by Aralena Malone-Leroy
-France-

• PIP plant back door. La Seyne sur Mer, Var, France. Photograph courtesy of Flickr user marcovdz and used under a Creative Commons license •

This announcement, which concerns more than 450,000 women worldwide – approximately 30,000 in France and 40,000 in the United Kingdom alone, with thousands more in Spain and Italy, as well as Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador, and Venezuela – came nearly 12 years after the first alarm sounded on the substandard quality of the PIP breast implants.

by Michelle Tolson
-Cambodia-

On January 12th, 2012 I traveled 45 km outside of Phnom Penh with a group of human rights workers and journalists to a relocation site for the evictees of the Borei Keila slum, which had been demolished the prior week. Deeply tanned faces lined with anguish peered out of makeshift shelters. Grief was the dominant theme as they shared stories of the eviction proceedings. Up on a hill, the beautiful temples of Udong contrasted with the temporary homes below fashioned from tarps and blankets, propped up by sticks.

by Wojoud Mejalli
-Yemen-

I met with the Yemeni Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karman in Oslo during the Nobel Peace Ceremony on December 10, 2011. After the ceremony, a few minutes were stolen away from other concerns to have a cup of coffee and learn the latest, both personally and politically, from my old Yemeni friend. She shared with me her perspective on recent political changes in our country, the rising youth movement in Yemen, and the relations between the East and West, especially after the Arab Spring.

by Jessica Mosby
-USA-

2011 was another great year for movies. For me, it started in January at the annual Sundance Film Festival with a full slate of must-see films, and kept that momentum for the next eleven months. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to write about all my favorite films or film festivals as they were happening; so as we move forward into 2012, I want to take a look back at five of my favorite documentaries that screened at the San Francisco Bay Area’s top three Fall film festivals: Mill Valley Film Festival, San Francisco’s DocFest, and San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival.

by Rachel Muthoni
-Kenya-

When they hear cries of their fellow countrymen hit by acute food shortage, Kenyan peasant farmers in more productive areas have no money to donate. While they may feel the need and the wish to feed other hungry Kenyans, these farmers cannot reach out with financial help.

More than 3.6 million Kenyans are in urgent need of food assistance. Within Rift Valley, which has a population of about 10 million people, millions languish in hunger, depending only on relief food. Yet other Kenyans in the Valley are struggling to find ways to dispose of produce following a bumper harvest.

by Katharine Daniels, Executive Editor

2011 was a remarkable year. People no longer conceded to sit idly while unjust economic policies and governments denied them prosperous futures. Around the world citizens began to occupy the establishment. At these global protests and uprisings women were common symbols - holding placards, marching in the streets, and speaking truth to power.

by Joyce J. Wangui
-Kenya-

Biopsy, mammogram, and chemotherapy are words all too familiar with cancer patients. Death is another word often at the tip of many tongues as patients describe the disease. Kenyans are coming to terms with cancer, hitherto perceived as a disease of the West and the rich.

Grim statistics show that over 60 Kenyans die of cancer and its related complications every day. In fact, cancer is Kenya’s third leading cause of death, killing more people than HIV and Malaria combined.

by Jenny Shapiro
-USA-

During my three years at International Planned Parenthood Federation, Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF/WHR), I have been fortunate—and humbled—to work with incredible colleagues whose dedication to securing sexual and reproductive health and rights for all is unsurpassed.

As Project Design Coordinator, I know my work is vitally important, particularly at a time when several large global health donors have withdrawn from Latin America and the Caribbean. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has “graduated” the majority of countries in our region, despite the inequalities that persist, as has the UK Department for International Development, USAID’s counterpart in the United Kingdom. The Netherlands, one of the region’s significant donors, is currently phasing out its final project in Colombia, and the Danish government will be pulling out of Nicaragua, a country it has supported for many years.

by Dr. Carmen Barroso
-USA-

Diseases such as diabetes and cancer cause tens of millions of deaths each year, many of which are premature. Once the burden of rich countries, these non-communicable diseases are increasingly affecting individuals in low- and middle-income countries where they impose heavy burdens on already fragile health systems. Among the most deadly—and preventable—of these diseases is cervical cancer.

by Victoria Aitken
-UK-

The social networking world is an odd one – you see your friends less, but know more about them - and real catching up has been replaced with the dubious substitute of half a dozen status updates on your newsfeed each day. But the upside is the strange tide of news about semi-strangers that drifts across your screen. Alexander Fiske-Harrison is one of those.

Xander, as he is known, a writer and actor, kept popping up on my screen with pictures of him doing one of the strangest and most controversial pastimes left in the western world – bullfighting.

by Jessica Mosby
-USA-

Charlie Barker is a guy who has it all – almost. He has a beautiful successful wife, a large New York City apartment, a loyal best friend, and a once-promising acting career that he is hoping to restart. The current lull in his professional life seems temporary; he is just waiting to be cast in the next big thing.

But the next big thing turns out to be a young woman freshly arrived in the Big Apple. Clea (played by Heather Gordon) sets her sights on Charlie (Stephen Barker Turner), and soon the two are involved in an affair. Charlie’s wife Stella (Daphne Zuniga) inevitably discovers the affair, and Charlie then finds himself alone and broke.

by Nusrat Ara
-Indian administered Kashmir-

My heart sinks as I look at the collage, carried by almost all the local newspapers, of children standing before judges in the local court. Looking forlorn and lost, the children are handcuffed and accompanied by police officials.

