Home Features Page 12

Features

The South African police took a vow to protect people living in the country. Apparently that doesn't apply to sex workers like Cleopatra.

#SliceOfLife: This is what it’s like being a sex worker: ‘Police dragged me out...

Go inside one of the country's most dangerous jobs.
Killing two birds with one stone. In Kenya

What do a herd of goats, a few cattle, and a baby have in...

Here's how northwest Kenya gets nomadic families to health services.
Eddie Mhlanga is one of the authors of the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act.

#SliceOfLife: ‘I opened her up and found her womb was rotten from the infection’

Obstetrician Eddie Mhlanga often had to attend to women who had unsafe abortions during apartheid, when abortion was illegal in South Africa.
Face-off: South Africa argued for patients over profits at the first high-level meeting on tuberculosis. Will it be enough to fight the global scourge?

Showdown: SA takes on the US for cheaper drugs

When the US went to bat for Big Pharma in the fight against this killer disease, South Africa wasn’t having any of it. Here’s what happened next.
Undercover: Bhekisisa reporter Pontsho Pilane posed as a pregnant woman considering an abortion at the Amato Centre in Pretoria to learn about the pregnancy counselling it offers.

Pregnant? Need an abortion? Here’s where not to go

Are faith-based NGOs breaking the law when they refuse to give women information on where to terminate their pregnancies?
​Acid victim Hanifa Nakiryowa founded the Center for Rehabilitation of Survivors of Acid and Burns Violence.

Acid attacks: ‘I didn’t have the money to buy justice, but I had brains...

In the wake of acid attacks, victims — often women — can feel hopeless. Now, women around the world are fighting back.
When money runs dry: Soweto's only hospice closed in 2017 - and several others around the country are on the brink.

Dying of the light: How Soweto lost its only hospice

Hospice isn't just a place to die but funding cuts – and that perception – could be killing our chances of a kinder death as refuges close
Ursula Kekana is slowly overcoming her anxiety caused by her heavy menstrual cycle.

#FreeToBleed: ‘A pool of blood gushed down my thighs. My white socks were red.’

Shame doesn't start when menstruation begins. It is built in slow steps.
A woman watches from her window as police look for evidence after 20-year-old Carlos Barron was shot and killed in Chicago. The city is still very racially segregated and has high rates of violence.

This slashed rates of violence by 70% in some areas. Could it work in...

In many ways, violence is like cholera, passing from person to person and treating it in similar ways is working to reduce it.
Helping hand: Hauwa Ojeifo owns an organisation that helps to support women facing mental health issues.

Could you WhatsApp your way to better mental health?

A dearth of mental health professionals is leading some people to get creative about counselling.
The late cardiologist Bongani Mayosi dedicated his life to battling rheumatic heart disease in Africa

‘In that moment, it was clear Bongani was destined for great things’

Late UCT Medical School dean Bongani Mayosi pioneered the response to a little known but common heart disease at home and across the continent.
Are you a good fit for a high-stress job? Take a look at the biology of making it in a fast-paced world of work.

If you possess these 10 qualities, you might be a good fit for a...

Scientists studied soldiers with PTSD and even children who'd witnessed a great tragedy. Did they unlock the secrets of resilience?
A smoky Port Harcourt street. Doctors have warned of the health-related consequences of the city’s poisonous black soot.

Poisonous haze: Why the air we breathe could kill us

Climate change and air pollution could be conspiring against the continent, and fuelling new levels of death and disease.
Find out what women go through in India and the United States to access abortion and contraception.

Tales from Trumpland: Health workers will be forced to bury aborted fetal tissue

In the war on women's bodies, the casualties stretch far beyond US' 50 states.
Two decades and three South African Human Rights Commission investigations later

Does South Africa need a Human Rights Commission?

History repeats as old health emergencies emerge anew. Is the health ombud the person to lead fights the Human Rights Commission started?
Autistic children in Lesotho don't have a school of their own. Most of them

Not a school in sight: Autistic children travel 500 km to learn

A mother's love led her to South Africa to find a school for her son with autism.