Editor's note: Mohamed Ali is the founder of the Iftiin Foundation, an organization that incubates social entrepreneurs and young leaders to encourage innovation in Somalia. He is also a New Voices Fellow at the Aspen Institute. The views expressed are his own. As new footage emerges of gunmen chatting on cell phones and praying during …
Lagos — It was dusk and I was on my way home from Abeokuta, a vibrant city in southwest Nigeria. My driver had switched off the car’s air-conditioning so I could open the windows and feel the breeze. He was weaving between potholes in the road when suddenly, the scene ahead changed. A large truck …
The Mediterranean Sea has become a death valley for thousands of migrants desperate to enter Europe. On Friday a boat containing 200 migrants capsized off the coast of Italy, killing 34. The Friday before, more than 300 migrants drowned near the Italian Island of Lampedusa. This unprecedented humanitarian crisis can be directly linked to the …
I walked slowly through a maze of queues into the clinician’s small office stacked high with patients’ files. It was 7:30 a.m. on a cold winter morning and the facility was crowded with people. Through supporting various facilities of the Ministry of Health across Malawi, I’ve learned that on Tuesday and Thursdays the Migowi clinic …
Lucy, a 12-year-old girl at one of the many informal schools in Nairobi’s Mathare slum, stays home when she has her monthly period because she is worried she won’t be able to contain the bleeding and will bring shame on herself. She is just one of thousands of girls from Nairobi’s sprawling slums — and …