Published on June 2nd, 2008
To most African communities, facing the knife is akin to being a “real man”. Male circumcision is an important rite of passage that moves the young man that undergoes it a notch higher towards marriage and earns him a respectable position in society. But to a few African tribes, like the Zulu warrior nation in South Africa and the Luo in Kenya, male circumcision is not in the books. But this may soon change.
Recent extensive medical research and studies on the prevalence of HIV/Aids in Africa indicate that male circumcision could help reduce the spread of the disease on the continent and elsewhere. A massive roll out of free male circumcision programs in Swaziland, Rwanda, Zambia and Kenya is underway and experts hope results will reflect the 60% reduction in new infection rates documented in the studies.
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Published on May 30th, 2008
Local politics and pure malice can be enough to kill a noble project, but to have quite a respectable environmental action network like the Boulder, Colorado-based Global Response get enjoined in endless intrigues, extortion and tomfoolery that are threatening a $35 million organic farming project in Kenya is quite a story.
Expert findings, personal research and a discreet fact-finding visit to the Dominion Farms project in Siaya, a rural agricultural district, also homeland of Democratic presidential contender, Barack Obama’s father, is all it took to conclude that the letter-writing group partly funded by the New Earth Foundation may have made the goof of the decade.
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Published on May 26th, 2008
For mobile telephone network providers in Africa like Safaricom, Kenya’s largest and the most profitable company in East Africa, extending services to rural hinterlands can pose so many challenges.
Infrastructure is a definite minus because there will be not much to talk about - bad roads, lack of electricity - yet cell phone communication knows no boundaries in any modern economy and even communities in backwater areas of the continent would go for the best connectivity.
The dilemma faced by these companies has always been how to power their base stations in an economical and environmentally-friendly way, given circumstances where no utility power is available.
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Published on May 19th, 2008
Fishermen on the Kenyan side of Lake Victoria are throwing away their kerosene lamps they used to lure fish during night fishing expeditions and are now getting sustainable, thanks to a unique lighting project powered by a specially constructed solar station built by OSRAM.
The local people can recharge batteries for energy-saving lamps, luminaire and other electrical appliances, such as mobile phones, at low cost and without damaging the environment at the station otherwise known as the OSRAM Energy Hub.
For the fishermen in Mbita, a small fishing center on the Kenyan side of Lake Victoria, switching over to solar-powered “O-LAMP BASIC” or “O-LAMP 2 in 1″ energy-saving lamps will pay for itself in just four weeks as the cost of kerosene takes up more than half of their income.
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Published on May 14th, 2008
How many heroes can create a revolutionary gadget that has changed the lives of poor farmers and costs only $28 and refuses to get rich from it? In the life of Jock Brandis, just a cursory look at the bloody fingers of women peanut shellers in an impoverished village in Africa is all it took to create the universal nut sheller from locally available sustainable materials.
A Canadian of Dutch descent, he has since passed on the skill to local farmers in Mali, where he first presented his model, and elsewhere on the continent where he trains them for free and still refuses to patent the cheap gadget which has impressed even infamous peanut farmers like Jimmy Carter. A Gift to the World, he calls it.
Mama, I promise to look this Brandis guy up for you and bring him to our village. My mama, in her 55 years, still finds time from her teaching job in the village school to employ farm hands to shell peanuts for her. And she reaps an impressive twenty 50 kg sacks a year. Not bad for her agrarian moonlighting, hmm…
Feted as a CNN Hero for his innovation, Brandis has worked with communities in 17 countries across four continents through his Full Belly Project to make hundreds of machines locally at minimal cost resulting in health benefits and increased family incomes.
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Published on May 9th, 2008
A safari adventure to Africa to view corals? This might sound interesting to many people including eager adventurers like myself.
I have always marveled at the wonders of the sea; beautiful marine creatures that are awe-inspiring to watch. But one trip on a glass-bottom tourist boat a few months ago made me promise to go back for more, and I hadn’t found the time until now. I wanted to see the coral bed under the cool waters off the Indian Ocean coast again.
Coral reefs are among Earth’s most diverse, productive, and beautiful ecosystems, and have become exciting spots for tourist who admire water life and sports. Its now not uncommon to see tourists in glass bottomed boats being ferried to coral gardens for viewing.
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Published on May 2nd, 2008
They couldn’t have chosen a more fitting name because the development of an eco-city in Kenya’s tourism hub of Mombasa is the country’s first and probably the boldest in this part of the world.
Mimicking the beautiful haciendas of the Spanish countryside, the developers are looking to something even more spectacular - the design of the buildings will make best use of the sun, wind and rainfall to supply the energy and water needs of the residents and will also involve planting of more than 10,000 trees to complete the picture.
Works have already begun and hacendados (or hacienda owners) are buying into the prime real estate, having seen a sample house in this complex that will consist of a hospital, school, playgrounds and recreation facilities, a police station, commercial centers and office blocks, among others.
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Published on April 10th, 2008
For every Muslim, Halal or ‘permissible’ in Arabic means that it passes the test, as far as food is concerned. This will certainly include correct handling procedures and many more practices.
But the question that has dogged Muslims for centuries has always been how to catch fish, using permissible methods that do not damage the environment.
“Lawful to you is the pursuit of water-game (fishing) and its use for food, for the benefit of yourselves and those who travel” (Surah Al-Maida, v. 96)
Dynamite fishing, cyanide fishing, and bottom trawling are all fishing techniques that may cause habitat destruction. A 2006 article in Science magazine said bottom trawling, the practice of pulling a fishing net along the sea bottom behind trawlers, removes around 5 to 25% of an area’s seabed life on a single run.
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Published on April 2nd, 2008
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, so goes the old adage. But in Africa, green innovations by very creative and eco-imaginative minds seem to be turning this adage around, and perhaps we will soon hear of: “All work and play combined sustains a green Africa”.
It all started with the PlayPump, the water system that is a children’s merry-go-round attached to a water pump and storage tank that featured on Ecoworldly a while ago.
A see-saw that generates electricity when played on by children? Now there is this simple looking see-saw which when played on by children in Africa, generates electricity to help power up their school. It has no name yet but if this trend continues, it looks like Africa will be one very big playground for green play, literally.
You wanna play, somebody?
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Published on March 17th, 2008
If I were to lay my hands on $48.6 million, I would probably go bonkers trying to figure out what to do with it. But I am no Sir Paul McCartney, neither can I guess what Heather Mills does for a living. However, now that I know this figure separates the two on their divorce, I also know what $48.6 million can do for drought in Africa.
It is ironic if not a coincidence that on the same pay day in a London courtroom, the European Union was also announcing a grant of a similar sum to fight drought in Africa. The European Union package of Euro 30 million (US$47 million) will help African countries in the northeast of the continent fight the effects of drought.
Drought fighting initiatives in countries like Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya and even Sudan, always face funding shortfalls, affecting emergency relief for millions facing acute food shortages in the drought-hit Horn of Africa, in turn threatening to exacerbate already dire conditions. The effects of drought on people’s lives are devastating and not always visible to the rest of the world.
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