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Nigeria: Global Malaria Control – It’s Time to Cast Down the Net
Maybe as her own demonstration of love during the Valentine season, the First Lady of Nigeria - Dame Patience Jonathan on Sunday February 13, 2011 turned a portion of Aso Rock into a repository for insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) that were subsequently distributed to some categories of Nigerian women. Her love gift is one out of the numerous efforts by various individuals, groups, communities, societies, agencies, governments, stakeholders and non stakeholders alike, in the fight agains...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Zimbabwe: Fewer Extramarital Partners and Dollars Push Precipitous Decline in H.I.V. Rate
Defying expectations in a region devastated by AIDS , rates of H.I.V. infection in Zimbabwe have fallen precipitously in the last decade. In 1997, an estimated 29 percent of adults were infected. A decade later, 16 percent were. The basic explanation is simple, according to ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Rwanda: Bloodless male circumcision to boost HIV prevention
The Rwandan government plans to expand its national voluntary male circumcision programme using a new device, the PrePex system, which officials say saves both time and money. The PrePex system works through a special elastic mechanism that fits closely around an inner ring, trapping the foreskin, which dries up and is removed after a week. A study conducted by the Rwandan Ministries of Defence and Health in 2010 found the device to be safe and effective. "Yo...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Movirtu Awarded Contract with Airtel Madagascar
Movirtu, the leading provider of Mobile Identity Management (MIM) solutions to wireless telecommunication service providers, announced today a contract with Airtel Madagascar to implement the Movirtu Cloud Phone services nationwide in Madagascar. The main channel for purchase will be the Village Phone Operators (VPOs) with whom the service has been piloted. Airtel has a stated goal to attract new subscribers from rural areas in Madagascar. 70% of rural consumers do not have acces...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Facebook, Twitter Could Learn Social Responsibility from South Africa’s Social Network
MXit, a popular mobile messaging client that reaches an astounding 40% of South Africans , has an aggressive corporate social responsibility program that US-based social networks could learn from. In addition to live educational, drug, and suicide-prevention counselors, MXit recently added a civic responsibility app, Sm...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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A Mobile Banking Powerhouse Born From Bus Fare Theft
M-PESA , one of the world’s most rapidly expanding mobile banking systems, is transforming the banking sector in Africa. And it started, in part, when a thief stole bus fare from a woman who was participating in the M-PESA pilot. Until then, M-PESA was a microfinance initiative, but the victim’s husband used the mobile pay service to transfer fund...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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’Best Chance’ to End Polio – Bill Gates Promotes Vaccines and Food Programs to Attack Poverty
Washington, DC - The likelihood that few African countries will meet any of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, aimed at reducing severe poverty by 2015, has prompted a spate of studies, books and debates that examine development assistance. Many argue that aid, in general, has done more harm than good. Since leaving an operational role at Microsoft in 2008, Bill Gates has devoted full time to the premise that international assistance, sp...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Africa’s Innovation Generation: Dynamos and Mobile Wiz Kids
Leapfrogging PCs, Africa’s burgeoning generation of mobile tech-savvy entrepreneurs is bursting with ideas and practical inventions, from African apps for smart phones to software solutions that address uniquely local challenges. In this installment of Mobile Message, Kenya-based Erik Hersman, a co-founder of Ushahidi , a free and open source platform for crowdsourcing information and visualizing data, writes about ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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