‘Social mothers’: the women who helped a Brazilian city halve its child death rate
Sobral had one of Brazil’s highest infant mortality rates, but a groundbreaking health scheme has drastically reduced its number of child deaths
Sudan to outlaw female genital mutilation
Campaigners welcome move to criminalise those carrying out FGM, but warn it will take time to eradicate practice entirely
True numbers of FGM victims could be far higher as countries fail to record cases
New report calls for national surveys by governments to underline scale of worldwide abuse
‘Health workers are too scared to enter’: the fight to treat HIV in a São Paulo favela
Young people with HIV in Brazil’s poorest favelas often have no support, but in Boi Malhado, one team is determined to provide vital help
Girls beginning puberty almost a year earlier than in 1970s
Onset of glandular breast tissue development has shifted by three months per decade
We will end female genital mutilation only by backing frontline activists
From the Gambia to Kenya, FGM has been fought most successfully at grassroots level. The world must pay heed
FGM doctor arrested in Egypt after girl, 12, bleeds to death
Child had been taken by her family to have the procedure, still prevalent in the country despite new laws to combat it
‘She can’t say no’: the Ugandan men demanding to be breastfed
A study is looking into the coercive practice in Uganda, amid calls for government to address the issue
Soap opera could be unlikely form of birth control in Uganda
An NGO has recut and overdubbed a Venezuelan telenovela to raise awareness of sexual health
‘We were burying 10 children a year’: how toilets are saving lives in Madagascar
One village in the country has seen the tragic consequences of poor sanitation. Now it has come together to turn things around