Carolina for Kibera's Trash is Cash Program

Many of us recycle our bottles and waste without ever seeing the tangible benefits. Although recycling is practiced far less commonly in Sub Sahara Africa, the recycling efforts of two Aid for Africa members are having profound effects on the communities they serve.

In the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya, Aid for Africa member Carolina for Kibera’s Trash is Cash program employs 35 youths to collect four tons of trash each week from some 2,000 households. Because there is no formal sanitation program, the trash would be scattered in the area and lead to health and environmental problems. The trash is brought to two recycling centers. One employs 20 youth, who convert paper and sawdust into low-cost alternative fuel briquettes. The other center sorts, collects and makes pellets from plastics for sale to local industries. The program also works with local women’s groups, who turn plastic bags into retail products like purses, and with artists, who turn bones discarded from local butcheries into jewelry they sell.

Planet Aid in Botswana

Since 1997, Aid for Africa member Planet Aid has collected about 160 million pounds of donated used clothing and shoes, which would  otherwise end up in landfills, from more than13,000 drop-off bins in the United States. The items are then sold to fund international aid and development projects. In Angola, Mozambique and Malawi, for example, Planet Aid has funded teacher training programs for some 2,400 new teachers and has helped close the gap in primary school teachers. In Zambia, Planet Aid built thousands of latrines to prevent the spread of disease.  In Botswana, thousands of children left orphaned by HIV-AIDS receive educational programs, entertainment, and participate in sports through local youth clubs.

In Sub Saharan Africa, recycling programs are not just about rejuvenating waste, they are also rejuvenating lives.

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Source: World Hope International

When thinking about Africa, the facts that come to mind are often not good. Most Africans live on less than $2 a day. The average life span in many countries is only 50 years. Famine and starvation persist. The list goes on and on.

In an article at the end of last year, The Economist reviewed the future prospects for Africa, but highlighted some different facts. Over the past decade, The Economist wrote, six of the world’s ten fastest-growing countries were in Africa. In eight of the past ten years, Africa’s economic growth was higher than in East Asia, including Japan. Even allowing for the economic slowdown in northern counties, the International Monetary Fund expects Africa to grow by 6 percent in 2012, about the same as Asia.

Surprising? Not to three African ambassadors to United States, who discussed the future of their countries at a recent Africa Studies Association Annual Meeting.  The ambassadors from Sierra Leone, Kenya and Rwanda were bullish on the economic future of the continent. What is the basis of the surprising optimism of the ambassadors and The Economist? As we begin 2012, we might well focus on some facts that provide another way to view Africa and its prospects for the future:

• Africa’s middle class includes some 60 million Africans today, and is expected to grow to 100 million by 2015.
• Foreign investment in Africa has grown tenfold in the past decade.
• There are more than 600 million mobile-phone users—more than in America or Europe.  Thus providing the majority of Africans with access to communications and mobile banking.
• The health of many millions of Africans has improved in recent years because of wider use of mosquito nets and advances in HIV/AIDS identification and treatment.
• Worker productivity has increased 3 percent a year, compared with 2.3 percent in the U.S.
• Since 1991, some 30 democratic national elections have been held and the movement toward democracy is growing.
• Sierra Leone, a country known more for its decade-long civil war, “blood diamonds,” and corruption, has sustained an economic growth rate of 6 percent in recent years, fueled by iron ore and bauxite trade.  Its government has focused on reducing corruption and reforming its government institutions.  (Ambassador Bockari Kortu Stevens)
• Despite political setbacks, Kenya has set out to become a middle-income country by 2030.  It has rewritten its constitution and built more roads in the last six years than it did in the forty years between 1963 and 2003. (Ambassador Elkanah Odembo)
• In Rwanda, women comprise 56 percent of the legislators in parliament. Malaria is on the verge of being eradicated. The government’s poverty reduction strategies are wisely focused on local economies. (Ambassador James Kimonyo)

Let there be no misunderstanding: the challenges are great, and corruption and bad government will not disappear overnight.  But the African continent is moving forward even in these times of world economic hardship.

