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Visually impaired journalist Yvonne Uwicyeza redefining what’s possible for young women in Rwanda
Imagine waking up–still feeling tired–wondering what time it is.
“Is it too early?”, you ask yourself. “Or is it time to start my day?”
After scratching the sleep out of your eyes, you turn towards the clock. But you’re not able to see the time.
That’s a typical occurrence for Yvonne Nkaka Uwicyeza, who was born with a visual impairment. She can only see vague outlines of objects. To see things more clearly, she moves very close, while straining her eye–her right, that is–as her left has no vision. Even then, objects still appear blurred. . .
. . .As a determined, young journalist working in ‘the land of a thousand hills’, Yvonne often finds herself gathering stories in rural areas, on steep and uneven terrain. But Yvonne is more than capable, and with the help of her colleagues, she finds her way to locations and carries out interviews with confidence and poise. . .
Building a Circular Economy with Mr. Green Africa: How Recycling is a Critical Piece to a More Sustainable Future
Take-make-dispose. That’s the production model our economies thrive on. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, unsustainable production and consumption accounts for over half of greenhouse gas emissions and more than 90% of the world’s biodiversity loss.
The circular economy is a stark contrast to ‘business as usual.’ By keeping materials in use for as long as possible, this regenerative model represents a key opportunity to reduce waste and pollution. As the Ellen MacArthur Foundation recently points out, a shift to the circular economy can address up to 45% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Based in Kenya, Mr. Green Africa is a social enterprise and the first recycling company to be a Certified B Corporation on the African continent. It leverages business as a force for good to realize sustainable, long-term, social, environmental and economic impact through the collection, conversion and selling of post-consumer plastic waste. . .
Scaling Innovation in Sustainable Manufacturing: What Investors Need to Know
Sustainable manufacturing is becoming increasingly popular, and for good reason. With the urgent need to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change, manufacturing companies face increasing demands (from both investors and consumers) to develop and sell eco-friendly products.
Moko Home + Living (‘Moko’) is a perfect example of a climate-forward manufacturing company. Based in Nairobi, they develop sustainable furniture–from beds to mattresses, tables, couches and more.
Ninety-five percent of Moko’s products are made from recycled materials. They also incorporate an equitable credit system and fair pricing into their business model to ensure that their products are accessible in the Kenyan market. For example, they offer artisans with a 30 to 45-day payment window for furnishing materials and supplies. This enables Moko to support over 160 small enterprise artisan businesses in over 40 cities across Kenya and indirectly sustain 5,000 jobs.
Bringing more attention and resources to global health beyond COVID-19
There’s no easy way to put it. The impacts of COVID-19 have been devastating. From losses of life, to job losses, to losses in our overall quality of life. This pandemic has hit us all hard, each in different ways.
COVID-19 has brought such disruption that our lives most likely won’t go back to normal. Some are predicting long-term changes to the airline industry due to reduced business travel and more flexible remote work options. Similarly, digital transformations such as online learning, e-commerce and telemedicine may continue to be on the upswing even after COVID-19.
Yet as the impacts of the pandemic continue to unfold, this unprecedented time has also provided us with an opportunity for reflection. Being locked up at home has forced many of us to re-evaluate our priorities; to let go of what isn’t important and to intentionally bring more things into our lives that are.
Moving forward, as global health professionals, one of those critical points for reflection is examining how we can harness the attention that COVID-19 suddenly brought to this industry...
Reducing gender barriers that prevent girls from eating healthy foods and accessing life-saving vaccines
Rwanda has made great strides with its vaccination coverage. In 2011, it became the first African country to implement national human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination program. And in 2018, 350,000 children were vaccinated with the basic vaccine to protect them against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP).
Each year, Rwanda works hard to maintain this momentum and ensure that its children and adolescents receive vaccines to prevent life-threatening diseases. Not only that, but work is done to address persistent challenges including nutrition, which further impact the health of children and adolescents, especially girls.
Since 2016, Girl Effect and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance have partnered to protect girls, young mothers and their children from contracting preventable diseases and to promote healthy nutrition. In Rwanda, through its Ni Nyampinga brand (comprised of various platforms including a magazine, a radio show and Sakwe drama, self-starting clubs, brand ambassadors, an Interactive Voice Response, SMS and USSD line, website, and more), Girl Effect relays critical information to empower girls to eat healthy, while taking up vaccines and health services more broadly. . .
Coffee chat with Hayley Mundeva
One key thing excites me about future communications work in global health and development: It provides an opportunity to change a narrative.
As many are familiar with, global health has a backdrop of colonialism and power imbalances. Community members have often been left out of many decision-making processes and unsustainable ‘helicopter’ projects have been rampant. Not only that, but many global health communications campaigns have used tactics that aren’t fully accurate and in fact, have perpetuated stereotypes and power imbalances. . . We must move away from this model. We need to bring people from diverse backgrounds into decision-making processes—especially people who have directly experienced global health challenges themselves. And we need to showcase more accurate, multi-dimensional challenges and experiences.
What better way to do this—to change narratives—than through storytelling. That’s why I’m on a personal mission to write stories about complex health and development problems, but then to showcase people who are from and immersed in these communities and have been working tirelessly to change them.