As a humanitarian and political crisis in neighbouring Venezuela deepens, a growing number of Venezuelan women are working in bars and brothels across Colombia. “I didn’t do this in Venezuela. I never ever imagined I’d be doing this in Colombia,” said Maria, who declined to give her real name, to Reuters. She charges $17 for 15-minutes of sex, and the money earned is spent on buying medicine for her mother who has cancer. For the past year, she has travelled back and forth from Bogota to Venezuela’s capital Caracas every 90 days, before her tourist visa expires, carrying medicine, food, and soap. “I’m ashamed I have to do this. It’s a secret,” said Maria, 26, who has told her family she is a travelling salesperson. Venezuelan migrants are often lured by false promises of well-paid work in Colombia’s restaurants and bars or as domestic workers. But then they find they…

A joint report by the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights and the charity Young Lives has revealed that the number of child brides in India’s urban areas – including in some urban districts of Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka – are on the rise. The study, which relies on Census 2011 data, found that even though the number has declined by 0.7% in rural areas since 2001, there has been a rise of 0.3% in India’s cities and towns, challenging the commonly held belief that the practice of child marriage is largely prevalent in the country’s rural areas. According to a Thompson Reuters Foundation report, the study is the first to break down census data on child marriage and claims that nearly one in four girls in rural areas and one in five in urban areas were married before the age of 18. Renu Singh, the country director of Young Lives, told Reuters that…

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Tuesday, hosted the leader of a Nigerian female movement group on social media called “females in Nigeria” (FIN) in Chicago. Mrs Lola Omotola founded FIN in the year 2005, with the motive of gathering 1000 women from across the country to teach them to stand for each in love and trust, while helping to pursue each other’s goal through humanitarian support irrespective of tribe, beliefs, religion, profession and status. FIN is also a platform where these women come together to discuss issues related to marriage, sex, health issues and work problem, without criticisms or judgment. Fortunately, the group recently hit one million members exceeding its original target and has attracted Mr Mark’s attention. As a result of the positive result, Mr. Mark has decided to meet with many other Facebook group admins including Mrs Lola, who have been building positive Facebook communities in a summit…