Rural Africa Weekly Report: Lessons From Mathare Slum and Other Reports
Every week, Rural Reporters collate a report on development in rural Africa and its environs. The reports include are some of our top picks of recent must-read research, interviews, reports, blogs and in-depth articles to help you keep on top of global crises. Here are some of the updates you may have missed from the previous week.
Lessons From a Successful School in Mathare Slum
Mathare Valley is the second largest slum in Nairobi with an estimated population of over 600,000 living and dozens of schools, yet Mawewa has somehow distinguished itself from the rest.
Starting from a simple, mud-walled nursery school of 20-odd children in 2006, Mawewa is now full primary school with an annual waiting list for enrollment. Their successful educational approach is founded on twin principles of individual transformation and institutional sustainability. “It’s educating the children in a transformational context and inculcating in them a new set of values,” said Ndiho
Want to Fight Ebola? Help Liberia Invest in Toilets
As my country continues to recover from the ravages of Ebola, we hope that we have won the battle. But we have certainly not yet won the war. The shadows of that horrifying crisis, which claimed more than 4,800 lives in Liberia alone, still linger. It will take time for our nation to fully recover, psychologically and financially, from that descent back into poverty, death, and fear — the kind we thought we had left behind after the end of our last civil war in 2003.
Now Boarding – Flights To Rural Liberia, New Carrier Launched
Liberia Transport Minister, Angela Cassell Bush has commended the management of the Mission Aviation Fellowship Liberia (MAF) for investing in Liberia’s aviation sector by providing alternative means of transportation to rural areas of the country, particularly within the south-eastern region.
She also disclosed plans underway by the Government to establish 17 weather stations across the country as well as the establishment of the Liberia Meteorology Center by early next year, which will complement efforts to revive domestic air transport in the country. “Your investment is another means to alleviate hardship as it provides option for us to access the rural communities”, she stressed.
Counting every birth and death could make a difference to health inequities in Africa
For many African countries and especially among poorer communities, when people die there is no trace in any official legal record or statistic. It is common for a person who lives in the city and falls terminally ill to return to their rural village to await their death. When they die they are buried without any legal or official documentation of the death specifying the cause.
The African Development Bank and the Senegalese Ministry for Water Resources and Sanitation have fine-tuned their planning of a new US $54-million program to improve access to water and sanitation in the most challenging rural regions of the country. High on the agenda of priorities is the alignment with the just-launched UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
