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It will not be much longer before we know how the international community thinks the world should change, and how much we will support each other to do this.

Rwanda was the proud host of the second international MenCare+ partnermeeting in May 2014.

From 7 to 11 April, the 47th session of the Commission on Population and Development (CPD) is held in New York. This is a yearly conference that monitors, reviews and assesses the implementation of the agreements made at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, Egypt. These agreements are set out in the Programme of Action (PoA), which is a rights-based development framework.

Preventing a fist-fight in a township was my first introduction to South Africa. With a group of community mobilisers promoting the MenCare+ fathers’ groups, we went into the Township of Kayelitsha near Cape Town to talk to men. We turned a corner and stood in the middle of a fist-fight of what seemed to be high-school ex-lovers. He was on the verge of hitting her.

I really need to write down my thoughts and reflections, cause I’m afraid I will lose it if I don’t start to download and share it soon. To free some space on my hard drive and to inform you on what’s going on inside of me.

Karachi- 26 feb 2014: In Pakistan’s Sindh Province, the Peoples Assembly is preparing to pass a new bill, raising the age limit for marriage from 16 to 18 years old, Ms. Qaimkhani, Provincial Minister of Social Welfare and Women Development announced.

A delegation from Burundi are in Nairobi to learn from their Kenian colleagues about comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) and how it can best be taught in secondary schools. In July a group of young people, UN officials and government and civil society representatives from Burundi are in Nairobi to visit the Centre for the Study of Adolescence (CSA). This Rutgers partner organisation is implementing the comprehensive sexuality education programme the World Starts with Me (WSWM) in schools in Kenya.

The meeting has Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) as subject and is organised together with Share-Net International, Share-Net Netherlands, Institute of Social Studies (ISS /EUR), IS Academie (UvA), Rutgers, and Dance4life

Family Planning is a Human Right is the subject of the UNFPA State of World Population 2012 Report which was launched on 14 November in The Hague. Ms Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen, deputy executive director of UNFPA, handed over the first copy of the report to Mr Rob Swartbol, director-general International Development Cooperation of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The title of the report is: Family Planning, Human Rights and Development: by choice, not by chance.

Today the European Parliament adopted a non-binding resolution on strengthening the fight against racism, xenophobia and hate crime. The text calls on the European Commission to add homophobia and transphobia to the list of EU-sanctioned hate speech and violence.

On July 17 a flight MH17 from Malaysia Airlines departing from Amsterdam for Kuala Lumpur crashed in Ukraine. Rutgers is shocked and saddened by the disaster. Amongst the victims are a group of Dutch and international HIV experts, activists and colleagues from the field of sexual and reproductive health on their way to AIDS2014, the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne.

Our Annual Report, Rutgers Magazine 2013, is now online. It is full of inspiring personal stories how people – young and old – in the Netherlands and in wider Europe, Africa and Asia, have been able to change their lives using the comprehensive programmes of Rutgers.

In 2013 Rutgers closed its office in Vietnam and handed its activities to the Sexual Rights Alliance of Vietnam. During thirteen years in the country we were able to support tens of thousands young people to improve their sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Providing girls and women universal access to affordable female condoms will not only prevent them from contracting STI’s and unintended pregnancies, but also improve their position by giving them control over their own body.

Rutgers worked in Vietnam for almost two decades until 2013. As Vietnam developed to a middle income country, the country was no longer eligible to be supported to improve sexual and reproductive health and rights.

The Worlds Starts With Me (WSWM) combines sexuality education with learning IT skills. This comprehensive programme helps young people to address sensitive issues around love, sexuality and relations. The issues vary from the development of their bodies to pregnancy, contraceptives, HIV and sexual abuse.

This booklet contains moving personal stories from people imprisoned for committing abortion in Rwanda. Stories from university students and from parents, as well as other relevant data on unsafe abortion in Rwanda that supports the call for legalising abortion and providing safe abortion services.

Last week in Nairobi, Kenya, a young lady wanted to get inside a matatu – a minibus commonly used for public transport in East Africa. Before she knew what was happening to her, she was stripped naked by a group of men. Tossed around, hands tearing her clothes and grabbing and touching skin and intimate body parts. Her miniskirt and top were shredded until nothing was left but her underwear. It was all filmed and shared across Kenya and the world.

While UNAIDS recognizes the importance of comprehensive sexuality education in the 2011-2015 Strategy Getting to Zero, the 2014 World AIDS Report hardly mentions education. Our experiences show how comprehensive sexuality education may be the missing link to achieve the end of the epidemic and make it sustainable for generations to come.

Since 2012, the Teacher’s Union Malawi, together with Rutgers is training tutors and students of teacher training colleges to facilitate The World Starts With Me. We asked tutors, students and alumni of the training how comprehensive sexuality education changed their lives personally and professionally. What do you do differently now? How do your students react? Their stories demonstrate how important access to comprehensive sexuality education is for gender equality, empowerment and sexual and reproductive health and rights for all.