This is the first in a series of features on the South Pacific produced in collaboration with Wansolwara, an independent student newspaper of the University of the South Pacific.

SUVA, Fiji (IDN) – Two women’s rights activists have raised alarm bells about the need to protect Solomon Island children, especially girls, from being exploited by foreigners, who are involved in the South Pacific island nation’s logging industry.

The activists, Sister Doreen Awaiasi and Lynffer Maltungtung, say there are countless incidents in which under-age girls and young women are given to foreigners by their parents, or are lured by riches, but not much is being done to stop these or to educate the locals against engaging in such illegal acts.

By Jaya Ramachandran

NEW YORK (IDN) – Refugee education is in crisis, the UN refugee agency has warned, stressing that more than some six million school-age children under mandate of the United Nations refugee agency have no school to go, and refugees are five times more likely to be out of school than the world average.

“This represents a crisis for millions of refugee children,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said in a news release issued by his Office (UNHCR).

“Refugee education is sorely neglected, when it is one of the few opportunities we have to transform and build the next generation so they can change the fortunes of the tens of millions of forcibly displaced people globally,” he added.

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) – India has surpassed the United States to become the world’s second largest Internet market, with 333 million users, trailing China’s 721 million. But a new United Nations report says that six nations – including China and India – together account for 55% of the total global population still offline, because of the sheer size of their populations.

While Internet access is approaching saturation in richer nations, connectivity is still not advancing fast enough to help bridge development gaps in areas like education and health care for those in poorer parts of the world, according to the 2016 edition of The State of Broadband report.

By Justus Wanzala

STOCKHOLM (IDN) – Rapid population growth in sub-Saharan Africa is leading to increased urbanisation resulting in high volumes of both solid and water waste, and making compliance with sanitation regulations and standards a major issue.

To face up to the challenge, participants in a session on sustainable urban sanitation during the World Water Week conference held in Stockholm, Sweden, from August 28 – September 2 called for a multi-pronged approach involving all stakeholders to achieve the goal of sustainable urban sanitation.

By Sechaba Mokhethi

QACHA’S NEK, Lesotho (IDN) – Mampiti Mohapi, a local chief of very remote Ha Nkoko village, travels ten kilometres every month to receive her antiretroviral therapy (ART) medication to counter human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

She was diagnosed with HIV in 2006 at the age of 62 but was not started on ART treatment immediately because at the time such treatment was not administered to people unless they had a CD4 count of 500 or less, which was not her case.

A CD4 count reports the number of cells in a cubic millimetre of blood, and a normal CD4 count ranges from 500 to 1,500 cells per cubic millimetre.