Month: July 2024

Burkina Faso is home to many people internally displaced by years of insecurity and conflict. Most of them live in various towns across the country, and some are now trying to find jobs in the capital, Ouagadougou, or starting businesses. VOA’s Gildas Da has this report, narrated by Anthony LaBruto.
…

your ad here

Juba, South Sudan — At 75, Galiche Buwa has lived through civil wars, famine and natural disasters, but the South Sudanese widowed mother of four always managed to get by, thanks to her grocery business.

Now, however, even that standby is on shaky ground, as the oil-dependent nation’s economy reels from revenue losses following the rupture of a key pipeline in its war-torn neighbor Sudan in February.

The damaged pipeline was crucial for transporting South Sudan’s crude oil abroad, with petroleum exports traditionally accounting for about 90 percent of the impoverished country’s GDP.

The implications have been far-reaching, with inflation soaring as the value of the South Sudanese pound relative to the U.S. dollar plunges on the black market, from 2,100 in March to 3,100 today.

The official rate slipped from around 1,100 in February to nearly 1,550 this month.

“Since the 1970s up to now I am still here, but these days we are suffering. Things are tough,” Buwa said as she glumly tended to her stall at the Konyo-Konyo market in the capital Juba.

“We are unable to buy stock, things are expensive… and prices keep rising every day,” she said, compelling her to purchase supplies on credit.

As wholesale costs shoot up, retail prices follow — a mug of maize sold by Buwa was worth 800 South Sudanese pounds in March, compared to 2,000 today, she said.

Teddy Aweye, a 28-year-old mother of two, said she was struggling to put food on the table, forcing her family to eat just one meal a day.

“You go to the market today, you get a price, and tomorrow you go back and you get a different price… I had to return home without buying anything,” Aweye told AFP.

“Life is really very difficult.”

Losses upon losses

It is a common refrain across Juba’s biggest market, where several traders told AFP they were racking up losses every day.

Abdulwahab Okwaki, a 61-year-old butcher, said his business was in crisis.

“A customer who used to (buy) one kilo is now taking half a kilo, and the one taking half a kilo now takes a quarter… and the one who was taking a quarter is not coming anymore,” he said.

The father of eight often loses money when he is unable to sell meat before it goes bad.

Many of his fellow butchers have simply quit, unable to make ends meet, he said.

Higher-end businesses have also taken a hit.

Harriet Gune, a 27-year-old entrepreneur, said her fashion boutique was losing customers.

“The more you increase prices for the items in the shop, the more you scare away clients,” she told AFP.

A pair of jeans that used to cost 25,000 South Sudanese pounds in March now sells for 35,000, she told AFP, adding that she needed to raise prices “to be able to get enough money to order new stock”.

‘Develop alternatives’

Even government officials are feeling the pinch.

In May, Finance Minister Awow Daniel Chuang told parliament that the government would struggle to pay salaries to lawmakers, military, police, civil servants and other officials because of a shortfall in revenues.

He said the country was losing about 70 percent of its oil revenues because of the pipeline rupture, which has affected exports of Nile blend crude and Dar blend crude.

“The production is only from Blocks 12, 14, and 58, which means there is only around 30 to 35 percent of the oil that is flowing,” he said.

South Sudan was in crisis even before the pipeline shutdown sent shock waves through its economy, with fears that long-anticipated elections, currently scheduled for December, will be delayed.

In addition to rampant corruption draining its coffers, with the ruling elite routinely accused of plunder, the country is very vulnerable to currency shocks, because it imports nearly everything, including agricultural produce.

The fighting in Sudan between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since April 2023 has only exacerbated the situation, analysts say.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, forced millions to flee — including over 700,000 to South Sudan — and pushed Sudan to the brink of famine.

Economist and government advisor Abraham Maliet Mamer told AFP that South Sudan, which declared independence from Sudan in 2011, needed to plan ahead to secure its future.

“Our country is suffering. We have less money, we have fewer services, and our security is a problem,” he said, urging the government to build refineries and pipelines through other nations.

“Sudan will never be the same again. Until we develop alternatives… we will be having issues,” he warned.
…

your ad here

Nairobi, Kenya — Some Kenyan church leaders are calling on President William Ruto to dissolve his Cabinet as protests of his administration continue.

