Women always carry a heavy load, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
There, women and girls spend half an hour on average a day collecting water, sometimes walking miles in scorching heat and on dangerous roads to fetch water and fuel. The time they spend lugging water for their families is time that could be better spent in school – one in three girls in sub-Saharan Africa does not attend primary school and misses out on the opportunity to build a better future for herself and her family.
The huge challenges in sub-Saharan Africa—poverty, hunger, universal education, access to safe and clean drinking water, maternal mortality, the spread of HIV/AIDS, and the impact of climate change—can only be tackled if women are central to the conversation.
WHAT WE NEED: Women bloggers, aged 21 – 35, who can raise their digital voices and their platforms to witness and help tell the stories of women in sub-Saharan Africa. (read more)
This month, Vestergaard Frandsen, a company operating under its own unique Humanitarian Entrepreneurship business model whose core business is creating life-saving products for the most vulnerable, will launch an innovative public health campaign, Carbon For Water, in Kakamega, Kenya. The campaign is designed with women at its heart and will clean water to a million homes through distribution of LifeStraw® Family.
Vestergaard Frandsen and partner Women Deliver, an advocacy organization working to improve maternal health around the world, will offer a unique opportunity for two female bloggers ages 21 to 35 to join the campaign trail and watch as families and communities are transformed by access to clean water. For one week in May, the bloggers will travel through the Kakamega community, all expenses paid, to research and write about the campaign and the women whose lives are being affected.
The bloggers’ energy and passion for women as not only part of the problem, but part of the solution, will leave a lasting impression in Kakamega. To honor their work and the work of Women Deliver in raising the profile of women from this community, the Emusanda Health Center in Kakamega will receive a long sought-after maternity ward donated by Vestergaard Frandsen. in the six months following the campaign, the bloggers will be given a fellowship and invited to continue blogging about the role of women and the MDGs on the Women Deliver website and other publications.
Together, we can make their load a little lighter. Will you join us?
