United Nations Radio

I first met Sarah Omega Kidangasi (photo) and Dr. Jennifer Othigo at the Women Deliver Conference in London, in October last year, where governments promised to ensure that women get adequate care during pregnancy and delivery. Sarah and Dr. Othigo spoke there about obstetric fistula, a devastating injury from childbirth that affects about two million women around the world, almost exclusively in developing countries. Sarah suffered from fistula for twelve long years as a result of the stillbirth of a baby she had after she was raped at age 19. Dr. Othigo is an obstetrician-gynecologist and hospital administrator in the Coast province of Kenya. I caught up with both of them this week as the UN Population Fund invited them to speak in New York and Washington as part of its global campaign to end fistula. I started our discussion by asking Sarah about the time she found out that she had fistula.

UN gardening project provides training for women in Afghanistan.

A million fruit and forest trees are being planted in Afghanistan thanks to a gardening and literacy programme that's turning poor women and former fighters into gardeners. The Green Afghanistan Initiative or GAIN is run by six UN agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization, the UN Environment Programme and the UN peacekeeping mission in the country. Dianne Penn spoke to GAIN coordinator Helen Bugaari of the World Food Programme, who says the programme is making a difference in a dry and dangerous land.

Producer: Bissera Kostova

(duration: 14'00")