NPR News -Africa

Teaching girls (and boys) about menstruation takes moxie

May 28, 20242:23 PM ET
Girls at a primary school in Sheno, Ethiopia. In partnership with UNICEF, the Sheno Primary School developed a program to educate both girls and boys about menstruation — and provide sanitary pads. A new UNICEF report says that only 39% of the world’s schools offer such instruction.

Zacharias Abubeker/AFP via Getty Images

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Zacharias Abubeker/AFP via Getty Images

“I wasn’t shy from the first time,” says Genet Birhanu of her job as a menstrual educator in Ethiopia.
“I understand menstruation cycle is an old taboo,” she says, but “I’m not afraid” to talk about it.
And she was fearlessly teaching the topic to both girls and boys, starting with fourth graders.
Only 39% of schools around the world offer this kind of education on menstruation, according to a UNICEF report released on May 28 – designated as “World Menstrual Hygiene Day” by the United Nations.

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Basketball is booming in Rwanda — and the NBA is there for the ride

May 28, 20245:00 AM ET
Enlarge this imageThe popularity of basketball in Rwanda can be seen on courts around the country.

Jacques Nkinzingabo for NPR

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Jacques Nkinzingabo for NPR

The popularity of basketball in Rwanda can be seen on courts around the country.

Jacques Nkinzingabo for NPR

KIGALI, Rwanda — Dozens of young players sprawl out across a pair of colorful basketball courts at Club Rafiki, a youth center in Kigali, Rwanda. Parents and supporters watch from rows of bleachers.
Coaches work with players of varying ages, boys and girls. From the littlest children come shrieks of joy. From older players, focused stares, determination, precise shots at the basket.
Bizimana Bassam, one of the coaches, says that players show up as early as 7 a.m. on weekends, and that during school vacations, Club Rafiki can host as many as 500 young players.
Bassam played basketball as a child, but began coaching as an adult. He says a lot has changed sin..

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What to know about South Africa’s May 29 elections

May 24, 20247:35 AM ET
A woman wearing a shirt of African Congress for Transformation party looks at other parties’ election posters in Sharpeville, South Africa, on March 21.

Olympia De Maismont/AFP via Getty Images

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Olympia De Maismont/AFP via Getty Images

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — It’s autumn in South Africa, where election season is in full swing and the streets are plastered with campaign posters of smiling politicians promising “A Job In Every Home” or to “Rescue South Africa”.
It is 30 years since the country’s first democratic elections, in which the Black majority were able to vote for the first time, ushering in anti-apartheid hero and global icon Nelson Mandela as president. It was a heady time then, at the advent of the “Rainbow Nation,” and full of optimism
Three decades later, in many ways things haveimproved. South Africa is a vibrant democracy with a free and fearless press an..

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