. For the next two weeks we will all be cheering on Team GB, hoping our athletes will realise the Olympic dreams they have trained so hard for. But I hope they will not be the only winners of these Olympic Games. I hope the 180 [...]
If a week is a long time in politics, how long is 10 years in development? Back in 2010, Government and development partners agreed that Ghana should be aiming to no longer need aid by 2020. In the last few weeks we've been thinking about how realistic that is, and what we need to do [...]
I recently travelled to Helmand province in the south of Afghanistan to see for myself the activities DFID and others carry out there. I was most interested in seeing improvements in governance and basic service delivery. It was an exciting trip which involved a plane and a thrilling ride in a Chinook. The helicopter was filled [...]
This month sees the 19th Biennial International AIDS Conference being hosted in Washington DC - it's great to see a return to the USA of this major event, following the lifting of visa restrictions for HIV positive people. Thankfully the stigma against HIV/AIDS infected people is declining and it is great to see steps being taken to [...]
Every morning for the past three months, I've been saying a little mantra to myself when I wake up: "I am a marathoner". I've been training for my first marathon and ten days ago I finally did it! It was pretty hard, but an amazing experience. And looking back on it, having my mantra was crucial. It [...]
Hands up who thought slavery and the slave trade was abolished years ago? Perhaps even centuries ago? In fact, despite being illegal in almost every country on earth, slavery exists nearly everywhere, and in staggering numbers. The International Labour Organisation estimates that nearly 21 million people are forced to live in slavery today. That's around the [...]
India has been polio free since January 2011. Before the launch of polio immunisation campaigns in 1995, an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 polio cases were being reported annually, so that's quite an achievement. The near-eradication of polio in India was made possible by the strong ownership of the Government of India, and by the efforts of [...]
Babies don't get to choose where, when or how they come into the world. Giving mothers the chance to make those huge decisions could make all the difference in the world. I learned just how serious birth can be when I became a mother in 2003. Suddenly my ideal birth experience became quite the opposite while [...]
James is a brave man. Amongst the hubbub of hundreds of mothers and babies gossiping and laughing as they wait to see the family planning nurses, James' is the only male face. Fortunately he seems unfazed by the whole thing, intrigued rather than embarrassed. Like James, I’ve come to Twifu Hemang, in Ghana's Central Region, [...]
I travelled to Tanzania to see how Comic Relief and the British government are working together to change the lives of young girls. They co-fund projects through The Common Ground Initiative, which supports Diaspora organisations set up and run by people with strong African heritage. Children's Dignity Forum, in Musoma, Tanzania, is supported through this initiative by [...]
