Women: Inspiration & Enterprise - The Future of Africa

bby Jessi Johnson

South Africa has historically been a nation that sets examples.  Within Africa, which as a continent is experiencing new economic growth, South Africa leads the way in international and open-door economic policies.  It rebelled against apartheid to become one of the most multi-cultural and multi-ethnic countries in the world. It hosts anti-homophobia symposiums. It was home to the first human-to-human heart transplant, and now South Africa is continuing along its forward-thinking path this year by honoring prominent female leaders at the Women: Inspiration & Enterprise symposium in Cape Town.

The Women: Inspiration & Enterprise symposium brought together prominent leaders from the worlds of politics, business, fashion, philanthropy, media, entertainment and the arts, in a full day of panels, workshops, and classes. The conference works with both women and men from a wide spectrum of industries in order to solidify the ideologies of gender equality. However, the symposium is focused on igniting the spark of enterprise in women who wish to expand their boundaries and pursue careers in any field. The event was comprised of inspirational talks and panels with high profile speakers and guests drawn from the worlds of politics, philanthropy, media, fashion and the arts. Panels discussed such diverse issues as the role of women in technology and the need for global empowerment in an age where death during childbirth is an intolerable risk in many developing countries—and the undeniable importance of clean water sources in at-risk nations.

{Sara Brown}

{Elsie Kanza}

{Arianna Huffington}

The symposium is an annual event. WIE, founded in 2010, is a global annual conference and online community designed to empower the next generation of women leaders, allowing a yearly space for females of any age to come together and discuss the significant issues facing their gender.  Past keynote speakers included Sarah Brown, wife of the former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, designer Donna Karan, and Huffington Post cofounder Arianna Huffington.  This year, CNN anchor Robyn Cunrow and Elsie Kanza, Head of Africa at the World Economic Forum made appearances and led panels.  Organizations like Wells Bring Hope, which helps bring awareness to the need for clean water sources and women’s health, honor the same spirit of empowerment that the symposium does.  An annual global gathering of this size showcases how women are participating in the global conversation and taking a central role in shaping the Africa of tomorrow.

Food for Thought

by Nicholas Baldry

I have been watching what I eat of late.  My concerns about my own food intake have revolved around excess.  Excess salt, excess sugar, excess fat, excess calories, in short an excess of just about everything.  Of course I can control this by making the right choices when buying food and any issues with my own diet are the result of my own choices. With a plentiful variety of food, both healthy and unhealthy available at affordable prices at the local supermarket, my dietary intake is completely within my control.

In comparison the diet in Niger is, at the best of times, repetitive.  A diet largely consisting of milk and cereals such as millet or sorghum made into a porridge, as well as some starchy roots doesn’t offer a lot nutrition, and protein from meat is only available on special occasions with livestock being too valuable to slaughter on a regular basis.  When fruits and vegetables are available, they are usually prohibitively expensive for the poorest families.  Beyond that there is the primary issue that comes with collecting water for communities without a well - the lack of cleanliness of the water itself.

A lack of proper food impacts both physical and mental development in youngsters and productivity in adults.  Stunted growth amongst children is alarmingly prevalent in Niger with some estimates suggesting that about half of under-five’s suffer from this problem.

A real cause for alarm is that the diet described above is the diet available in good years.  A poor rainy season in late 2011 lead to failed harvests in 2012.  This produced what was variously called a lean season (which is a staggering understatement), nutritional crisis, or outright famine in the Sahel region.  Whatever you want to call it, the result of such poor conditions is a diet that consists of anything the stomach can hold.  In the past this has meant acacia leaves, weeds, and anything else that will stem the feeling of hunger.  Adults can barely survive on this diet, but the ones who suffer most are children.  In need of nutrients such as zinc, iron, magnesium and protein that this diet lacks, thousands of young children were left in need of treatment for acute malnutrition and too many children didn’t even get that.

And I worry about my diet.

{photo by Ida Harding}

As part of Wells Bring Hope’s commitment to help villages for at least 15 years after drilling a well, we teach techniques like drip farming.  This allows the efficient use of ‘grey water,’ which is wastewater* from domestic activities such as laundry, dishwashing and so on, to help grow vegetables that would otherwise not be available to villagers.  These vegetables add much-needed nutrients to the regular diet, and any excess produce can be sold, substantially increasing the household income.  Nutritional deficiencies have for too long been a fact of life for people living in Niger, with access to a well and updated farming techniques, a little water can go a long way to change this.

*Not that any water can be termed waste when it as scarce as it is in rural Niger, that is why recycling it for irrigation is so crucial.

No Surprises Here

by Pauline Vu

If the connection between clean water and health was ever in doubt, a new study definitively puts that question to rest.