The newspapers report that the children were booked on charges of stone pelting. They had been kept in the local police station for a week before coming before a magistrate who directed them to a juvenile home, recently opened due to an outcry by human rights groups and civil society.

by Neeta Lal
-India-

In an innovative bid to fight gender discrimination, Satara district in India’s western state of Maharashtra recently witnessed a minor revolution. Over 285 Indian girls named Nakhushi, ‘unwanted’ in Hindi, by their disenchanted parents were rechristened in a state-organized ceremony.

Trussed up in their Sunday best, the girls were all smiles amidst the pop of camera bulbs. "My friends will be calling me with my new name now. And that makes me very happy. My earlier name made me feel worthless," 15-year-old Nakhushi, now renamed Muskaan or ‘a smile’, says into the TV camera.

by Leanne A. Grossman
-USA-

The noxious smell of rotten eggs regularly blows over the rural village of Berezovka, Kazakhstan. The fumes come directly from the Karachaganak Oil and Gas Condensate Field only five kilometers away, which emits toxic hydrogen sulfide during oil and gas extraction and refining.

by Michelle Tolson
-Mongolia-

One night while relaxing at home after a long day of horseback riding, I heard a loud banging on a door downstairs. It was a man adamant to be let in. He was probably drunk. This type of thing had happened before. I thought nothing of it, but then I heard a woman scream. I also heard the man yell and throw things. I wanted to help, but I was too frightened. I did not know what to do.

I wanted to call the police, but I did not know the number. Besides, I was new to the country and did not speak the language. Would they even understand me? What was my address anyway? There were other people in the building who were quiet during the episode. Why did they not do anything? I heard the man leave and the woman crying below.

by Jessica Mosby
-USA-

For almost a year I have been experiencing insufferable allergies. Many doctors’ appointments and medications later, I still wake up in the morning with my skin inflamed and my eyes swollen shut. By the time I watched Farmageddon:The Unseen War on American Farms, I was ready to try just about anything.

by Kate Hughes
-UK-

Ten years ago, Afghan women were promised a bright future. After decades of civil war, and repressive Taliban rule, they entered a new era in which they were once again able to work, send their daughters to school, and even stand for parliament. But now these hard-won gains are under threat, and women fear that they will be abandoned as international military forces prepare to withdraw by the end of 2014.

by Jane Dabel
-USA-

Black Tuesday is a historical novel set in New York City on the eve of the Great Stock Market Crash of 1929. It traces the story of Leila Kahn, a smart and hardworking Russian immigrant who lives on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in a fifth floor walk up. Against her better judgment, Leila falls for banker Roderick Morgan, who is embroiled in a fraudulent financial deal with his uncle, Jack Morgan. Leila learns the truth about Roderick’s dealings and takes a heroic stance, confronting Wall Street's greed, power, and depravity in a manner that is both timely and inspirational in today's turbulent times.

by Alexandra Marie Daniels
-USA-

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan. For most of us, this is a relatively insignificant fact in our daily lives. We acknowledge our military as distant heroes, doing important work to protect our safety, over there. Yet for every one affected - the soldiers, their families and close friends - this war has been a brutal, life-altering reality. Repeated deployments, traumatic brain injuries, multiple amputees, and PTSD are devastating families and communities.

by Paromita Pain
-USA-

“We cried the first time I told my family I had Sjögren's syndrome,” says Susan Ross. “Dealing with the pain and fatigue seemed so overwhelming at times, but I was glad to finally know what it was.”

Ross is among the lucky ones. It only took 10 years for doctors to diagnose her with Sjögren’s syndrome. An autoimmune disorder, Sjögren’s is finally making headlines thanks to tennis superstar Venus Williams, who pulled out of the U.S. Open, citing Sjögren's as a cause.

by Susan Enuogbope Majekodunmi
-USA-

My maternal grandfather’s mantra was, “Educate a woman, and you feed and educate her family.” He educated his daughters when Nigerian fathers rarely did. My grandfather was also very interested in my education and often questioned me about it. It is a shame his passion for educating women is not emulated by some African governments.

In Nigeria, as in much of Africa, women are the greatest underutilized resource. As a continent of developing countries, African governments are not effectively advancing women’s skills even though women constitute roughly 50 percent of the population.

by Paromita Pain
-India-

Gropes, stealthy fingers that pinch and leave bruises, catcalls, severe beatings, systematic starvation, emotional torture and worse – harassment against women takes many forms, and like issues of hunger and poverty, it is global in scope.

The recent report, "Violence against Women Prevalence Data: Surveys by Country March 2011,” compiled by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (UN Women), says that most women will face harassment from either close partners or strangers at least once in their lifetime.

by Rachel Muthoni
-Kenya-

In a bid to retain culture and due to the greed of men who profit by marrying off their daughters, some communities in Kenya still practice Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

Section 14 of The Children’s Act of 2001 in Kenya protects children against harmful cultural practices under which FGM falls. Though this law has been in place for a decade, the practice is still rampant, especially among pastoral communities where even a girl may demand FGM since she has been brought up believing it to be part of her initiation to maturity.

by Jessica Mosby
-USA-

Before 9/11 Shannen Rossmiller was a judge, wife, and mother of three living in Montana. That fateful September day became the impetus for her to become a counter-intelligence expert focused on infiltrating jihadists’ networks. Rossmiller’s memoir The Unexpected Patriot, written with Sue Carswell and published by Palgrave Macmillan, details this journey.

by Katharine Daniels and Alexandra Daniels
The WIP

Looking back we remember Felicia, our Brooklyn sister and loyal friend. The woman who always greeted you with a big smile and a sincere “Hi there sweet cheeks.” Every year, we put on a little Maxwell and dance around the living room, pretending for just a few minutes that she is still here dancing with us.