Onchocerciasis, also known as river blindness, is an infectious disease that is caused by the parasitic worm Onchocerca volvulus. The infection is transmitted by Simulium blackflies through a bite. It is the second leading infectious disease that results in vision loss. Unlike other diseases, this disease requires repeated bites for an infection to happen. The disease is also called river blindness because the fly breeds in streams and rivers and leads to vision loss. Onchocerciasis is prevailing in remote rural areas which makes those who live or work in these areas more at risk.

Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are a group of communicable diseases and caused by pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, and parasites that continuously affect more than 1 billion people globally. Despite ongoing measures, NTDs are still prevalent in vulnerable and low-income countries such as Africa, Asia, and Latin America. NTDs are comprised of 20 different medical diseases and mostly target women and children of susceptible communities.

As in many other developing countries, there are hardly any trained professionals for mental health care in Rwanda. Especially for people living in poverty or far away from urban centres, there is therefore no or hardly any suitable help. As a rule, many mentally ill people cannot be adequately supported.

Leprosy is still a thing. The number of new cases reported globally to the World Health Organization in 2019 was more than 200,000. An estimated 2 to 3 million people are living with leprosy-related disabilities globally. In 2019, the countries with the highest number of new diagnoses were India, Brazil, and Indonesia. Over half of all new cases of leprosy are diagnosed in India, which remains home to a third of the world’s poor, a group disproportionately affected by the disease.

Gender-based violence in Sub-Saharan Africa is a large issue that has not yet been adequately addressed. According to the UN, women in sub-Saharan Africa are at greater risk of intimate partner violence than in most other regions of the world.

Female empowerment is often thought of as a critical aspect of achieving gender equality. Gender equality has been one of the UN’s greatest priorities for a few decades now: the organization has given it strong consideration in the Sustainable Development 2030 Agenda, in the Millennium Development Goals established in the year 2000, and in the still relevant Beijing Platform for Action from 1995. Worldwide, progress has been made, but Sub-Saharan Africa still remains one of the regions further behind in terms of gender equality and related issues affecting women.

Women’s empowerment can be defined in simple terms as “the process of increasing women’s access to control over the strategic life choices that affect them and access to the opportunities that allow them fully to realize their capacities” (Chen and Tanaka 2014). Because of its positive connotations, the word “empowerment” has become a comfortable and indisputable term, which has led to a wide range of institutions, organizations, and governments to adopt it as something they aspire to work towards (Papart, Rai, and Staudt 2003, 3).

So here we are - this is the above-mentioned famous stand-alone goal SDG-5, aiming to achieve gender equality and empower all girls and women by 2030. Among its accompanying targets you will find: "End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere“ as well as „Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation."

The first of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) set in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly commits to ending poverty in all its forms and dimensions everywhere by 2030. As of today, this remains one of the biggest challenges facing humanity. Extreme poverty is currently defined as living on less than $1.90 a day.

SDG-3 aspires to ensure healthy lives and to promote well-being for all people at all ages. As for this goal, a short look at some of its accompanying targets is already sufficient to highlight its interconnectedness with women’s empowerment: Sub-goals of SDG-3 are the reduction of global maternal, premature and neonatal mortality ratios. The ending of preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 are center points here.