In 2016, #blessed took on a whole new meaning in South Africa, as supposedly “blessed” women took to social media, aka virtual reality, to unashamedly flaunt their gifts of luxury holidays, expensive cars, kitted from head to toe in branded, fancy threads.

Award-winning HIV/AIDS campaigner in Zimbabwe, Martha Tholanah, is calling for the inclusion of minority groups in national reproductive health programs in order to fight stigma and discrimination.

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© picture-alliance/dpa/M. Gambarini

In Latin and Central America, there are many cases of young girls who have been raped continuously, since not everyone has respects the rights of minors.

Sita’s face beams with happiness as she dances (picture). After enduring severe hardship, a group of Nepali girls are now on a tour performing traditional dance across Germany, Austria and Switzerland. DW takes a look at how the Maiti organization offers them aid and shelter.

Counsellors like Laxmipriya (left) have enabled several adolescent girls living in slums of Bhubaneswar to understand the merits of safe sex. (Copyright: Rakhi Ghosh\WFS)

Pooja Behara (name changed), 16, would probably have never realised that she was suffering from a sexually transmitted disease (STD) had Sabita Buta, a counsellor with a local non government organisation, not come into her cramped slum in Bhubaneswar, the state capital of Odisha, to talk to the adolescent children about HIV/AIDS and the importance of safe sex, sometime early last year.