By Kate Sulzner | Director, EcoVet Global
Give women education, and they will heal the Earth. The evidence of this statement was all around us this past June as we kicked off our third workshop in a series of One Health* training modules for rural women in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. It was an especially wonderful experience for the Women’s EARTH Team since our collaborators from EcoVet Global in the U.S. were able to travel to Tanzania to engage in workshop activities and meet the amazing women and project stakeholders contributing to the project.
To provide some background and a refresher, the June One Health Specialization Workshop was offered to 60 women from two remote farming communities located in Tanzania’s Southern Highlands where we are piloting the program. The workshop built on past training modules and sought to transform the women’s training into real-world outputs. Our incredibly talented project leaders, Jesca Mlawa and Eliza Komba, along with a dream team of local and regional Tanzanian experts, guided the women through participatory activities and lively discussions in four thematic areas of One Health: 1) water conservation and health; 2) animal health and biosecurity; 3) soil health and eco-farming; and 4) human-wildlife conflict mitigation and biodiversity protection. Climate change served as a cross-cutting theme. At the end of the workshop, the women developed practical nature-based solutions to address local challenges related to each of the four One health themes. In the coming months, the women will be will be meeting regularly with Jesca and Eliza and workshop facilitators to ensure the solutions the women are implementing in their communities are achieving the desired objectives. They will also work with the Team to begin to operationalize their activities into income generating-pursuits with measurable environmental and species-wide health benefits. Over the next two years, we plan to scale the program to four additional communities and create the framework for a system of regional, women-led One Health hubs.
The women in these two communities are truly inspirational, and their determination is unmatched. Please take a look at the photos that accompany this report to catch a glimpse of the EARTH women in action. They are the definition of positive change-makers. As always, we are immensely grateful to all of you who have made this work possible. Know that you have made a significant difference in the lives of over 60 women and their families, hundreds of animals, and in the regeneration of natural resources and the biodiverse landscape they share.
With gratitude,
Kate & The Women's EARTH Project Team
*One Health is a holistic approach that encourages collaboration across communities and specialists to examine connections between humans, animals, and their shared environment in relation to health, livelihoods, and conservation problems.
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