DRC band looks to raise awareness for disabled
A group of polio-stricken paraplegic singers and musicians have banded together to make music and fight against social stigma and grinding poverty faced by the disabled in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The group, Staff Benda Billi, has embarked on a European tour to promote their new album, which features songs on self-reliance, the importance of vaccines and other socially responsible topics.

UN assessment finds progress, challenges in HIV/AIDS battle
The number of people being tested for HIV/AIDS infection and receiving life-saving drug treatments soared last year, according to a United Nations 2009 progress report. The proportion of mothers and children with HIV/AIDS showed some of the most significant advances. While more than 1 million people began treatment

South African Children Push for Better Schools
Thousands of children marched to City Hall this week in sensible black shoes, a stream of boys and girls from township schools across this seaside city that extended for blocks, passing in a blur of pleated skirts, blazers and rep ties. Their polite demand: Give us libraries and librarians. The marchers in Cape Town, who numbered in the thousands. The marchers echoed a children’s uprising against apartheid in 1976. “We want more information and knowledge,” said a ninth grader, Abongile Ndesi.

New impetus in malaria battle
Twenty African countries have joined efforts in a bid to end all malaria-related deaths on the continent by 2015. The announcement came as the World Health Organization issued a warning that the parasite that causes malaria is demonstrating increased resistance to artemisinin — a drug used to treat multidrug-resistant strains of malaria.

UN, groups partner to target maternal HIV
UNAIDS will partner with several nongovernmental organizations to combat mother-to-child HIV/AIDS transmission. The program will look to prevent HIV/AIDS infections in women of child-bearing age, decrease the incidence of unwanted pregnancies and provide support to mothers living with HIV/AIDS.

Kenya to close largest refugee camp
Kenya will close the nation’s largest refugee camp, created by those who fled ethnic violence after the contentious election in 2008. Some of the camp’s 2,000 residents say they have no home to return to despite the government’s offer of approximately $460 in relocation costs. Tension is rising in the camps in advance of the arrival of special squads of police, who might be forced to carry out evictions