By Fadhila Sadala Justina Mgisha, a 53-year-old woman with five children and a former secondary school teacher, describes how she exclusively raised her children after giving birth and going on maternity leave for three months. she was returning to work as normal, but her breasts would be clogged milk causing pain, she would only continue to…
What if someone told you they had an alternative solution to sanitary-pad absorption? No, not menstrual cups, tampons or even a pill, but a more innovative method to absorb period blood during that time of the month. Even more striking is that they look just like the average underwear: sleek black panties with a comfortable…
It’s a calm Saturday morning in Jalingo, the capital city of Taraba State, one of Nigeria’s yet-to-be harnessed states. The day is also a work-free day for members of the nation’s Youth Service Corp; a mandatory one-year national service programme for graduates of tertiary institutions in the country and diaspora. One of the newly sworn-in…
Rhoda Michael from the Mwanza Region of Tanzania, was 16-year-old when her parents decided she was old enough to be married. They pulled her from school when she was in Form Three and took her to an older man. Her marriage lasted for three months only, and she fled after her father died in a…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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,…
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…