To celebrate the Declaration, the United Nations named today, December 10, International Human Rights Day. Aid for Africa and its members work every day to uphold the principles of the Declaration. And nowhere is that more evident than in the work of the Southern Africa Legal Services Foundation (SALS Foundation).  Since the time of apartheid in South Africa and more recently in Zimbabwe, the SALS Foundation has been supporting two of Africa’s most renowned public interest law organizations.

One example of how the SALS Foundation and its partners are making a difference is a recent legal success. Earlier this year, South African attorneys won an important victory, protecting the constitutional right of South African children to a basic education  through a case involving seven so-called mud schools in the former Transkei. At one of these schools, the Sompa Senior Primary School, 49 students, who shared ten desks, used the floor, their knees, or the back of another student for writing surfaces.  In the agreement, the South African government agreed to spend 8.2 billion rand in the next five years to replace mobile classrooms, water tanks, and sufficient numbers of desks and chairs for their students.

Through the training and support of public interest lawyers and citizens, the SALS Foundation is helping support hundreds of thousands of children, women and men whose rights have been challenged.

Drilling wells to provide clean drinking water for African communities is one focus of World Hope International’s work.

They did it!  World Hope International recently dug its 700th well and achieved its goal of providing 500,000 people in Sub Saharan Africa with clean water! World Hope and its partners in the Himutwe Wamalale district of Zambia dug well 700 in support of 273 people. Reaching this milestone is even more significant because providing clean water is just one part of World Hope’s mission, which also includes education, microfinance, and community-health programs.

World Hope began drilling for water in remote areas of Africa in 2004 to help poor people who were forced to search for water from local springs and rivers that are often contaminated from animals, bathing, and otherwise poor sanitation. This frequently leads to the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera, dysentery and typhoid.

The program which currently exists in Liberia, Mozambique, and Sierra Leone has also operated in Zambia and Malawai. One of its goals is to work with the local population. Rigs are operated by local crews and World Hope staff work with villagers who use their knowledge of the topography and geography to locate prime drilling spots. Once hand pumps are installed to bring water to the surface, community members are given training on well maintenance because the remote locations make returning to the site in a timely manner difficult. They are also given sanitation training to prevent wells from becoming contaminated from wandering livestock and nearby latrines.

Each well serves approximately 700 people and lasts for decades. Not bad for a single day of drilling.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson

At the annual meeting of the African Studies Association in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson spoke on a range of things that make him optimistic about Africa’s future.  One was the movement toward free and open elections in a number of states, including Nigeria.  “Africa’s largest state had elections that, though not perfect, reflected the will of the people.” He said there had been election progress in a number of countries and that the preparations underway for elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo at the end of this month are headed in the right direction.

Carson was bullish about Africa’s economic growth.  “Africa has enormous promise in its people and resources,” he said. But while praising Africa’s 5.5 percent annual economic growth rate as “a good sign,” he noted that African trade accounts for only 2 percent of global trade. He added that trade between African countries is the lowest of any other region of the world, reflecting that  “development and economic reform continue to struggle.”

Carson also spoke of the Obama Administration’s work with African governments to build better healthcare systems and to improve agriculture through the Feed the Future Program. “I can’t say enough about the need for better agriculture,” he said.  “Seventy percent of the African population depends on agriculture as a primary or secondary source of income.” He acknowledged that African farmers use less fertilizer, have poorer seeds, and rely primarily on rain for irrigation. “We need to bring a green revolution to Africa, “he said.

The African Studies Association, an Aid for Africa member, is the largest organization in the world devoted to promoting information exchange about Africa and the study of Africa across all academic disciplines. ASA has some 1,700 members throughout the world.  About 1,000 individuals attended the annual meeting in Washington, including scholars, researchers and experts on Africa, African ambassadors to the United States, and high-level U.S. officials, including Assistant Secretary of State Carson.

Dave Deppner, Director of Trees for the Future, talks about the importance of tree planting at a dinner attended by the President of Ethiopia as Grace Deppner looks on.

In our previous blog post on the 2011 International Year of the Forest we highlighted the importance of forests in Africa, which account for the livelihoods of more than half of Africa’s population according to experts. Trees for the Future (TREES) has been instrumental in maintaining this synergy by helping people living on degraded land improve their lives through environmentally sound development projects using trees.

