World news has recently focused on the Ebola virus in Guinea and the almost 300 kidnapped schoolgirls in Nigeria, but we hear very little about the daily struggles of people in West Africa.
The women of West Africa bear the brunt of economic hardships as they try to provide for their families in some of the world’s poorest nations. Many women are easily seduced by men and then abandoned to care for their children alone. Cultural practices of female genital cutting and child marriages, coupled with limited health care, cause high rates of maternal death. Many of those who survive their pregnancies suffer from the debilitating problem of obstetric fistula.
Preventable or easily treatable diseases (malaria, diarrhea and respiratory infections) remain the main killers of women and children. Other deaths are caused by HIV/AIDS, malnutrition, poor hygiene, and lack of access to safe water and adequate sanitation.
Spiritual darkness grips the people of West Africa in fear and bondage to fetishes, voodoo, witch doctors, and controlling cultural and religious practices. Limited education has further darkened the lives of West Africa’s unreached people groups and oral cultures, making it difficult to reach them with the gospel of Christ. Christian radio broadcasts reach into their darkness and offer hope.
Project Women's Health’s Women of Hope program offers lifesaving advice, love, and hope through Jesus Christ. Women of Hope can be heard in West Africa in English (Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone); Bambara (Mali); and French (Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, and Togo). Pray for these listeners and for finances to begin airing in other West African countries.
