The change is in your pocket

Investing in women and children results in a multiplying effect for the well-being of families, community and nations.

In 2000, the world set out to achieve eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Goal four aims to reduce by two-thirds the risk that a child will not live to see her or his fifth birthday. Goal five aims to improve maternal health. These goals are one of the most important and measurable promises that the international community has made to women and children. Unfortunately, with less than two years until the deadline, Africa will not achieve goals four and five. (read more…)

Today The Big Issue, along with the rest of the world, mourns the death of our greatest hero and father, Tata Madiba.

In many ways Madiba’s life and legacy is at the very heart of our organisation. His hope and vision for an equal and just society for all has inspired The Big Issue from the start and we celebrate Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela and his legacy – not just today, but with every issue we publish and every vendor we help.

In this period of mourning, we all feel a sense of great loss, but it’s a beautiful and poignant moment for us to take stock of our lives and values and to be reminded of what we should always strive towards.

A comet unseen in any living creature’s lifetime will be visible in the sky in the early hours of tomorrow morning.

I was five years old when Halley’s Comet appeared as a little smudge in the sky in February 1986. I clearly remember standing outside in the early hours of the morning with my mom, dad and sisters, unable to hold the big and heavy binoculars steady and never being quite sure what I was looking for, or at. I think I can remember the faint glow of Halley’s tail, but that might have been the moon. (read more…)

Google’s Eric Schmidt has predicted the end of censorship around the world in just one decade. His statement came after a visit to North Korea, a country disconnected from the rest of the world with no real access to the internet and heavy media censorship.

Google Inc Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has a bold prediction: Censorship around the world could end in a decade, and better use of encryption will help people overcome government surveillance. (read more…)

This claim was made recently by a senior food and nutrition adviser to Nepad, the African Union development programme. But the available data suggests the claim is exaggerated.

A senior food and nutrition adviser to Nepad, the development arm of the African Union, has claimed that twelve people die of hunger every minute in Africa. If true it would mean that 94,000 people – enough to fill the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg – are dying of hunger every five-and-a-half days. (read more…)

When the EU awarded a grant to Alice Nkom to defend gay people in Cameroon the organisation was attacked for encouraging illegal activity. In Cameroon, homosexuality is illegal and viewed by the predominantly Catholic society as an abomination. In an article for Open Democracy, Nkom describes the harsh reality of carrying out work that the government – and most people in Cameroon – deplore. (read more…)

Every year, hard-up parents complain about the demands grade 12 learners make on them for their end-of-year matric dances.

“Some parents”, says social worker Nomxolisi Tastsi, “go to extremes and borrow money to afford the expenses.”

Amanda Majola is in grade 12 and attends a school in Gugulethu, Cape Town. She said her matric dance was the best day of her life. She was proud that her preparations cost her around R3 500. And still, she says, the money was not enough.
Her dress costs about R1 300 and her shoes R800. Then there was her hair, which cost R600, and on top of this, accessories. (read more…)

You may well find canned lion hunting morally repugnant. But responses to US hunter Melissa Bachman, photographed after shooting a lion in a Limpopo reserve, have been characterized by extraordinary violence and sexism. This vitriol is not even being aimed in the right direction. (read more…)

He was once homeless and struggling to survive on the streets of London, UK, but the work of graffiti artist Stik now sells for thousands of dollars and hangs in the homes of famous people such as Sir Elton John, Bono, legendary Queen guitarist Brian May and rapper Tinie Tempah. Stik talked to The Big Issue Japan about loneliness, fearing for his life while living on Britain’s streets, and how painting walls helped rebuild his life. (read more…)

Local barbers, brothers and owners of Alfreda’s Hairdressers, Ismail Mohamed Cassiem, 83, and Cassiem Mohammed Valley, 86, have been snipping hair for most of their lives. At their premises in Salt River, Cassiem sits outside on the stoop while his brother, Ismail, sits inside looking lost in thought, perhaps dreaming of all the years the barbershop has seen. (read more…)