Ruto withdrew proposed tax increases that set off the protests, but many Kenyans blame Ruto’s Cabinet for the country’s debt and economic problems.

The National Council of Churches of Kenya, which represents some of the country’s biggest churches and religious organizations, has added its voice to protests, saying Ruto’s administration is marred by bad governance and allegations of corruption.

Council of Churches general secretary, Reverend Chris Kinyanjui called for Ruto to fire his ministers. 

“The president has himself said that his Cabinet is incompetent,” Kinyanjui  said. “Kenyans are saying he has an incompetent Cabinet, and in addition, many members of his Cabinet are also corrupt.”

Ruto’s government recently proposed tax increases to offset the country’s debt. The proposals sparked protests which killed at least 40 people and injured more than 380.

Ruto withdrew the tax hikes after protesters stormed the parliament buildings, forcing legislators to flee.

On Friday, Ruto announced new measures to reduce government expenditures, including merging key ministries and state corporations, banning the purchase of government vehicles for 12 months, and suspending nonessential travel by state and public officers.

Kenyan political commentator Dismas Mokua noted that none of Ruto’s Cabinet members have been convicted on corruption charges and told VOA that Ruto will be reluctant to dismiss them.

“If the courts have not pronounced one guilty of anything, the probability of President Ruto firing somebody from the Cabinet merely on the account of people demanding he should be fired is almost zero,” Mokua said. “But the key consideration here is really the cost of living. If he is able to turn around the economy and ensure the public debt is not a burden on the majority of Kenyans … then people will settle down and they will wait for 2027.” 

Some protesters are also demanding the formation of a new, independent electoral commission.

Mokua said the demands of the Kenyan protests – which have been dubbed Generation Z protests for the age of their organizers — are far reaching.

“The pressure which is going to be applied by Gen Z is not going to be limited to the national government. It will go down to county governments, it will go down to the members of the national assembly and it will go down to churches,” Mokua said.

The secretary-general of Kenya’s ruling United Democratic Alliance, Cleophas Malala, said the party will start a program of government outreach and engagement. 

He said political leaders must not come to the people only when they want their votes. 

Some experts blame the recent protests on a lack of space for Kenyans to air their grievances, and the government’s failure to engage with the public on laws being considered. 

The constitution requires citizens’ input before a law is passed, something that successive Kenyan administrations have made little effort to obtain.   
…

your ad here

Dakar, Senegal — Gambian lawmakers adopted recommendations Monday for the country to maintain its ban on female genital mutilation ahead of a vote later this month on whether to decriminalize the practice.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) has been outlawed in Gambia since 2015, but the deeply rooted cultural practice remains widespread in the West African nation and the first convictions last year fueled a backlash against the law.

After a heated debate Monday, the recommendations contained in a report by the joint health and gender committee passed the full house sitting, with 35 lawmakers voting in favor of adopting the report, 17 against and two abstentions.

A final vote on the bill on whether to decriminalize FGM is currently set for July 24.

If parliament approves it, Gambia would become the first country to reverse a ban on FGM. It passed its second reading in March with only five out of 53 lawmakers voting against it and one abstaining.

After the second reading, the joint committee carried out a national public consultation with religious and traditional leaders, doctors, victims, civil society groups and circumcisers among others.

Its conclusions, presented Monday, described all forms of FGM as a “traumatic form of torture” and “discrimination against women.”

“Repealing the law would be a significant setback for the Gambia,” said Amadou Camara, the lawmaker who read out the report.

The first FGM conviction last August — of three women found guilty of cutting eight infant girls — sparked outrage and prompted independent lawmaker Almaneh Gibba to table the repeal bill in March.

Gibba and his backers, who include influential religious leaders, say the ban violates citizens’ rights to practice their culture and religion in the Muslim-majority country. Many Islamic scholars dispute this argument.

The World Health Organization says FGM has no health benefits and can lead to excessive bleeding, shock, psychological problems and even death.
…

your ad here

Harare, Zimbabwe — After her son, the family’s shining light and only breadwinner, was arrested last year, Tambudzai Tembo went into meltdown. In Zimbabwe, where clinical mental health services are scarce, her chances of getting professional help were next to zero. She contemplated suicide.