Due to unsafe water, there are 4.7 more deaths per 1,000 children under age five in countries like Niger than there are in countries like the United States. Due to unimproved sanitation, there are 6.6 more deaths for every 1,000 children under five.

The report, published in the U.K. journal Environmental Health by researchers at the United Nations University and McMaster University in Canada, is the first to quantify the death rates of mothers in the first year after childbirth and children under five as a result of unsafe water and unimproved sanitation.

“If the world is to seriously address the Millennium Development Goals of reducing child and maternal mortality, then improved water and sanitation accesses are key strategies,” the authors said.

The study divided 193 countries into four tiers, ranking ease of access to clean water and adequate sanitation. Not surpisingly, Niger was placed in the bottom 25 percent.

In addition to young children, new mothers also fare poorly when access to clean water and sanitation is limited. From the bottom tier of countries to each tier above it, a new mother’s odds of dying increases 42 percent due to unsafe water. Their odds of dying increase ever more—48 percent—from one tier to the next as a result of unimproved sanitation.

{photo by Barbara Goldberg}

While progress is being made to improve the lives of people in the poorest countries, this study shows that there’s still a need to increase efforts like those of Wells Bring Hope to help the women and children of Niger by drilling more wells and improving sanitation. Clean water and sanitation don’t just improve women’s and children’s standard of living—they offer a child a better chance of celebrating a fifth birthday, and they provide a mother the precious gift of hope that she will see her children grow up.

The Nightmare of Malnutrition

by Lauren Cohen

Sometimes dreams and reality become blurred. Some dreams are so real, that you have to sit there and actually think about whether the events in the dream actually happened or if they were simply dreamt up. The events and the characters just seem so plausible that you really cannot differentiate between reality and dreams. Often, when life seems too good to be true, we like to say that life is a dream. Sometimes our nightmares generate this feeling, and we are flooded with relief when we wake up and realize that none of it was real.
However, for some, it is their reality that is a nightmare.
How would you feel as a parent if you were relieved to offer your fifteen-year-old daughter up to an older man for marriage because that would mean one less mouth to feed?

{source: Focx Photography}

Imagine living with the constant worry that your child could die at any moment. After all, just about everyone you know has had to bear the death of a child.

These are realities of the people of Niger.

When I was fifteen years old, my reality consisted of online socializing and going to the mall with my friends. I never had to worry about being a burden to my family because I was one more mouth to feed.

Niger is one of the most impoverished countries in the world, and every day people struggle with the very same things we Americans take for granted: access to food and clean drinking water. People in Niger, particularly children, deal with health concerns related to unsafe water on a regular basis, and overall the country has the fourth worst child mortality rate in the world.

{source: Teuseum}

In June of 2010, Nigerien officials estimated that approximately one out of every six children was, or would soon be, suffering from malnutrition. Malnutrition is worsened when children lack access to safe water since contaminated water often leads to diarrhea, which makes it impossible for children to hold onto the nutrients that they ingest.

The answer to these problems seems so simple: send food from wealthy countries to Niger and -  boom - instant health. Or better yet, teach the people how to obtain their own food because if you give a man a fish, he'll have dinner for one night, but if you teach a man how to fish, he'll have dinner for a lifetime. Unfortunately, it's not that simple.

Here are the many factors that BBC News cites as contributing to malnutrition in Niger:
· A failed harvest, which has undermined the gains of last year
·  Years of drought which have left many families in debt
·  A sharp spike in food prices at the market, blamed on a combination of oil politics in neighboring Nigeria, speculation by traders, poor market integration and a lack of infrastructure
· Regional insecurity, with a rebellion to the north in Mali and an insurgency to the south in northern Nigeria, leading to unexpected population movements in a fragile region that can't cope with such abrupt changes
· A lack of education which results, for example, in mothers giving their babies dirty water to supplement breast milk, leading to diarrhea -- one of the quickest paths to severe malnutrition
· Chronic poverty, which means poor basic health care, leaving children vulnerable to disease
· Population growth
· Child marriages, which can result in premature or stunted babies and frail mothers
· Climate change and desertification
Fortunately, despite the many risk factors, child mortality rates in Niger are dropping every day. When Wells Bring Hope began working in Niger in 2008, 1 out of 4 children died before his fifth birthday, today that number has dropped to 1 out of 7.

{source: babasteve}

Although it's great to see progress, that's all it is: progress. These numbers need to keep dropping, change must continue and the only way to create this change, is for YOU to step in and make a difference. Gandhi once said, "We need not wait to see what others do." So, instead of waiting for others to make a change, make one yourself. Step in and help repair this world. I know I will.