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https://reasonstobecheerful.world/what-does-reproductive-health-have-to-do-with-climate-vulnerability/>
"When Gufasha Moureen was 13 years old, a severe drought hit her village in the
Kayunga district of Uganda. All her family’s crops were destroyed, sending them
into a financial crisis.
Being the eldest daughter of five children, she had to leave school and help
her mother at home with fetching water, cooking and childcare. One day, an
elderly man visited their home and told Moureen’s father that he wanted to
marry her.
Her father, who was in desperate need of money and saw no other option for
Moureen, agreed. Moureen married, got pregnant and died the same year during a
complicated childbirth.
“That is just one of many devastating stories of how climate change affects
young girls worldwide. Had the drought not hit her village, Moureen could have
stayed at school and her life could have been different,” says Joan Kembabazi,
Moureen’s best friend and founder of Gufasha Girls Foundation, a
community-based nonprofit that advocates against child marriage and promotes
girls’ education.
In Uganda, young girls and women face multiple challenges. Not only are they
disproportionately affected by climate change but they also have limited access
to modern contraceptive methods and have no comprehensive sexual and
reproductive health education at schools (it was banned by the Parliament in
2016), which makes them even more vulnerable.
Kembabazi sees family planning as an essential tool for climate resilience.
That’s why she’s committed to empowering girls and women with education and
contraception. “I myself come from a big family and I know how hard it is for
my father to provide for his 24 kids,” says the young Ugandan feminist
activist. “If he had two or three, it would be much easier.”
Gufasha Girls Foundation is one of many organizations worldwide working to
address the ways that poverty, food insecurity, climate change and family
planning are linked — and the need to empower girls and women through education
and family planning."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