“I didn’t want to live anymore. People who saw me would think everything was OK. But inside, my head was spinning,” the 57-year-old said. “I was on my own.”

A wooden bench and an empathetic grandmother saved her.

Older people are at the center of a homegrown form of mental health therapy in Zimbabwe that is now being adopted in places like the United States.

The approach involves setting up benches in quiet, discreet corners of community clinics and in some churches, poor neighborhoods and at a university. An older woman with basic training in problem-solving therapy patiently sits there, ready to listen and engage in a one-on-one conversation.

The therapy is inspired by traditional practice in Zimbabwe in which grandmothers were the go-to people for wisdom in rough times. It had been abandoned with urbanization, the breakdown of tight-knit extended families and modern technology. Now it is proving useful again as mental health needs grow.

“Grandmothers are the custodians of local culture and wisdom. They are rooted in their communities,” said Dixon Chibanda, a psychiatry professor and founder of the initiative.

“They don’t leave, and in addition, they have an amazing ability to use what we call ‘expressed empathy’… to make people feel respected and understood.”

Last year, Chibanda was named the winner of a $150,000 prize by the U.S.-based McNulty Foundation for revolutionizing mental healthcare. Chibanda said the concept has taken root in parts of Vietnam, Botswana, Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania and is in “preliminary formative work” in London.

In New York, the city’s new mental health plan launched last year says it is “drawing inspiration” from what it calls the Friendship Bench to help address risk factors such as social isolation. The orange benches are now in areas including Harlem, Brooklyn and the Bronx.

In Washington, the organization HelpAge USA is piloting the concept under the DC Grandparents for Mental Health initiative, which started in 2022 as a COVID-19 support group of people 60 and above.

So far, 20 grandmothers have been trained by a team from Friendship Bench Zimbabwe to listen, empathize and empower others to solve their problems, said Cindy Cox-Roman, the president and chief executive of HelpAge USA.

Benches will be set up at places of worship, schools and wellness centers in Washington’s low-income communities with people who “have been historically marginalized and more likely to experience mental health problems,” she said.

Cox-Roman cited fear and distrust in the medical system, lack of social support and stigma as some of the factors limiting access to treatment.

“People are hurting, and a grandmother can always make you feel better,” she said.

More than one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

“The mental health crisis is real. Where it’s a real crisis after the pandemic is that many clinicians have dropped out of the workforce,” said Dr. Jehan El-Mayoumi, who works as an expert with HelpAge USA and is a founding director of the health equity Rodham Institute at Georgetown University. She has struggled to get psychiatrists for acutely suicidal patients.

El-Mayoumi said the Zimbabwean concept provides people with “someone you can trust, open up your heart to, that you can tell your deepest secrets [and] that requires trust, so that’s what’s so wonderful about the Friendship Bench.”

The idea was born out of tragedy. Chibanda was a young psychiatrist, and one of just over 10 in Zimbabwe in 2005. One of his patients desperately wanted to see him, but she could not afford the $15 bus fare. Chibanda later learned that she had killed herself.

“I realized that I needed to have a stronger presence in the community,” Chibanda said. “I realized that actually one of the most valuable resources are these grandmothers, the custodians of local culture.”

He recruited 14 grandmothers in the neighborhood near the hospital where he worked in the capital, Harare, and trained them. In Zimbabwe, they get $25 a month to help with transport and phone bills.

The network, which now partners with the health ministry and the World Health Organization, has grown to over 2,000 grandmothers across the country. Over 200,000 Zimbabweans sat on a bench to get therapy from a trained grandmother in 2023, according to the network.

Siridzayi Dzukwa, the grandmother who talked Tembo out of suicide, made a home follow-up visit on a recent day. Using a written questionnaire, she checked on Tembo’s progress. She listened as Tembo talked about how she has found a new lease on life and now sells vegetables to make ends meet.

Dzukwa has become a recognizable figure in the area. People stop to greet and thank her for helping them. Some ask for a home visit or take down her number.

“People are no longer ashamed or afraid of openly stopping us on the streets and ask us to talk,” she said. “Mental health is no longer something to be ashamed of.”
…

your ad here