Women in Africa struggle to feed their families, find wood and water and stay alive.
Women work two-thirds of Africa's labor hours, according to Paul Vallely writing in "The Independent." He tells that they produce 70 percent of the food but receive 10 percent of the income on the continent. Further, women own not even 1 percent of the property in Africa. The earnings of African women are spent on their children and households to a greater extent than those of men are spent on the same things. The challenges that face the women of Africa reduce quality of life to a dangerous extent. Their life expectancy is 41 years.
Poverty
All but two of the 30 poorest countries in the world are in Africa. Rural women are greatly affected by poverty. Men often travel to industrial areas to work while women keep the rural economy running. They are subsistence farmers and they sell produce in markets. Thirty-three percent of people in Sub-Saharan Africa are malnourished. African women usually live without electricity, telephones or modern plumbing. When drought or floods ruin crops the women have no source of food unless they receive intermittent food aid.
Unsafe Drinking Water
Lack of safe and clean drinking water is a problem for African women; more than 300 million people in Africa lack clean water. African women may walk up to five miles a day to fetch water. Health is endangered by micro-organisms in the water. Babies are often sickened when women must mix infant formula using the dirty water.
HIV/Aids
According to the HIV/AIDS awareness and charity organization, Avert, 59 percent of those living with HIV are female. There is a gender element to the illness in African. Lack of awareness or partner unwillingness to use protection endanger women. Statistics on the number of younger women contracting the illness show that in the 15-to-24-age group, 75 percent of those with HIV/AIDS are women. Often HIV-positive women or those widowed by HIV/AIDS lose their homes due to stigmatization in the community. Pregnant and nursing women with HIV/AIDS lack access to drugs to prevent passing it to their infants.
Violence and Sexual Violence
Women and girls in Africa experience the same kinds of violence and sexual violence that women in other parts of the world experience. A common weapon of war in struggles such as those in Sudan and The Democratic Republic of Congo is systematic rape. Women living in villages and refugee camps are targeted for rape. Female genital mutilation, preformed ritually in some African cultures, is a violent and dangerous practice that women can seldom prevent. Forced marriage, being sold into servitude and early marriage are also struggles some African women face.
Education
Two-thirds of the 40 million African children who do not attend school are girls. Only 60 percent of girls go to primary school. The majority, 53.2 percent, of African women are illiterate. In some countries, such as Mozambique, the illiteracy rate among women is double that of men. Many families can afford to send only one or two children to school. Often boys are sent instead of girls.
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