It is with great sadness that we announce that Dave Deppner, who founded TREES 22 years ago, recently lost his battle with cancer and passed away. With the passing last month of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai, we have lost two champions of the environmental movement whose compassion helped improve the lives of millions of impoverished people.

The roots of Trees for the Future can be traced back to the 1970s when Dave and Grace, his wife, volunteered with local farmers in the Phillippines. There they witnessed first-hand that planting trees on a wide scale could solve many of the developing world’s problems including deforestation, fuel and food shortages for people and livestock, and overall poverty. Dave found that the key was to sustainably harvest fast growing tree species that could be planted at high-densities and produce enough wood to meet the energy needs of rural populations. These trees also infused agricultural lands with fresh nutrients which slowed erosion and improved crop yields.

Today, TREES operates in 23 countries providing technical knowledge on agroforestry, reforestation, and sustainable development, as well as planting materials. In Africa they have worked with more than 300,000 families in nearly 12,000 communities to plant more than 20 million trees. To help keep Dave’s dream alive, TREES has created the Dave Deppner Legacy Fund.

It is ironic that the world lost two champions of reforestation and sustainable development during this International Year of the Forest.  It is reassuring to know that the work they started, which has benefited millions of people and improved our planet, will continue and grow.

Family Care International works with women to ensure maternal health.

In the fifth blog post in our series about the UN’s Millennium Development Goals we focus on Millennium Goal 5: Improve maternal health. The UN goal is to ensure that by 2015 there is universal access to reproductive healthcare and to reduce by three quarters the number of women dying from childbirth by 2015.

In Sub Saharan Africa about one in 150 women die in child birth which is about 40 times higher than in the developed world. Although the number of deaths in Sub Saharan Africa has declined 28 percent from 1990 to 2008, it is still below the 34 percent decline found for all developing regions.

Many women do not use contraception either because the healthcare system is poorly funded, it violates their religious beliefs, or their husbands are opposed to it. This leads to an increase in high-risk pregnancies among very young women. There is also a severe shortage of trained healthcare workers available during deliveries who can prevent complications like obstetric hemorrhaging–the leading cause of death. Women who receive healthcare during pregnancy are much less likely to experience complications when giving birth. Twenty-two percent of women in Sub Saharan Africa never see a healthcare professional, usually because they live in rural areas or their local healthcare center is understaffed. Other women die indirectly as a result of Malaria and HIV.

Aid for Africa member Family Care International was the first international organization  to place maternal health at the center of its mission. Working in Burkina Faso, Kenya, and Mali, Family Care staff  help sensitize community leaders to maternal healthcare needs and enlist their support in addressing equipment and personnel shortages at local healthcare centers. To protect young people from HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, the organization produces educational materials to help them make healthy choices.  For unmarried women they offer reproductive health services that may not be available to them. Family Care International  also helps ensure access to new drugs and technologies such as Misoprostol – an effective treatment for postpartum hemorrhaging –which can be given by mouth and serve as an alternative when intravenous equipment and refrigeration are not available.

For conservation efforts to succeed, the support of local communities that share land with endangered animals is critical. Two Aid for Africa members know the value of community-based wildlife conservation firsthand. In Kenya,  Lewa Wildlife Conservancy protects rhinos and other threatened animals by working with several surrounding communities to reduce poaching through education and efforts to alleviate poverty.  Lewa provides medical assistance, women’s micro-credit financing, and water management projects in these communities, where the average income is less than $1 a day. By helping lift communities out of poverty, Lewa builds trust and changes attitudes about wildlife preservation. This approach has led to the creation of more than a million and a half acres of conservation area that is managed primarily by communities and provides jobs to more than 1,000 Kenyans. As a result, the black rhino population in Kenya has more than doubled from 300 in the early 1980s to more than 600 today.

Wildlife Conservation Network follows a similar model by supporting independent “conservationist entrepreneurs” who work actively with local communities to protect endangered wildlife. Cheetah Conservation Botswana, for example, teaches predator-proof farming techniques to farmers through local workshops, live theater, and video to ensure that farmers can protect their livestock herds without killing the cheetahs that threaten them. They also offer educational programs that change negative perceptions of cheetahs and explain the roles of predators in healthy ecosystems. When livestock are killed, community outreach teams analyze which livestock management techniques were in place and develop better solutions.  These are then shared with others through farmer associations and village networks.

