News

In April, Savana Signatures (SAVSIGN), a Tamale-based NGO, launched the Ghanaian Comprehensive Sexuality Education program ´The World Starts With Me´ (WSWM). With this launch Ghana is the 11th country in Africa and Asia that provides young people a comprehensive and evidence-based programme on sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Group education for young and expecting fathers is one of the cornerstones of the MenCare+ program in Rwanda. Since 2014, more than 1,000 men and their partners have participated in 15 weekly sessions to promote men’s greater involvement in caregiving and in maternal, newborn, and child health.

A letter to the editor signed by Rutgers, together with 85 other organisations, was published in the Economist on 11 April. The letter is a response to three articles on the Sustainable Development Goals which were published in the international business weekly on 28 March.

The first conference of the European Professional Association for Transgender Health (EPATH), entitled Transgender Health Care in Europe, was held in Ghent, Belgium, from 12-14 March 2015. The conference hosted a broad spectrum of subjects and participants. Over 350 participants from 31 countries discussed developments and dilemmas regarding transgender people’s human rights, fertility issues, surgery, endocrinology, law, mental health, social sciences, voice and communication.

These weeks gender equality activists and advocates from all over the globe are coming together in New York city where from 9 to 20 March the 59th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW59) is being held. As Rutgers has ECOSOC status, we can make an oral statement in the plenary meeting.

An initiative of Rutgers Pakistan engaged 2 universities in Islamabad to capacitate future media professionals on the importance of documentaries and short films. The project titled ‘SRHR-FOCUS’ capacitated 60 media students on making short documentaries and films on child marriage, domestic violence and HIV & AIDS.

The Cypriot Ministry of Education intends to develop policy on the issue of the sexual resilience of young people with a learning disability. Various parties in Cyprus are currently engaged in debate on the matter. This is one of the results of Keep Me Safe, a European exchange project in which Rutgers has been participating for the past two years. Its objective was to empower young Europeans with a learning disability to protect themselves against sexual abuse and violence. In addition, however, it was designed to assist their environment, including parents, institutions and schools, in offering these vulnerable young people support in this area.

For youth between the ages of 10 and 24 years living in Africa, Asia and South America, a better future lies ahead: a better future in relation to sexual and reproductive health and rights. This is the aim of the new strategic partnership between Minister Ploumen and Rutgers, Hivos, Choice, Dance4life and three regional networks in the South.

The Dutch Postcode Lottery announced on 26 January 2015 that we could again count on an annual grant of € 900,000 for 2015. The Dutch Postcode Lottery is able to award a record figure of € 312 million to 100 charities thanks to its 2.5 million participants. We are very grateful.

Teachers from 10 schools in the Northern Region of Ghana have been trained on how to teach comprehensive reproductive health.The aim is to help educate teenagers at the junior high schools (JHS) about their bodies and the impact of early sexual activities on their lives. The training is under the NGO’s teacher facilitation training of ‘My World and My Life’ (MWML), which is being piloted in some schools to equip the beneficiary teachers with skills to teach sex education. The MWML curriculum is developed by Rutgers.