ex Ponto

A collaboration between Dutch and Sierra Leonean midwives is facing closure due to a lack of funding. The twinning programme between the Sierra Leone Midwives Association (SLMA) and the Royal Dutch Organisation of Midwives (KNOV) is aimed at implementing innovative projects to reduce the maternal mortality rate in Sierra Leone.

As Syria teeters on the verge of full-blown civil war, and the UN is either unwilling or unable to intervene, pressure is mounting on Turkey to create a buffer zone on its border – not least from the Syrian refugees living in camps on the Turkish border.

A stranger from an unfamiliar country is coming to live near you. Neither you nor he can deny this destiny. Over the last few years, the Dutch government has been trying to reduce the rate of asylum requests to the Netherlands and has been sending asylum seekers back to their home countries against their will. But exiled Bhutanese nationals are being welcomed to the Netherlands, although what they want is help to go back home. Those who are currently living in the Netherlands are asking themselves whether it's an extended exile or a new home. Nanda Gautam gives an insight into a forcibly exiled minority from a country we in the West are told is the happiest nation in the world.

'Hé jij, Zwarte Piet!' is wat sommige kinderen met een donkere huidskleur wel eens naar het hoofd geslingerd krijgen. Voor het gemiddelde kind is Sinterklaas een leuk feest, voor anderen een ware hel. Drie Afro-Nederlanders vertellen wat zij elk jaar als kind ervaarden. 'Terugschelden verlichtte de pijn.'

Welke rol spelen vrouwen in de Arabische revolutie? De Marokkaanse Vrouwen Vereniging Nederland (MVVN) boog zich vrijdag, 14 oktober hierover. Zijn het slachtoffers of leiders? Voor dagvoorzitter Karima Belhaj is het duidelijk. "Het zijn leeuwinnen."