Abusing the
environment is like abusing the African woman just as striping a woman is gender
abuse. There is more to gender abuse than we are aware of. Some of this gender
abuses have passed on like normal activities to us and we never realize a
specific gender is being abused by them. Believe it or not degradation of the
environment and the effects of climate change largely affect the women in our
society.
In a UN
meeting held in New York Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka the Executive Director of the
United Nations Agency dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women
said “women are on the frontlines, bearing the brunt of climate change”. She
noted that women and children are 14 times more vulnerable than men in climate
change related natural disasters, such as floods and droughts.
According to researcher’s
women are the ones who will be affected mostly by climate change in different
parts of their life cycle especially during child bearing from the fetus to the
growing of the child. The survival of women and children mainly depend on the
natural resources that are available.
“In Kenya
women are the first victims of environmental degradation, because they are the
ones who walk for hours looking for water, who fetch firewood, who provide food
for their families.”Wangari Maathai .
Most the
time in Kenya men leave their women in their rural homes to go and work in
urban areas .These women left at home have to go to their farms every morning
and take care of our their livestock .
The current climate changes has led to unpredicted weather patterns, floods and drought .Our women are left to deal this effects. They are the ones who have to wake up early in the morning to walk for miles to look for water and firewood. While we pollute our rivers our women have the responsibility to wash clothes, cook food and bathe their children. They are the ones who mostly go to these rivers to fetch water. They are the ones who will be directly affected by the chemicals in this water .While trees are being cut deforestation is taking place leading to drying up of rivers and scarcity of firewood .
Our women are the ones after all this who have to walk for miles looking for this necessities .These women are our mothers, sisters, daughters and wives. Despite their daily efforts to ensure our children are clean, well fed and in school things we do largely affect them and go unnoticed. Women bring us up and ensure we get the best they can afford, they spend nine months of their lives carrying each child, the rest of their lives are spent raising us but we never appreciate these efforts. For each tree that is being cut a woman has to walk further for firewood, as we pollute our rivers our women have to walk further to find different sources of water. As we sit in our comfort zones enjoying money from selling timber a woman out there is walking for miles looking for a river that is not dried up.
The current climate changes has led to unpredicted weather patterns, floods and drought .Our women are left to deal this effects. They are the ones who have to wake up early in the morning to walk for miles to look for water and firewood. While we pollute our rivers our women have the responsibility to wash clothes, cook food and bathe their children. They are the ones who mostly go to these rivers to fetch water. They are the ones who will be directly affected by the chemicals in this water .While trees are being cut deforestation is taking place leading to drying up of rivers and scarcity of firewood .
Our women are the ones after all this who have to walk for miles looking for this necessities .These women are our mothers, sisters, daughters and wives. Despite their daily efforts to ensure our children are clean, well fed and in school things we do largely affect them and go unnoticed. Women bring us up and ensure we get the best they can afford, they spend nine months of their lives carrying each child, the rest of their lives are spent raising us but we never appreciate these efforts. For each tree that is being cut a woman has to walk further for firewood, as we pollute our rivers our women have to walk further to find different sources of water. As we sit in our comfort zones enjoying money from selling timber a woman out there is walking for miles looking for a river that is not dried up.
Author: Angela Keter (The author is a
communication and advocacy officer at Scope Intervention)
Email: kangela@scopeintervention.org
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