10/8/2010 --

While the government campaigns for mothers to take up breast-feeding, a child nutrition expert says the father plays an equally crucial role.

In Swat Valley, Pakistan, a 48-year-old aid worker named Fazilat is doing what the majority of other aid workers in her area can’t do: providing health care to women. In societies where religion or tradition dictate that women can only speak to or be assisted by other women, female aid workers are a critical element of any response team.

June 12, 2010. For the past eight years, the World celebrates the World Day against Child Labor. This year, CARE in Indonesia calls for attention to help returning the child laborer to school and is dedicating the day for the child laborers particularly those who reside and work in Tangerang District and City of Banten Province, Indonesia. In this day, the child laborers would be able to enjoy freedom, happiness and relief themselves from sorrow and any form of exploitation and discrimination.

Two images of Shirley flash intermittently back and forth in my head: one, of Shirley smiling, laughing with tsunami survivors in Indonesia; the other, of a bloodied Shirley, slumped against the door of a bullet-riddled car in Afghanistan. I never saw the second image, but it’s in my head anyway. For the past two years, it hasn’t left.

It was mental torture for Fatmawati having her close neighbors throwing her worried and suspicious glances every time she passed by their houses. It was started merely as whispers then spread into rumor that the women had a cursed disease. Her body weight was strangely and drastically dropping to only 35 kg, giving evidence to the suspicion. Feeling very low, Fatmawati decided to socially exclude herself and avoided any kind of contact with the neighbors.

This past February 7, between 5:30 and 6 p.m., Tania was returning from the well when she felt a cold blade against her neck. She turned around and smiled, thinking it was a joke, when she recognized the man who was threatening her as her friend’s boyfriend. She greeted him and was surprised to see him keep his threatening posture and his machete pressed against her. “You move, you scream, and I’ll cut you into pieces,” he said to her.