Across the globe, people live without access to electricity, sanitation and manufacturing resources. In turn, their households lack strong infrastructure and protection against extreme heat and environmental health concerns. Resourceful innovations are working to tackle these elements of poverty by utilizing readily available products and local capabilities. Here are three innovations using locally available resources to fight poverty.

1. Eco-Cooler

Bangladesh has one of the wettest climates in the world due to its summer monsoon season. To accommodate for the rain, more than 60% of Bangladesh’s population lives in tin huts rather than more vulnerable mud huts. Although tin provides protection from the rain, it exacerbates the extreme summer heat. Without access to electricity and, therefore, air conditioning, this heat is unbearable for those living in rural, low-income areas. 

Through resourceful innovation, Ashis Paul created a cooling system that does not need electricity and utilizes commonly found items. The Eco-cooler comprises locally available resources like plastic bottles that are cut in half and mounted on a sheet of cardboard. The cardboard is then fitted to a window with the wider part of the bottles facing outward. The bottles catch passing wind, cool the air as it experiences a change in pressure, and then funnel the air into the building’s interior. It is estimated that this affordable and easy-to-build solution is able to reduce temperatures up to 5 degrees Celsius depending on the conditions.  

2. Gjenge Makers 

Nairobi, Kenya generates around 500 tons of plastic waste every day. Without proper decomposition methods, a majority of this waste ends up in garbage dumps located around low-income communities, further impacting the health and living conditions of impoverished people in Nairobi. 

Nzambi Matee, founder of Gjenge Makers, discovered how to transform this plastic waste into a valuable resource: bricks that are seven times stronger than concrete. The bricks are formed with a mix of sand and polyethylene or polypropylene, which could otherwise not be recycled. Gjenge Maker bricks are half the weight of concrete, making transportation and building more efficient and affordable. Gjenge Makers’ aims to use its resourceful innovation to solve Kenya’s pollution problem, provide new job opportunities, produce healthier livelihoods and introduce young women to entrepreneurship and engineering. 

3. White Roofs 

The Mahila Housing Trust (MHT) originated to educate and strengthen impoverished women to improve their living conditions. One aim is to build resilience against unbearable temperatures. Temperatures in western India can reach up to 47.8C (118F) in the summer. This heat diminishes women’s ability to be productive and healthy in their homes. MHT is increasing women’s ability to tackle extreme temperatures without the need for hard-to-access resources such as electricity.    

Mahila Housing Trust has distributed white solar-reflective paint to low-income communities in western India. Women living in these areas are able to apply the paint at no cost, reflecting sunlight away from their houses and reducing the internal temperature. This simple and resourceful innovation is estimated to reduce temperatures by 1 to 2 degrees Celsius. Even the slightest drop in temperature reduces women’s vulnerability to heat stroke, exhaustion and pregnancy complications, and allows women to remain productive in the summer.

Nzambi Matee, Ashis Paul and the Mahila Housing Trust are demonstrating how resourceful innovations using locally available resources can help battle the barrier of access to commodities, such as electricity and manufacturing tools. Determining the materials a community lacks and utilizing the resources they do have is creating unique inventions and fighting poverty.  

– Aliya French
Photo: Flickr

Egypt grapples with the highest homelessness rate in Africa, reaching 11.6%. This issue affects a staggering 12 million people, including approximately 3 million children. Notably, Egypt’s divorce laws create vulnerabilities for women, putting them at risk of homelessness due to certain legal disadvantages.

Cultural Norms

Cultural norms and ideas reinforce women’s unequal access to housing from the moment they are born. Families often finance apartments or houses for male siblings but do not ensure female siblings’ housing. Instead, families tell their girls that guaranteeing them a place to live is unnecessary after marriage as this responsibility falls to their husbands. Because of this cultural perspective, women’s access to housing often depends on their marital success, which, in some cases, occurs at a young age. While the rate of early marriages has decreased in recent years, a 2021 survey revealed that 17.4% of women in their early 20s had been married or engaged before turning 18.

Discriminatory Egyptian Divorce Laws

Divorced Egyptian women and their children are particularly at risk of homelessness as Egypt’s divorce laws place them at a disadvantage. According to Egyptian family laws, mothers receive custodial rights to their children until the age of 15, however, a common occurrence is that fathers “kidnap” their children by refusing to relinquish them back to the mother after visitation hours are over.

A woman interviewed by the Egyptian news outlet Mada demonstrated the limited enforcement of mothers’ custodial rights in the country. After her children were kidnapped by her ex-husband, the policemen she spoke to refused to enforce her custodial rights by indicating that “a father does not kidnap his own son.” The legal protection of mothers’ custodial rights also ends when they remarry and a survey that the Association of the Development and Enhancement of Women (ADEW) conducted indicated that 90% of divorced mothers opted not to remarry to maintain custody of their children.

When women do retain custody, courts in Egypt are typically lax when enforcing alimony payments, leaving the already vulnerable women to take care of their children with limited financial means. At the age of 15, children living with their mothers can choose between continuing to live with their mothers or going to live with their fathers. Even if the child decides to keep living with their mother, the father can stop paying alimony. Additionally, he can choose to evict the mother and the children from the custody home. If the father decides to order their removal from the home, mothers have little legal recourse and often end up homeless along with their children.

