Right now, VSO is fighting child marriage, confronting Deaf stigma and saving babies’ lives.
Take a peek inside issue 5 of Kin, VSO’s supporter magazine.
(Edited by Lucy Taylor)
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This beautiful newborn baby clutches the finger of a VSO midwife in Ethiopia on the front cover of the latest Kin magazine. I visited a hospital in the highlands of Tigray, with photographer Peter Caton, to collect this issue’s cover story, which takes you into the chaos, challenges and achievements faced by volunteers every day in a busy hospital where VSO has established a neonatal intensive care facility. Nurses and midwives never know what emergencies the next moment will bring, and use all their training and ingenuity in the fight to save mothers’ and babies’ lives.
Elsewhere in the issue, US-Bangladeshi writer Jennifer Chowdhary investigates the issue of child marriage with sensitivity and insight. She asks why the practice is perpetuated despite having been illegalised and finds that more nuanced approaches are needed to tackle the root driver, including climate change, poverty and social norms. Featured is one VSO volunteer doing just that in the climate change-hit Sundarbans. A former child bride herself, Laila is now changing the way things are done in her home community. With illustrations with Jenna Arts.
As ever, Kin strives to bring the best highlights of VSO’s work on the ground to the organisation’s amazing supporters, through deep dives into specific issues and programmes, as well as easily digestible infographics, short features and news. This issue takes a closer look at Nepal, one of the oldest VSO country programmes, as part of Kin’s regular ‘Five Things…’ feature.
There’s lots more besides in this issue, including an authentic Ethiopian recipe for supporters to try as part of a VSO supper club fundraiser; resources to help campaign against harmful orphanage volunteer tourism; and a return to examine the impact of a hydro-electric power plant on a community in Mozambique, years after it was first installed. This was such a fun issue to put together!
