Women in rural South Africa are often ruled by two sets of law—traditional and constitutional. Their rights are protected under one, denied under the other. Many search for the in-between.
Women, Children, Crisis
In crisis areas, it is often women and children who suffer most. Countries with underdeveloped economies and countries at war face countless difficulties, but stories of the particular misery faced by women and children are often overlooked - resulting in far-reaching human, social and economic consequences.
Women, Children, Crisis pulls from a number of reporting projects around the globe that illuminate the adversity and outright crimes endured by women and children.
The United Nations estimates that over 200,000 women have been raped in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Armed groups use rape to spread disease and wreck or uproot communities, with shame turning victims into outcasts. These women suffer first by their rapists and secondly by husbands and family members who find it socially unacceptable to associate with them.
Aid agencies and international organizations recognize this mass-rape as a weapon of war. Another effect of war-torn countries where the duration of conflict eclipses generations is the use of child soldiers. Boys as young as seven are targeted by military leaders, given weapons and coerced into killing. There are an estimated 250,000 child soldiers in the world today, and some 30,000 former child soldiers in Liberia alone. In Sudan, boys that escaped the fate of becoming child fighters are returning to their villages to survey the damage wrought by war. Many ex-soldiers have dedicated themselves to rehabilitating their countries and with a unique photography program, working to regain respect of their communities as peacemakers.
In Nepal, an estimated 15,000 - 20,000 girls, some as young as 6 years old, work in indentured servitude. Poor families belonging to the Tharu community, an indigenous ethnic group in southern Nepal's Terai, send their daughters to cities as domestic servants in exchange for money. These girls are known as 'Kamlaris.' Besides labor exploitation abuse is rampant and girls are often sexually abused, raped, starved and beaten. "Olga's Girls," is the story of one woman's mission to end the practice and rescue these girls.
Ulundi is a village like hundreds of others in South Africa but some of the women are different. They are members of the Rural Women's Movement and they are willing to stand up for their rights.
Elon University and the Pulitzer Center present "Endangered Children," an evening focused on the unique challenges facing children in crisis.
Almost three years after Haiti’s devastating earthquake, women in Haiti’s crowded tent cities continue to face yet another threat: sexual violence.
The 2012 Photocrati Fund honors the work of Pulitzer Center grantees Peter DiCampo and Sean Gallagher.
In South Africa, women are not equal. The fight to end apartheid has been waged and won, but the fight for gender equality continues.
FotoVisura Pavilion, an international contemporary photography event in San Juan, Puerto Rico, features Dominic Bracco II's photography in the exhibit "Beyond War: Mexico's Drug War."
Pulitzer Center grantee Stephen Franklin discusses reporting from Turkey, a country facing crises that range from internal political divisions to a massive influx of Syrian refugees on its borders.
Turkish women snap to attention to defend their rights, declaring "Our bodies, our decision." But what else do they need to do?
Photographer Micah Albert discusses the waste management inefficiencies in Kenya's Dandora Municipal Dump Site—a situation that is creating a human rights crisis.