ISTANBUL – When Blerim Bitri first heard about the opportunity to take paternity leave when his second child was born last year, he admits he was a little sceptical. “It seemed strange to me,” says Bitri, a pharmacist in Albania.

But after discussing it with his wife, he decided to apply for the leave. “I felt excited about watching my daughter grow up,” he says. “Fathers have an important role in the upbringing of their children and paternity leave is a good opportunity to be close to them.”

ISTANBUL – When Blerim Bitri first heard about the opportunity to take paternity leave when his second child was born last year, he admits he was a little sceptical. “It seemed strange to me,” says Bitri, a pharmacist in Albania.

But after discussing it with his wife, he decided to apply for the leave. “I felt excited about watching my daughter grow up,” he says. “Fathers have an important role in the upbringing of their children and paternity leave is a good opportunity to be close to them.”

TBILISI, Georgia — Story time has moved into the virtual realm in Georgia, where dads are stepping up to the new parenting challenges faced by families self-isolating amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

BELGRADE, Serbia — “I get tired of trying to explain, of asking why and where this fear [of migrants] comes from,” says Sami Rasouli, age 18. “People see wars in our countries and think we are all like that, like fighters.”

Family planning and safe sex should be a team effort between couples, but most men are sitting on the side-lines. While overall use of modern contraceptives worldwide doubled between 1970 and 2015, the rates for men’s use of contraception have remained constant since the 1980s, according to a report by UNFPA partner Promundo.