Health workers in Afghanistan have resumed a vaccination campaign against polio in northern Kunduz province, after 15 months of being denied access by the Taliban. Sune Engel Rasmussen reports on efforts to set up clinics to vaccinate about 170,000 children left without inoculation, in a climate of suspicion and fear.
In Harare, grandmothers are taking turns to sit on park benches and listen to people experiencing depression and other mental health problems. Ranga Mberi finds out more about a scheme that has helped around 27,000 people in Zimbabwe amid an acute shortage of psychiatrists, while our video reveals how the therapy sessions not only challenge stigma but provide company for the elderly women.
Elsewhere on the site
India takes first flawed step towards ending HIV and Aids prejudice
Three years after Chibok, Boko Haram deploys children as suicide bombers
Fury over arrest of academic who called Uganda’s president a pair of buttocks
‘Worrying trend’, as aid money stays in wealthiest countries
Developing nations’ demands for better life must be met, says World Bank head
Recorded childhood cancers rise by 13% worldwide, study finds
Eritreans in the Netherlands complain of pressure to support youth congress
‘I’m a walking corpse’ – India to help acid attack victims
UN blocks Madagascar farmer who says mining firm ousted him from land
British public helps to raise £50m in 22 days for east Africa hunger crisis
In depth
Drought took their animals and land – now hunger is taking their children
How factions in South Sudan’s war took shape on British campuses
Feed the starving? Guns are the true cause of hunger and famine
Multimedia
Colombia landslide: grief turns to anger as Mocoa mourns – in pictures
No respite for Rohingya as Aung San Suu Kyi rejects abuse enquiry – in pictures
West African children rescued from slavery – in pictures
Grief etched in stone: Sierra Leone finally lays Ebola to rest – in pictures
How east Africa’s first state pension is changing lives – in pictures
Therapy on a bench: the grandmas beating mental illness in Harare – video
What you said
On our piece about aid staying in the wealthiest countries, strathcona3425 said:
It seems like the donor countries giving the financial aid do not have the ‘distribution’ systems to spread the aid money responsibly, or effectively, so they give billions to private companies whose CEOs and senior staff take obscene salaries/bonuses then distribute the remaining funds to their favourite causes.
Top tweet
#BeautifulThing #BestofHumanity #WinWin - Therapy on a bench: the grandmas beating mental illness in Harare https://t.co/hxceCvzcs7
— MissNoma (@MissDumezweni) April 15, 2017
And finally
Poverty matters will return in two weeks with another roundup of the latest news and comment. In the meantime, keep up to date on the Global development website. On Twitter, follow @gdndevelopment and the team – @tracymcveigh, @LizFordGuardian and @karenmcveigh1 – and join Global development on Facebook.
