Sunday, November 2, 2008

Helping Africa Become Sustainable

Africa is the Earth's second largest and second most populated continent. It has a wealth of natural resources and wildlife but it's people are suffering socially, environmentally, economically and politically. Their mortality rates are high, their rate of school completion is low and most of the people live on less than $1 per day.

Sustainability stands for harmony between the economic, social and environmental components of the community. All of these have to be in balance to enable future generations to live self-sufficiently. We can help by buying fair-trade products made in Africa. www.dancinggiraffeimports.com These products are reasonably priced and do not contain alot of the chemicals and additives that products made in the US do. Buying these products helps them move from a position of vulnerability to one of economic self-sufficiency.

Staff and students at The University of Manchester raised enough money from the sale of bottled water to pay for the installation of a water pump in a remote area of South Africa on the Botswana border. The pump is at the Ikagisano Intermediate School, in the form of a roundabout powered by children playing which draws fresh water from a well.