Peru’s clean energy entrepreneurs
“My life has changed. Before this training, I used to be afraid that only men could do that type of work, and that women could not do it. I was afraid of working with this kind of equipment, of working with machines. That fear is gone. I now believe we can do so many things.”
Nelly Arias is one of the 290 women in Peru who enrolled in e-Mujer, the Energy School for Women. …
On Earth Day, a young climate activist shares what inspires her
Meet Paloma Costa. This Brazilian climate activist, lawyer, and member of the UN Secretary-General’s Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change is gently shaking the world with her passion for climate justice.
In the last few years, young people around the world have changed the conversation on climate. They have elevated the urgency of the issue to a global emergency and spoken up to protect present and future generations.
I had the pleasure of meeting Paloma first in 2018 in preparation for the UN Climate Action Summit. She spoke at the launch of the Climate Promise, UNDP’s commitment to support countries…
On a typically hot and bright afternoon in Aweil town, north-western South Sudan, Nafisa takes her seat in a small patch of shade under some trees. She joins 14 other members in a recently-established peace committee set up to defuse any tensions or other problems that may be arising among tribal communities.
Nafisa is more invested in the committee’s success than most. Her son, Nuer, is married to a Dinka woman, two groups historically often in conflict with each other. She hopes her work can prevent the tensions that have plagued much of South Sudan in previous years.
“Our people…
A new way for Bosnia and Herzegovinians to avoid land mines
Carefree is not a word Dea would associate with her childhood. Nor was that the feeling of other local residents of Ljubljenica village in Bosnia and Herzegovina — some fled the area after the war that left mines across the country, others faced challenges in using their fields to graze livestock or to cut and gather woods from the local forests.
Now 20, Dea is a computer science student in Mostar. …
For a local community in Thailand, their wetland forest is a foundation of livelihood and culture.
“World Water Day makes us realize that water is vital for life and is inextricably linked to our way of life and to the wetland forests we depend on. This is why the water is important to us.” — Boon Rueang Wetland Forest Conservation Group.
Downstream from the Doi Yao mountain range in Northern Thailand lies the Ing River, home of Thailand’s largest wetland forest and a biodiversity hotspot. Situated on the plain between the mountains and river is the Boon Rueang community. Water touches all parts of life for the people and habitats in this 483-hectare forest. It supports…
In 2014 Yagana Mustapha was abducted by an armed group. Just 17 years old, she was forced to marry one of her abductors and gave birth to two children.
“I went through a lot of stress and suffering,” she says. “We were fed rotten food, sometimes going days without any meals.”
Yagana endured five years in captivity in northern Nigeria before she summoned the courage to escape, taking her children with her. But she found that although she had physically left, the mental trauma lingered.
“I was over the whole situation but something worse came. I could not sleep most…
In 2014, Mohammed Umaru fled his hometown, Bama in Borno State after an insurgency struck the northeast of Nigeria. His two younger brothers and mother were abducted, and he also lost his means of making a living.
With peace beginning to return, Mohammed journeyed home to start afresh with the hope of being reunited with his family. On return, he met other people from different tribes and backgrounds staying in one of the internal displaced camps set up by the government.
“When I first came back to my community and saw new people, I felt quite uneasy,” he said.
In…
Djibouti is a small country of less than one million, located on the Horn of Africa in the east of the continent.
Despite enjoying economic growth during the last decade, 21 percent of its people live in extreme poverty and don’t have adequate HIV and health care. It’s estimated that around 7,000 people live with HIV and they, especially women, are often subject to stigma and social exclusion, and may avoid treatment or even diagnosis.
Halima Youssouf is a referring doctor at the Yonis Toussaint AIDS centre in Djibouti City, which provides care to patients living with HIV. …
Communities in Puno are making use of new technology to have mercury-free, artisanal and small-scale, gold mining, responsible for their health and the environment.
One Ananea, multiple realities
The district of Ananea is in the south of Peru, in the region of Puno, famous for Lake Titicaca. Its name derives from the Quechua “Ananay” which means What beauty! How nice! In the middle of the Andes mountain range, at more than 4,610 metres above sea level, with a climate that easily reaches -5 °C at night.
Probably the most emblematic and internationally known place in this district is La Rinconada. Located in the Ananea snow-capped mountain, this town has been visited by journalists from different parts of the world, whose publications show the complex environmental and social problems…
Iman Hadi, an entrepreneur from Yemen’s rural north, is no stranger to the great poverty and misery that plagues much of the country’s remote villages where basic services are almost non-existent. But she felt a sense of responsibility and decided to do something about it. “I realized to what extent people in my area, women in particular, are suffering so I decided to go beyond social and cultural barriers and take action,” she says.
Iman leads a group of 10 women who installed a solar power plant to provide clean, energy for residents in Abss, which is in Hajjah Governorate…
