Poverty, Water Scarcity and Girls’ Education Period in Africa

WARREN, New Jersey – Menstrual poverty, water scarcity and girls’ education are all issues that affect African women and girls every day. However, these issues are interconnected. Menstrual poverty, water scarcity and girls’ lack of access to education fuel the cycle of global poverty for women and girls.

Water scarcity as a women’s problem

In sub-Saharan Africa, women and girls carry the burden of water physically and metaphorically. While men are expected to find work, women and girls are expected to care for children and acquire water. Journeys can take hours. In some countries, the journey may be an eight-hour round trip. Women and girls go on hikes like these several times a week. Each person can usually only carry a 40-pound jerry can. The can does not last very long, as families use this water for drinking, cooking and bathing. These journeys where women and girls carry heavy cans can cause health problems and physical ailments. Often the water is not clean enough to drink and can cause illnesses like diarrhea and cholera.

According to Annick Thiombiano, representative of the Georgie Badiel Foundation, “Saharan African women spend 16 million hours fetching water every day. By solving the water crisis, women will have more time to focus on their families, education and economic stability. The foundation provides drinking water to rural communities in Burkina Faso.

A study by George Washington University found that in 24 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the main water collectors were women and girls. In families where a member had to spend 30 minutes or more fetching water, the family member was usually a female. The number ranged from 46% in Liberia to 90% in Côte d’Ivoire. For children, 62% of girls were water collectors for their families against 38% for boys.

Period of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa

Like water scarcity, menstrual poverty is a problem of African women that can keep them from lifting themselves out of global poverty. Menstrual poverty exists when girls and women do not have adequate menstrual products or cannot cleanse themselves because of an inconsistent water source. This often leads them to use unhygienic items as period products. Many report using old clothes and newspapers as sanitary napkins when they do not have access to sanitary products. This is unhygienic and can cause other health problems and infections.

Due to the lack of hygiene products and the risk of menstrual incidents, many girls do not go to school during their period. According to a 2014 report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, one in 10 girls in sub-Saharan Africa does not go to school during her period.

Girls’ education in sub-Saharan Africa

In sub-Saharan Africa, girls have much less access to education than boys. Despite measures taken by organizations and even governments to increase girls’ education, there is still no country in sub-Saharan Africa where an equal number of boys and girls attend primary and secondary school. There are only 92 girls in the region for every 100 boys in primary school. In secondary school, there are only about 8 girls for every 10 boys enrolled.

Education is essential to help women and girls escape poverty. With skills and tools to work in professional jobs, girls have the opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty. However, girls’ lack of education, menstrual poverty and water scarcity fuel this inequity. It is therefore extremely difficult to break the cycle of poverty. However, some organizations are working to lend a hand to women and girls and to break the cycle.

The Georgie Badiel Foundation

Georgie Badiel-Liberty is a model and philanthropist. She is also a woman who has experienced water scarcity, menstrual poverty and difficulty receiving an education. She grew up in Burkina Faso and woke up every morning at 6 a.m. to fetch water with her grandmother and other women in her family. It was a three hour round trip.

Following its success, Badiel-Liberty founded the Georgie Badiel Foundation in 2015. It brings clean and accessible drinking water across Burkina Faso and helps girls’ education. Thanks to the foundation, 300,000 people now have access to drinking water thanks to the construction and restoration of wells in communities in Burkina Faso.

The Foundation process

Foundation representative Annick Thiombiano spoke to Project Borgen about the founding process. She said: “We are running an awareness campaign to educate people about sanitation, hygiene and the maintenance of their wells. As a community, we elect 2 women who will be in charge of the maintenance of the wells. Once the awareness campaign is over, we move on to finalizing the search for water on the well site, then drilling the borehole, then analyzing the water, then creating the support structure. of Wells.

The Georgie Badiel Foundation involves the community, especially women. Thiombiano says: “The cultural shame attached to menstruation and the lack of resources prevent women from going to school and working every day… Clean water is essential for women’s physical and mental health and for their hygiene. menstrual.

The close link between water scarcity, menstrual poverty and girls’ education proves that these women’s issues require special attention. Organizations like the Georgie Badiel Foundation help women and girls have a chance to get an education, care for children, work and lift themselves out of poverty.

– Sana Mamtaney
Photo: Unsplash