Our Stories

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Rain water harvesting improves lives of Tanzanian farmers

In recent years, residents of Tanzania's Kilimanjaro region have seen their livelihoods threatened by climate change-induced water shortages. The Kilimanjaro region has always been one of the driest in Tanzania, receiving less than 400 mm of rainfall annually. The average annual rainfall for the cou more

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In Senegal, access to water 'life-transforming'

Kalla Niang, 12, is highly self-assured and energetic. She is busily preparing herself for high school, an opportunity that, until recently, would not have been available to her. Kalla lives in the village of Darou Ngaraf in northern Senegal. Like many girls in rural Senegal, Kalla and her sisters a more

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Recycling boosts incomes in Rwanda's capital

For Edith, Eugénie and Vestine, three women in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, life has taken a turn for the better since joining a local association that helps get vulnerable people off the street and earning an income, while cleaning up the city. The three are among 200 members of Association Dusabane t more

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Nigeria: Sawdust recycling creates jobs while cleaning up city

For environmentalist Leslie Adogame in Lagos, Nigeria, his daily commute past large sawdust piles from the local timber factories got him thinking - how to clean up the waste and create jobs at the same time? “After brooding over it for a while, I decided that I had to do something to stop the burni more

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Reviving rare mangroves in Senegal

A few kilometres outside of Saint-Louis, the capital city of the Saint-Louis Region in northern Senegal, there is a strip of land covered with the northernmost stand of mangroves in all of western Africa. The stand is genetically isolated, making its preservation an urgent matter for both the people more

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New techniques help farmers adapt to climate change in Sudan

Ahmed Eldaw, like his fellow farmers and pastoralists in northern Sudan, used to practice a form of subsistence agriculture that depended solely on the erratic floods of the Atbara River. During periods of exceptionally high flooding, he could expect to grow enough sorghum to provide for his family more

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Solar power changes families’ lives in Botswana

Until recently, the Mokgatlhe family in Kgope, a remote village situated 50 kilometres west of Botswana’s capital, had been using firewood to light and heat their home.  This practice, used by 80 percent of Botswana’s rural population, has led to the destruction of countless acres of forest.&nb more

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Nicaragua: Electricity empowers rural communities

Maribel Ubeda’s is among the 4,400 families from eight rural communities in Nicaragua who gained access to electricity when a new 300 kilowatt micro-hydropower plants was inaugurated by local authorities in her village. “When they first told us about this project, people in my community didn’t belie more

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Lao PDR: Diversifying crops to cope with climate change

For Ki Her, the head of Kioutaloun village in mountainous northern Lao PDR, and 95 percent of the population who grow rice, the change in the weather over the past five years presents significant challenges. With shorter but more intense rainy seasons, followed by longer dry seasons, farmers are st more

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Building a brighter future for rice farmers in Cambodia

Farmers in the small community of Tuol Sdey, in the Svay Rieng province of southeastern Cambodia, have reason to be happy.  For the first time in decades they can rejoice in having two harvests in one season. This is largely due to the construction of a new water dam which stores rain in a near more