Audio

Mike India, a one-man radio operation, spends his nights on the mic trying to convince Rwandan rebels to lay down their arms and go home.

Reproduced with permission from The Christian Science Monitor.

For women in Dillo, Ethiopia, fetching water is a daily ritual, but also a daily danger. Jessica Partnow and Alex Stonehill follow Fadi Jilo on her journey to a disease infested pool that her village relies on for water.

For years, Bolivia has been considered only a transit point for cocaine — but in the last five years it has increasingly become involved in cocaine production as well. Last week, the U.N's International Narcotics Control Board annual report chided Bolivia's government for allowing an increase in coca production. But president Evo Morales has repeatedly fought efforts to eradicate coca in his country, saying that an increase in coca doesn't necessarily mean an increase in cocaine.

The U.N.'s International Narcotics Control Board said last week that Peru and Bolivia should outlaw the chewing of coca. Those are fighting words in Bolivia, where coca leaves are widely grown and part of traditional Andean culture. Bolivia's president Evo Morales is a former coca grower who has pushed for increasing the legal uses of coca leaves — while clamping down on the illegal uses. He calls his policy "Coca Yes — Cocaine No" — that means encouraging legal coca growers — but cracking down on drug traffickers.

Dr. Kasereka "Jo" Lusi risks his life tending to victims of war in some of the hardest-hit areas of the Congo. He performs operations in remote areas often under the crudest of conditions. And more than once, he's had to literally run for his life, as he's now become a target for guerillas. He does this work because he believes there's no greater act of love than putting his life on the line for the betterment of others.

Music heard in this story was by Anouar Brahem.

Every day, three times a day, the women and young girls of Dillo Town, Ethiopia have to walk an hour and a half hauling water from a natural spring to take care of their families' daily needs. The water is brackish, contaminated by livestock and unfit to drink. But they do drink it and often get sick. Jessica Partnow offers this Day in the Life portrait of a water walker as typical of thousands of women around the world who have to walk miles every day just to get drinking water.

Government and militia factions have signed a peace deal to end a deadly conflict in eastern Congo.

Don Duncan reports on how a quasi duty-free zone has brought Lebanon's local population together with the half million Palestinians living in the country.

Total running time = 3:36

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The global production of soybeans is on the rise, thanks to increasing demand. The fastest growing soy producer in the world is Paraguay, the landlocked country in South America still recovering from years of dictatorship and corruption.

David Morse and Gabriel Bol Deng interviewed on Pacifica Radio, November 15, 2007

David and Gabriel were interviewed by Dori Smith on WHUS, a Pacifica affiliate at the University of Connecticut. Gabriel of South Sudan talks about his journey from a refugee camp to the U.S. and back again to Sudan with journalist David Morse and filmmaker Jen Marlowe.