The Aka people, also known as Bayaka, are an indigenous population living in the Likouala region of the Republic of Congo. Despite their rich cultural heritage, the Aka have faced numerous challenges and obstacles.

Access to health education is crucial to improving the health and well-being of individuals, especially in challenging settings such as refugee camps where access to information is limited. The Audiopedia project in Uganda, in partnership with the local NGO TPO (Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation), aimed to address this issue by providing accessible health education to women in the Palorinya refugee settlement using solar audio players. 

The project “Enhancing Access to Health Education via Audiopedia” was awarded to our partner Red Aid Nigeria as part of the EU/BMZ #SmartDevopmentHack at bridging the health and development information gap among illiterate women and girls in Nigeria through the use of smartphones to access audio messages. Its implementation comprised a pilot phase and a 2nd phase.

Unlike commercial radio, community radio works with local communities and helps in catering their specific needs and necessities and works as an innovative tool in bringing social change. Community radios can cover a wide range of topics, including literacy, numeracy, health, farm production, housing improvements, family and personal relationships, sport and leisure. 

The Millennium Development Goal 5 of reducing maternal mortality worldwide by 75 % between 1990 and 2015, unfortunately, could not be reached. Although progress has been made, in 2015 about 303.000 women worldwide died from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth. This means 830 women died every day.

This February we kicked off our latest project in the Masaya region of Nicaragua. Our partner organization for this project is Pro Mujer, one of the largest women's organizations in Latin America. This non-profit organization offers women financial inclusion, health and education programs. Since its foundation in 1990, Pro Mujer has reached more than 2 million women in the region.

Mental health is the blind spot in the development cooperation. WHO studies indicate that mental and neurological disorders are the most common cause of diseases and disabilities worldwide. However, this topic is still completely neglected by the majority of aid projects in favour of other priorities.