"Women’s voices should not only be heard because they are the victims of the war. Their active participation in peace efforts is essential, because they are the most effective peace builders. As men take up arms, women hold communities together in times of war."-
Mary Robinson, UN envoy for Africa’s Great Lakes region
Democratic Republic of the Congo’s women hold key to lasting peace (Guardian)
Girl Power: Nigerian Teens Invent Urine-Powered Generator (The Girl Effect)
When the next academic year began in September 2012, Adebola Duro-Aina enlisted three friends - Oluwatoyin Faleke, Eniola Bello and Abiola Akindele, all students between 14 and 15 years old in her science class - to help her find a solution to the problem. The team decided to design a generator that ran off an alternative fuel that wouldn’t harm users, and so began the tale of how four teenage girls in Nigeria invented a urine-powered generator to create better - and safer - access to electricity.
For Ethiopian Women, Construction Jobs Offer A Better Life (NPR)
Mekedes Getachew, 19, has been working at construction sites in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, since she was 15 years old. Except for the heaviest lifting, she says, the laborers “all do the same work and we don’t really say this is a man’s job, but when it comes to salary there’s a difference.” She earns $1.50 a day. Men earn $2.
Olivia Wilde, RYOT Launch Health Workers Campaign (The Daily Beast)
The campaign is working to train, equip, and deploy 1 million community health workers on the ground in sub-Saharan Africa by 2015 to meet urgent medical needs and reach the health-related Millennium Development Goals