Drissa is a mid wife from Burkina Faso working to create communities where “Every Woman Counts!” As a member and spokesperson of The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, he works to educate and to inform others of the need to make pregnancy and childbirth safe for all women and newborns in developing, as well as, developed countries. Drissa from Burkina Faso, like Kadi a woman of Niger, was a member of the University's summer 2011 African delegation.
Colors, rich fabrics, vibrant patterns, and the intricate and open designs as pictured in the accompanying photograph of Niger Women are the traditional elements used in the creative fashion designs of Kadi, a woman of Niger.
Kadi
is a fashion designer from Niamey, Niger. A creative thinker all her
life, she often was scolded by her elementary school teachers for her 'doodling'
and daydreaming. Kadi combines the traditional design elements of her
native country with contemporary trends in personalized designs for her clients. Kadi came to the United States last
summer (2011) as a member of the University’s first delegation of West Africans
traveling as beneficiaries of the State Department–funded grant. Kadi was the sole representative from
Niger and the only woman in the delegation of eleven. Scheduled to arrive in Niamey next Sunday (06 NOV) and,
anxious to continue the conversation begun last summer, we plan to spend time
‘catching up’ with Kadi, fashion designer from Niamey.
Chad’s capital city, N’Djamena, is situated at the confluence of the Chari and Logone Rivers. Both rivers originate in the Central African Republic (a landlocked and sparsely populated undulating plateau) and flow northward into Lake Chad. One of Africa’s most important wetlands-and significant as an international wetland-the Lake is a living well for over 20 million people from Chad, Niger, Nigeria, and Cameroon. Endangered otters, gazelles, elephants, hippopotamuses and Nile Crocodiles live here, too.
But the Lake is shrinking...
“In the course of history, there comes a time when...we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other. That time is now.” (Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize, Dec 2004, Oslo, Norway)
Dr. Maathai died of ovarian cancer 25 Sep 2011. She was 71 years old.
A night flight from Detroit, Michigan 01 NOV will take us to Paris and Charles de Gaulle Airport for a connecting flight to N’Djamena the capital city of Chad. This will be our first stop in Africa. Chad shares with Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal a general identity born by desert in the north and savanna in the south. The ancient migratory African passage separating Sahara from savanna is known as the Sahel. Here in the capital city we will try to re-connect with Khalil. A delegate from the first year of the grant, Khalil is a young entrepreneur with aspirations of opening a restaurant specializing in steak dinners and fine dining.
Soon we will leave the United States for the West African countries of Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal with transit between Chad and Niger through Cameroon, Benin, and Togo. A two – year grant awarded to The University of Findlay by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs is, in part, responsible for our activity and increasing interest in this - the Sahelian - region of the world.
The focus of the grant is economic development in five francophone countries. Now in its second year, the rigid stuffiness of the program, formally identified as the Trans Saharan African Professionals Program, has become a richly woven and colorful fabric of personal relationships and individual stories.
Drissa is a mid wife from Burkina Faso working to create communities where “Every Woman Counts!” As a member and spokesperson of The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, he works to educate and to inform others of the need to make pregnancy and childbirth safe for all women and newborns in developing, as well as, developed countries. Drissa from Burkina Faso, like Kadi a woman of Niger, was a member of the University's summer 2011 African delegation.
