In rural areas
such as poor countries, majority of the population rely on certain climate for
survival, particularly women. With the right weather, women tend to use their
resources to grow and plant food for their families. In this week article,
African women in the Nairobi, Kenya area are suffering from a drastic climate
change that has their main source of food difficult to produce and grow.
Changes in local
rivers, lakes and waterholes have caused “extreme drought,” and forced many
families to leave their home in Kenya. It
is normal for Kenya women to be the head of the household when it comes to “local
on-the-ground natural resources.” As they rely on nature as their source of
food, women are having a more difficult time with crop failing which results to
harder work and less food for their family. Cecilla Kibe, Founder of Director
of Kenya Climate Justice Women Champions, believes that “climate change threatens
to lock poor people and women in particular in a vicious cycle of poverty.” As
for the husbands, they have to leave the family to go find work due to low levels
of poverty they face.
In the area,
drought and flash floods are causing more deaths and displacement than
cyclones, floods and earthquakes combined, making them the worlds destructive
natural hazard. This puts women at the
center of the natural climate change and victims of a “strenuous circumstance
where traditional livelihoods are under threat and where men are often absent.”
Certain things that women grow to survive are “growing maze” of peas, beans,
cow pea crops, and corn that is down 100,000 metric tons this year. For those
who grow and sell their food to the community, their business is declining which
is also making it harder for them to provide for their families.
As I keep doing my
research on women in the world, I really appreciate much more about my
resources and what I take for granted most of the time, while other women pray
for what I have. To depend on the weather for natural resources such as food
must be a major challenge for Kenya women. In my eyes they are very strong and
patient with a lot of courage and survival skills. A solution to the issue in
Kenya about the poor climate change would be moving to an area where it is best
to grow the natural resources they need to supply for their families or their
business. I know that it will be hard to leave their home but it is all about
survival and when the circumstances have improved, they could move back and
live their life.
Sheila Floyd
3/22/2013
Soc 202-01
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