The Reality of Post-Divorce Life for Egyptian Women

Other factors also make post-divorce life difficult for women in Egypt. In general, they only have access to limited income-earning opportunities. Attempting to reintegrate into the job market is especially difficult as some husbands expect wives to quit their jobs after marriage and divorcees end up with little to no job experience. The stigma associated with divorce also makes divorcees feel alienated and discriminated against. A woman’s plea for help after a divorce could meet disregard from her family due to the taboo of being associated with a divorcee. Even if the marriage ended because of the husband’s physical or psychological abuse, the blame for the end of the marriage falls solely on the wife and she must put up with derogatory labels such as “kharrabet beyout” (home-wrecker), or even “kharg beit” (secondhand).

The Perils of the Divorce Process

Aside from the insecurity divorce brings upon women, it is a much more arduous process for them than it is for men. Indeed, all men need to divorce their spouses is an oral renunciation recognized by a religious notary. They do not even require the assistance of a legal court.

On the other hand, a court has to accept a woman’s proposal for divorce, a process that can take years if the husband refuses. To obtain a divorce with full financial rights, a woman has to provide evidence that her husband has harmed and abused her. Additionally, all women, including those who have testified that their husbands have physically abused them, must attempt reconciliation in a court-ordered mediation process. During the often-long process of obtaining a divorce, women separated from their husbands are not eligible for state financial aid programs, condemning them to homelessness if they do not have any family to help them. In order to shorten the divorce proceedings and avoid homelessness, Egyptian women will sometimes have no choice but to sign away their financial and custodial privileges to the father.

A Catalyst for Disadvantageous Marriage Power Dynamics

Because Egypt’s divorce laws deprive women of economic security after divorce and due to the arduous process involved in obtaining a divorce, many Egyptian women may choose to remain in abusive or unhealthy marriages. Rates of domestic violence are also high in the country, with a study indicating that up to 86% of married women in Egypt have experienced physical or psychological abuse.

The lack of stability after divorce creates dangerous power dynamics within marital relationships. Ghada Abdel Fattah’s story, told by Al Jazeera, illustrates the dire consequences of divorcing in Egypt. After her husband asked for a divorce, Fattah and her daughter were kicked out of their home and would have had no shelter if it was not for her family who provided refuge. She eventually found employment and is now saving money to secure a home for herself and her daughter.

Taking Action

In 2o22, three Egyptian college students started a campaign called “Enty Zel Nafsek” (“You Are Your Own Shadow”) to raise awareness about the issues divorced women face in Egypt and to reduce the unfair stigma associated with divorce. The girls seek to provide emotional support to divorced Egyptian women and also support women’s businesses by advertising the businesses on their social media accounts.

Another organization founded by Engy Raafat, a survivor of domestic violence, helps women get back on their feet after divorce by providing financial, emotional and legal support. Raafat’s organization, called You Can, has had a tremendous impact on the lives of women across Egypt, helping more than 5,000 women find jobs.

– Tatiana Gnuva
Photo: Stockvault

South America has a large tourism industry with an estimated 20.6 million visitors in 2022. The industry is worth $33 billion and is expected to grow throughout the decade. Tourists in the continent predominately travel to Columbia, Brazil, Argentina and Peru. Women make up 58% of the “care-taking” roles related to the industry, such as hospitality and cleaning staff. Thus, the industry’s influence on the quality of life and economic well-being of the women of South America is significant.

The Situation

Like most of the world, women in South America face many barriers to empowerment. According to a project that Wageningen University conducted, in general terms, Latin American societies follow the traditional doctrine of “hombre de la calle, mujer de la casa,” which means “the men in the street and the wife in the house.” Cultural norms, traditional community roles and caretaking of families often lead them to dependence on men in the family and often leave them unable to provide for their families in the ways they wish.

However, tourism provides new opportunities to empower women by normalizing their presence in new workplaces. Further, despite many of the industry’s female employees taking up low-income roles, the growth of sustainable tourism and “slow” tourism, whereby tourists are moving away from traditional mass tourist destinations to seek more authentic and local experiences, is giving women in South America employment on their terms.

Wild Women Expeditions

Wild Women Expeditions offers guided tours of the famous four-day hike on the Inca trail that takes visitors through ancient Aztec sites. The organization hires female guides and porters, traditionally male-dominated roles, to take tourists along the pilgrimage to Machu Picchu.

Moreover, in the Andes, women of the Quechua community have benefited from tourism. Here, the women weave garments using traditional techniques. Visiting tourists watch the women weave, learn about their culture and purchase products. Increased tourism to the area has broadened the market for selling these textiles, increasing the income of the community, which has previously struggled in poverty. In the wake of increased tourism, a cooperative called “Awamaki” originated to empower indigenous women. It helped them manage their finances and improve their sales skills.

