Why I am passionate about people and institutional empowering for results based, effective and sustainable development.

At the beginning of my career, I had the privileged of working in the Sahel on a famine emergency situation.  In that context maternal and infant mortality was very high as a result to malnutrition, diarrhea, lack of clean water, and non-existent accessible health care. Most of the able-bodied men had emigrated and the population was composed of mostly grandfather, grandmothers, women, and children.  I witness mothers walk to the nearest clinic 20 miles away with their sick children strapped to their backs at temperatures of over 45 degrees and when they arrived at the clinic no one attended to them because the staff did not speak the language or were too busy to attend to them.  I knew women who at the end of the day, strapped their dead children on their backs and made the return trip 20miles back to their villages. I saw women who kept their children company waiting for them to die from malnutrition, diarrhea, and other preventable diseases. In the midst of these difficulties the community decided to make the following changes:

-conducted participatory needs assessment

– developed and planned an integrated development program

– established community health centres, hired and trained community health workers, including traditional birth attendants identified and paid by the community.

-. Introduced adult literacy classes in the local language and community schools with support from the local authorities.

– produced portable water by using coal filtration process.

-introduced traditional methods of contraceptive and child spacing.

– engaged men in all aspects of family life including child rearing nutrition, birth spacing etc.

With regards to girls’ rights, I have seen girls betrothed at birth and sent to their marital home at 4years old. Meet many girls who were the victims of female genital mutilation, were married before age 18, developed fistulas during delivery and abandoned or chased from their homes to be homeless because of the hygiene conditions. I have seen women who are victims of violence and are unable to escape because of unfavorable laws or lack of financial independence. I have seen girls who are sent to live with relatives in the city by their parents in the hope of obtaining an education only to work as house girls, raped by male family members and never see a day in a classroom.  These are just a few examples of the lives of girls and women in an environment which is not protective of their rights. I also know that when given the educational, financial, institutional support in a conducive environment they will soar. We need to empower girls and women to be champions for themselves, by breaking down barriers for their self actualization.