Environment
Of Jonglei Canal project and South Sudan women
Betty Sunday is a sad woman. She sits in silence as she ponders over reports she has heard from local radio stations. She is wondering what is likely to happen as an outcome of the Jonglei Canal that the government plans to resume digging. According to Ms Sunday who is also a woman representative, these…
Khartoum environment crisis a ticking time bomb
Khartoum Khartoum is choking on waste to an extent that as a journalist, I found it hard to concentrate on one environmental issue and leave the others. If we are not talking about pollution and waste crisis, then it is illegal logging or erratic power and water supplies. All of these have adversely affected women…
Tanzania’s women minting cash from picking snail shells
It is early morning in Tanzania’s lakeside city of Mwanza and the sun is shining brightly. Some few metres away, `the buzzing of the mill can be heard. This is the Ilemela District of Mwanza where about 19 women have set up a small startup where they process natural resources harvested from Lake Victoria. The…
Nigerian female designers on the path to waste reduction
Kano Gently, Yasmin peddles the sewing machine to finish up a maternity gown earlier started by her tutor. Her mind gushes through thoughts of the hard times that Covid-19 has placed her mother’s business, lowering it to its barest minimum and her inability to write Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) exams due to technical…
Zambian women cashing in on briquettes while tackling climate change
Lusaka In the backyard of a small brown-bricked unfinished structure in the Kashima area of Mufumbwe, a rural district in North-Western Province, Zambia, is a group of women with different colourful Chitenges (wrappers) tied around their waists. Some are bending, while others are seated on a small bench, with their hands rigorously making dough out…
IDP women in Cameroon fight indoor pollution through clean energy
Bamenda It is yet another quiet Monday afternoon in Bamenda with not a single motorcycle or car cruising the streets as has been the case for the past 6 years because of the ongoing Anglophone Crisis. The familiar silence of this day is regularly interrupted by the buzzing house flies flapping their wings over the…
Tanzanian village embrace innovative solutions to tackle climate change
Dar es Salaam It is a Tuesday morning when I arrive at Miyuyu village in Newala District, Mtwara Region located in the southeastern part of Tanzania. People seem busy with the preparations for the day ahead. The women food vendors are preparing breakfast using improved cookstoves and some young men are cleaning their makeshift hair…
Deforestation spikes Gender-Based Violence in Uganda’s West Nile Region
Kampala Lydia Aseru* narrates in tears how women are often raped by cattle herders in the forest while collecting firewood for cooking and sale. Women’s fuel wood collection and deforestation, especially in West Nile districts hosting refugees have not only affected the environment but also led to an increase in cases of Gender-Based Violence. Ms…
Turning human waste into cooking fuel in Kenya
Nairobi A group of women and youths came up with a biogas initiative to tackle indoor pollution and sanitation in Nairobi’s Kibra Slums. They also use it as an alternative fuel to cook.
Community conservancies creating sustainable models in Botswana
Gaborone It’s a hot sunny day in the village of Habu, situated between Shakawe and Okavango, the biggest tourist attraction of Botswana, and Theresa Sethelo makes her way towards the settlement, balancing a bunch of firewood on her head. She has draped the wood with an old cloth and she gestures to pull it tighter,…
When pollution chokes Gambia, women suffer the most
Banjul The sky looked misty and cloudy on a sunny day just like the rain was going to fall, an obnoxious smell filled the air around the famous Gambia Mall in the capital Banjul. An adjacent street led straight to the dumpsite. Suddenly, there was a thick cloud of smoke which forced many women vendors…