The UN World Tourism Board (UNWTO)

In 2022, the UN World Tourism Board (UNWTO) improved its commitment to women working in the industry by factoring them into guidelines for sustainable tourism. These guidelines include a section on gender equality and women’s empowerment. As governments across the continent follow these recommendations, it is hoped that the principles of female empowerment are included in their approaches to sustainable development. Zurab Pololikashvili, the UNWTO Secretary-General, stated, “These new guidelines will help both governments and businesses harness the sector’s power as a driver of women’s empowerment as the world opens up again.”

How Tourism is Beneficial to Women of South America

The benefits of tourism for the women of South America are two-fold: it creates jobs and fixed incomes for women while simultaneously preserving the cultural heritage and promoting the economic development of their communities. They allow women to gain income and preserve their culture, heritage and community while improving the economic development of rural areas.

To ensure a bright future for the people and environment of South America, it is important organizations such as the aforementioned continue to be supported by sustainable tourism in their areas. By continuing to break the glass ceiling for women’s employment in the tourist industry, the support of these organizations ensures that women’s empowerment continues to be promoted in South America’s tourism industry.

– Lucy Wing
Photo: Flickr

Studies by the government of Pakistan and donor agencies estimate poverty incidence in Pakistan using survey data. Over the past decade, these studies consistently show Balochistan as the poorest province, with its poor accounting for 10–11% of the country’s total poor population. Here is some information about the link between poverty and gender-based violence in Balochistan.

Harmful Customary Practices

Balochistan is full of harmful customs that adversely affect women and violate their rights. These include killings for honor, forced marriages, exchange marriages (where tribes trade women to settle disputes) and depriving girls of education. Poverty makes gender-based violence in Balochistan more likely to happen because it gives women less power and fewer choices.

According to police reports, in February 2022, over two days, three women and two men were killed in the name of ‘honor’ in the Jaffarabad, Mastung and Hub districts of Balochistan. In Jaffarabad, a man shot his wife and nephew dead. Meanwhile, in Mastung, unknown persons brutally slaughtered a married couple. In Hub, the second husband allegedly murdered his wife, Mah Jan. 

These honor killings show how common these kinds of crimes are in Balochistan. These unjustified killings are because of poverty, the lack of legal protections for women and traditional harmful beliefs that allow violence against women. The cases in February 2022 bring back calls for reform and justice to stop such tragic loss in the name of family “honor.”

The Crisis of Missing Persons

The issue of missing persons in Balochistan also disproportionately affects women. Thousands of Baloch men have gone missing, allegedly abducted by security forces. Their grieving wives and mothers have been left in limbo, not knowing if their loved ones are dead or alive. These women, considered ‘half widows, ‘ face social stigma, economic deprivation, legal problems and severe psychological trauma. The unsolved missing person crisis further terrorizes and disempowers the province’s women. 

Sammi Deen Baloch has been protesting for 13 years since her father disappeared in Balochistan, one of more than 5,000 reported missing persons in the province. After the abduction of Dr. Deen Mohammed Baloch in 2009, 15-year-old Sammi began raising awareness about these enforced disappearances by Pakistan’s security forces. 

Despite abusive crackdowns on protests, Sammi continues to demand answers and justice for families like hers suffering from indefinite loss. Her brave activism symbolizes the plight of Balochistan’s ‘half widows’ and mothers whose loved ones have vanished, as well as the importance of accountability for the decades-old human rights crisis that has left thousands missing amid the region’s separatist conflict.

The Vital Work of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons

Organizations like the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons provide affected families with legal aid, counseling and advocacy support. However, endemic poverty makes it difficult for women to pursue justice and healing. Economic dependence and lack of opportunity trap them in anguish and uncertainty.

The Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) was formed in 2009 by affected families to pursue justice for Balochistan’s disappearance. Headquartered in Quetta, VBMP provides free legal assistance to help families file petitions and cases seeking information on missing loved ones. It also offers counseling and mental health support to traumatized families, particularly women and children. VBMP organizes protests, sit-ins and campaigns to highlight enforced disappearances and pressurize authorities. It has district committees across Balochistan to document cases and mobilize families. 

VBMP publishes reports to increase awareness of the crisis locally and internationally. It also assists impoverished families with resources for legal procedures and accessing VBMP hubs. Operating on donations and aid funding, the organization employs legal advocacy, activism, counseling and reporting to support families of the missing in Balochistan in their struggle for truth and justice.

Recommendations for Empowerment

Increasing economic empowerment among women is crucial. Income generation through vocational training, microfinance schemes, handicrafts cooperatives and cash-for-work programs can provide women with financial security. These enable women to avoid forced marriages, escape abuse and sustain themselves while searching for missing family members.

Communities and justice systems should engage to stop seeing women’s rights abuses as acceptable. Protecting women from harm, ensuring their safety through shelters and prosecuting abusers create an environment where women can exercise their rights and seek justice.

Tackling endemic poverty and socioeconomic empowerment of women has to accompany legal-social reform to alleviate gender violence in all its forms. Holistic efforts addressing economic and cultural factors are needed to promote women’s rights, safety and development, and eliminate gender-based violence in Balochistan.

– Asia Jamil
Photo: Flickr