Obstetric fistula (a severe medical condition caused by obstructed vaginal delivery during childbirth) has a devastating effect on the lives of thousands of women and girls each year.

While recognition is growing within the international public health community about the importance of tailoring sexual health services to the specific needs of young people, youth in Ghana struggle to access the health education information and specific reproductive health services they desperately need.

Dominant narratives about the development agenda often fail to consider the needs and desires of indigenous communities, who face disproportionate threats to their rights and cultural traditions as a result of land grabs, climate change, and pressures to adopt “modern” farming practices and ways of life.

Traditional patriarchal and cultural norms in South Africa, coupled with the enduring legacy of the systemic, state-sanctioned violence of the Apartheid era, has fueled a society with one of the world’s highest rates of sexual and gender-based violence against adolescent girls and young women.

Due to stubbornly high rates of cancer, the 85-mile stretch of the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans has become known as “Cancer Alley.” This corridor is home to more than 200 petrochemical plants and refineries.

After decades of war and occupation, Afghanistan continues to face tremendous challenges. While the current government claims to support gender equality and women’s rights, daily conditions for women and girls have improved little.

On the one hand, significant gains have been made in creating supportive family and community environments where young people can explore and express their gender identity and sexuality. On the other hand, the experiences of trans and nonbinary youth have been weaponized by conservatives who are fanning the flames of the culture wars, as laws banning gender-affirming care and appropriate health services for trans and nonbinary youth have been proposed and passed in numerous red states.

2019 marked the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the dissolution of East Germany and other former Soviet-Bloc countries. These events, which contributed to the eventual collapse of the U.S.S.R., are viewed as having ushered in a new era in Central-Eastern Europe and Russia. Yet the emergence of autocratic leaders and governments in Europe and elsewhere around the world over the last decade has prompted many analysts to raise concerns about the increasing fragility of democracy … and has mobilized citizens on behalf of its protection.

It has become abundantly clear that the people being harmed the most by the climate crisis – communities of color, migrant populations, people living in poverty– are being hit from multiple sides.

As is the case globally, the problem of gender-based violence in India and Bangladesh is exacerbated by deeply-rooted patriarchal social structures. Women and girls are discriminated against right from birth, and gender disparities are present in education, work environments, and everyday life.

Human trafficking remains a significant problem globally, and women and girls pay the highest price. India is no exception; according to estimates, human trafficking affects between 20 and 65 million people in the country.

Between early 2020 and the summer of 2022, Silence Speaks partnered with individuals and groups around the world to support online community-building and the sharing of pandemic experiences.

Keeping historic sites and traditional forms of art, music, and dance alive means that new and future generations can learn about and take pride in what makes communities unique and reflect on how culture naturally evolves and changes over time.

Violence continues to exact a devastating toll on the lives of many Nepalese women and girls. After years of concerted advocacy by women’s and civil society groups in Nepal, the national government enacted legislation in 2009 that is designed to protect the rights of Nepali women impacted by domestic violence. Saathi Nepal, a non-governmental organization working at all levels of Nepali society to eliminate violence and injustice against women and provide support to victims/survivors, was instrumental in the passage of this law.