As a female founder, of an organization that promotes primary healthcare with a strong environmental and recycling component, the international day of the girl child has a special place in my heart.

It is important to recognize, the commendable efforts of multiple organizations, in transforming and uplifting the lives of millions to billions of girls world over, in reproductive health, education, entrepreneurship and so on. However, as an Eco-generation ambassador, one of my key aims in my term and beyond is to uplift girls through the power of recycling and environmental management.  Thus in the article, I will be focusing on highlighting how these words have been, and can be put into action.

Firstly, a young Ugandan by the name, Richard Bbaale has been making use of banana pseudostem wastes, which is usually left to rot after harvesting to make sanitary pads. The Banapads initiative, which started in 2011, currently registered in Uganda, Burundi, and Tanzania brings around 3 300 girls in rural areas back to school. You can read more about Banapads on www.africanreview.com  and the other ways they are using this initiative to reduce waste in landfills. I find it highly commendable, that Richard found a way to enhance the livelihoods of girls and their education, by intervening with a reproductive health product with a strong environmental component. Organizations, like Banapads, inspire me highly because, they provide real life examples that one can affect the lives of thousands directly, and millions more indirectly. I find it a quite controversial point that the used Banapads, are further collected and recycled into manure. Perhaps as a health advocate, or simply as a woman with a few conservative tendencies, I find the use of blood in manure, a highly controversial point, as manure can tend to be handled directly by farm workers in communal areas. This point, though controversial is highly interesting and definitely worth further writing, insights and research. However, thumbs up all the way to this young entrepreneur making a difference in the community and on our continent.

According to an article, young women deliver, titled-?Secret to saving the planet? Women and Girls.? In this article they explore the connection that development of women and girls in communities, has on reducing climate change. Through citation of books such as, Drawdown, a book by the environmentalist, journalist and activist, Paul Hawken which is a compilation of solutions to our climate dilemma, compiled by several industry giants. In the book, solution 6 and 7 to reversing global warming is Educating Girls and Family Planning. At the root of it, there is a reduction in carbon foot print, which is significantly impacted by a growing population. To read more on this article, and get a better understanding, please visit the following link: http://womendeliver.org/2017/secret-saving-planet-women-girls/ .

Taking inspiration from these stories and articles, I took initiative this week to impact the environment and young girls, with a special program for the international day of the girl child. Under our organization, The Art of Humanity, designed a health kit, whereby each contained charts, paper(recycled from newspaper), books, cards, pamphlets and condoms(male and female). 50 health kits were given to medical students who are scheduled to enter the 15 of the 29 recognized rural districts in Zimbabwe. These medical students, are to setup knowledge based clinics at 1 to 2 schools in these rural communities to join our growing network, and distribute the key components of these kits with as many girls in these communities. Already our program for the day of the girl child has gained acclaim from the Regional director of The Standing Committee of Public Health in the Federation of African Medical Students(FAMSA).

We look forward to joining these young girls to our network, to provide them with weekly health education, as well as promoting reproductive health. With this double action of using recycled material in our kit, and educating girls on reproductive health, we hope to demonstrate a feasible way of reversing global warming through girl empowerment. As I also enter the rural communities for these coming 3 weeks, I aim to distribute this particular track of Art of Humanity, as far as possible in the marginalized communities of Zimbabwe.

Climate change is a complex disease we are fighting, and in order to be cured of it, we must cure our societies in order to ensure long term sustainable solutions can impact our earth well past our lifetime.