Africa: Portraits of Poverty

In Tanzania, Women See a Path Out of Poverty

August 10, 2006 • In Africa, women remain among the poorest of the poor despite producing three-quarters of the continent's food. But in Tanzania, some women are trying to gain a foothold toward self-sufficiency.

In Africa, Overcoming the Risks of Childbirth

August 9, 2006 • One out of every six children in Africa dies before the age of five. For African women, the chance of dying in childbirth is three times higher than in industrialized nations. Training caregivers and educating expectant mothers are among the solutions being tried to reverse those trends.

The Missed Education of African Girls

August 8, 2006 • Girls remain woefully outnumbered in African schools. They make up nearly 60 percent of the children who should be in school but in fact don't attend. Part of the problem is economic, but much of the reason remains rooted in societies that undervalue girls and, in some cases, abuse them. These problems are prevalent in Malawi, but there's some progress as well.

African Women and the Struggle Against Poverty

August 8, 2006 • The open secret about poverty in Africa is that it has a woman's face, and its newest grim companion is not war, but HIV/AIDS.

Land Ownership Elusive for South Africa's Poor

August 7, 2006 • Advocates say ending the cycle of poverty in rural Africa depends on putting farmland in the hands of blacks. In South Africa, about 96 percent of commercial arable land is still in the hands of white farmers. But land reform efforts have been slow to get off the ground.

AIDS Transforms Life, Family Structure in Lesotho

August 6, 2006 • An estimated 180,000 children in Lesotho have lost parents to AIDS. The disease leaves orphans in southern Africa's tiny mountain kingdom struggling to survive and overwhelms the local health-care system.