Slums are a challenge for controlling the pandemic. Strengthening their fragile healthcare provision would help mitigate the effects of COVID-19 and future pandemics.
Poverty
Politics and Society Young people living on Harare’s streets provide glimpses into life under COVID-19 lockdown
The story map reveals that like any part of society, street youth are both subject to and willing to conform to rules and conventions, in this case for their own and others’ safety.
Africans rising Meet Mary Consolata Namagambe, the Ugandan activist tackling period poverty
Law student and human rights activist Mary C. Namagambe is the founder of She for She. This hybrid company is working to tackle the lack of access to appropriate health care information and products, as well as the rate at which young girls in Africa are dropping out of schooling due to period poverty.
Africans rising Inside the Mind of an African: Winning the War Against Poverty and Perception
“Knowledge without wisdom is like water in the sand”, this African proverb sends one fundamental message – to knowledge, always add wisdom – or better, knowledge in and of itself, is not enough.
Africans rising Meet Gani Taiwo, the social activist who advocates for and upgrades Lagos slums
Gani Taiwo is a 41-year-old artist and social activist who paints colourful murals on public toilets in the Ijora Badia slum of Lagos to help improve the settlement’s profile and its inhabitants’ quality of life.
Politics and Society Volunteer tourism: what’s wrong with it and how it can be changed
Voluntourists’ ability to change systems, alleviate poverty or provide support for vulnerable children is limited. They don’t have the skills and can perpetuate patronising and unhelpful ideas.
Lifestyle Why poor parents in Nairobi choose private over free primary schools
More than half of primary school students in Nairobi attend #privateschools. This is despite the fact that 15 years ago the government implemented a free primary education programme
Lifestyle Period Poverty: Can African countries supply free sanitary products?
The Scottish Government will hand out free sanitary products to those in need as part of a pilot project in Aberdeen in what is essentially the first national government-sponsored effort of its type. Several African countries are on the path to establishing sanitary dignity by providing free sanitary products to low income girls and women. However, there is need for a comprehensive policy framework to tackle the availability of the products and the lack of education and sanitation infrastructure.
Lifestyle Otodo Gbame Demolition: How Victims of Lagos’s Forced Demolitions Survive – One Day at a Time
In Lagos, Nigeria, over 30 000 citizens living in the waterfront settlement of Otodo Gbame, Lekki, were rendered homeless when the state government’s task force demolished the settlement on 9 April 2017. Ever since, life has taken a turn for the worst for the evicted people. Most of them have found refuge in other slum settlements across Lagos state and are surviving on donations. This essay looks at the present living and economic situation of the Otodo Gbame evictees.