Africa: Faces in Words - Salem-News.Com

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - Unseen, unheard; no one should be the bearer of these two words. Unfortunately, Africa is often in the forefront of this association.

Our common humanity should change this; we should never look away because it is too distant. Our commitment to one another, to human rights, and the ability to learn should always keep us connected no matter the severity and complexity of problems.

Carrying the campaign against genital mutilation in Somaliland - People usually torture those whom they fear or despise. But one of the most common forms of torture in the modern world, incomparably more widespread than water boarding or electric shocks, is inflicted by mothers on daughters they love. http://www.medeshivalley.com/2011/05/carrying-campaign-against-genital.html

Ivory Coast: 68 Bodies Found in Field - United Nations investigators in Ivory Coast have determined that there were at least 68 bodies in a mass grave recently discovered on a soccer field in Abidjan. Guillaume Ngefa, the deputy director of the human rights division of the United Nations mission in Ivory Coast, said Monday that the victims were probably killed by militias loyal to the strongman Laurent Gbagbo on April 12, the day after Mr. Gbagbo was arrested. The investigators interviewed witnesses and residents of the neighborhood where the killings occurred. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/world/africa/10briefs-ART-Ivorycoast.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Malawi: Queer Malawi lifts the gay curtain - Africa is generally not a safe place to have a same-sex relationship - you can be shunned by society, beaten up, thrown in jail, or worse. In Malawi you can get 14 years in prison with hard labor. http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=92681

Africa: Women Demand Access to Water and Energy - "Women in LDCs bear the brunt of economic and social hardships," said Wubitu Hailu, managing director of an Ethiopian NGO, Kulich Youth Reproductive Health and Development Organization. The failure to provide access to basic services like clean water and electricity is a major factor preventing women from realizing their full potential. http://allafrica.com/stories/201105110944.html

Congo-Brazzaville: School Lunches make for Happy Pupils - It's noon at Jean-Félix Tchicaya Primary in Pointe Noire, the economic capital of Congo. Students are settling into their chairs, but not to resume their lessons. They are waiting eagerly for the hot meal that's served in the classroom each day, their plates already laid out on their desks. http://allafrica.com/stories/201105110945.html

UN officials say Brutal Ugandan-led rebel group responsible for displacement of 300,000 - A U.N. agency says a brutal Ugandan-led rebel group has forced 300,000 people to flee in Congo’s volatile northeast. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the Lord’s Resistance Army had intensified its attacks. The country’s electoral commission has recently asked Orientale region to participate in voter registration ahead of elections scheduled for November. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/un_officials_say_brutal_ugandan_led_rebel_group_responsible_for_displacement_of_300000/2011/05/12/AFpOb8xG_story.html?wprss=

Sudan: Free Female Activist - Sudanese authorities should immediately release Hawa Abdallah or formally charge her with a credible, recognized offense, Human Rights Watch said today. Abdallah, who was arrested on May 6, 2011, is a community activist from the Abu Shouk displaced persons camp in North Darfur and a staff member of the United Nations/African Union peacekeeping mission (UNAMID). Sudanese authorities should guarantee her full due process rights, and her physical well-being, Human Rights Watch said. http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/05/11/sudan-free-female-activist

“They Bombed Everything that Moved:” Sudan’s Attacks on Civilians, 1999-2011 - At various moments during the past two decades, partially in response to the Rwandan genocide and other large-scale atrocity crimes, the international community has expressed its collective commitment to the idea of a “responsibility to protect” civilians who cannot be protected by their government, or indeed are being attacked by their government. The Enough Project is the embodiment of this responsibility at the level of collectively engaged citizens of the United States and other countries. And nominally, every member of the United Nations has also committed itself to the “responsibility to protect” or at least they declared as much at the September 2005 U.N. World Summit. That gathering produced an outcome document declaring the international community must be: http://enoughproject.org/blogs/they-bombed-everything-moved?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+enoughblog+%28Enough+Said%29

Nigeria: Beating Grim Odds of Childbirth - An expectant mother in northern Nigeria faces higher risks in childbirth than in most any other place in the world, according to international public health surveys. But the staff at Murtala Mohammed Specialist Hospital, the largest government hospital in this region, are doing everything they can to make these grim odds a thing of the past– and they are having some success. http://allafrica.com/stories/201105110982.html

Alysha Atma spends many hours working on projects that support and benefit the beleaguered people of African nations who spend way too much time off the western media's radar. This writer explains that she is a culmination of all her experiences, most importantly knowledge she says, and all that she still needs to learn; lessons of love, laughter and the extraordinary giving of both young and old. She says she has the enormous fortune of learning from the best; every person around her, and the amazing strength and fortitude of those she has never met but will always strive to listen to. "I continue to work and write because I believe in the power of community and the power of one, both contradictory to each other and yet can move together in a very powerful way. I feel a responsibility to use my place, freedoms and connections here in the US to stand up and yell for those who need my voice and actions. I have seen such strength in my fellow humans that I cannot even begin to comprehend, they have traveled distances, have gone without food, water, shelter and safety for days and weeks at a time. I have a responsibility as a fellow human to put our common humanity before anything else. Everyone deserves to look towards tomorrow, to dream of a safe future and to have a peaceful present." You can write to Alysha Atma at: alyshann78@comcast.net