As conservationists continue to build partnerships with local communities, a more sustainable approach to wildlife protection is emerging that benefits both people and wildlife. To learn more about all of our members working to protect wildlife in Sub Saharan Africa visit, Member charities that work in wildlife and habitat preservation.

Angolan students outside a school built by RISE International and their partners.

This September throughout the United States, school-age children picked up their books and lunch money and headed off to school. They look forward to doing that every year through their time in high school and, for many, through college. Children of Africa are not so fortunate. Of the 68 million children worldwide not enrolled in school, almost half – 32 million – live in Sub Saharan Africa.

There has been progress in raising enrollments, largely due to the elimination of school fees in many African countries. Between 1999 and 2009, the percentage of children enrolled in elementary school in Sub Saharan African increased from 58 to 76 percent (for the developing world as a whole it was 89 percent).

But once a student enrolls in school in Africa, staying in school becomes the challenge.  High poverty rates often lead families to pressure children to work instead of attending school – especially as they get older. Health problems caused by poor nutrition, waterborne diseases, malaria and HIV/Aids lead to students dropping out of school.  A shortage of classrooms and qualified teachers present additional obstacles. As a result, today more than 30 percent of primary school students in Sub Saharan Africa drop out before completing elementary school.

Aid for Africa members are helping poor students go to school and stay in school. Arlington Academy of Hope has created a school in rural Uganda that uses the US approach to education, which focuses on a child’s self worth as a path to achievement.  The organization tackles health concerns by operating two community clinics linked to the school in partnership with Aid for Africa member the  Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children. Nearly all of the Academy’s more than 300 students advance to high school.

In rural Angola, where years of civil war have led to a shortage of classrooms and facilities, RISE International partners with local churches and government officials to build schools. Since 2003 they have built 135 schools and provided the opportunity for over 60,000 students to attend.

For older students, attending high-school usually means paying fees they cannot afford. As a result, Sub Saharan Africa has the lowest percentage of high school graduates in the world – 30 percent in 2007. To address this need the Kenya Education Fund recruits individuals and families from around the world to sponsor Kenyan students and pay their annual $600 tuition.

To learn more about all of our members working to improve education in Sub Saharan Africa visit members that work in education.

Children at the Sabina school enjoying fresh vegetables with their meal.

For the last three years in Rakai, Uganda, students and teachers at the Sabina School, an elementary boarding school supported by Aid for Africa member Children of Uganda, have been learning to grow their own food sustainably. Since the program began three years ago, students and teachers have planted some 100 fruit trees, including mango, jackfruit, avocado, and pawpaw.  They have also added tanks to store water collected during the rainy season to be used year-round in their gardens and have learned to compost and raise chickens. The result: Students now supplement their traditional diets of corn porridge with potatoes, carrots, beets, pumpkins, eggplants and other vegetables. Not only are the students eating better, they are also serving as examples to others.  The Sabina teachers who created the program are now working with Uganda’s Department of Education to replicate it in other schools around Uganda—which they hope will ensure a sustainable program!

The Sega Girls School is working toward becoming a full sustainable, self-supporting operation.

In Tanzania, teachers and students of the Sega Girls School in Morogoro, which began in 2008 with support from Aid for Africa member Nurturing Minds, produce fresh food used by the school community.  The school’s curriculum emphasizes environmental care and includes identifying and planting fruit and other indigenous trees.  The school uses solar panels, harvests rainwater for gardening year-round and works to minimize the school’s environmental impact.  As their programs grow, the school community hopes to become self-sufficient through student- and teacher-run small businesses.  Sega School is located in the foothills of the Uluguru Mountains, which are part of the Eastern Arc–a region that serves as the water catchment area for urban populations downstream and critical animal and plant biodiversity.  As a result, the girls attending Sega are learning how human activities affect the environment and how to better manage natural resources.

As Children of Uganda and Nurturing Minds provide their students with the tools they need to achieve in school, they are also imparting life-long lessons of sustainability and self-reliance.

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