Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Women Around the World: Isatou Ceesay

Transcript

Women Around the World: Isatou Ceesay · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha to Stephane. Never told
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: your production of I Hi Radio and Welcome to Women
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: around the World. Uh not the subsect. I guess it's
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: just a segment. Is it sub segment because it's not
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: the actual segment. It's the segment. It's like the actual
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: episodes that we do. Is this a subject to the
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: nitty goody? No? I think this is just segment, and
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: I'm a sub segment with my fictional women. I just
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: add fifteen subs before it, because okay, I was like, alright,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: so here's the segments in which we talk about amazing
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: women around the world and some of the accomplishments that
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: they have achieved, and just talking about how they are
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: making change in their community and around the world. But first, Annie,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: I do have a question for you. Okay, did you
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: as a kid like to do those little crafts, like
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: whether I remember making like potholders, did you do that
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: with the strings? Did you do anything like that as
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: a kid? Oh? I loved crafts. I loved them. I
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: I remember like making your own paper, or you'd rip
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: up all the paper and you'd put it in the
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: water and then you'd let it dry. Out and then
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: you'd have more paper, which was probably it's not so productive,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: counterproductive of making paper, but you know, yeah, and I
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: wrote like a declaration on it because it felt like
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: old paper. Yeah. I did, like you know, all the
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: the spin art and the marble art and just any
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: any craft I could do. I was into. I was
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: so into it. I forgot about that paper thing because
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: we did it too, and I really liked it too.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: I wonder could we do it today? We made our
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: own slime with the glue. Yeah, did you do all
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: of that? Well? Today we're not talking about measy crafts,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: but we're talking about a woman who took a craft
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: and made it something that not only helped create income,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: made something that was fashionable, but also helped her community
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: when it came to some of the waste that was happening.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: And we are talking about it. Sa to c S
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: from the Gambian village of Jaw, I think that's joo.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: One produces said jaw the other side in Jao, I'm
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: saying yao, and just emphasize the jow because we have
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: to say a couple of times because I could not
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: find it anywhere anywhere from the game being village of
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: a jaw uh c s has been bringing women in
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: her community to not only make and create a business,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: but to better the environment and the pollution situation in
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: her community. She's phenomenal. She was raised with her two
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: sisters and a brother on a farm with her parents.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: She grew up creating new things from old things, as
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: in fact pretty much recycling and reusing trash or waste
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: that was around her area. She would take waste around
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: her and create dolls and toys. She was so popular
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: with the other children because she did it so well
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: and so she was able to share and was able
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: to make it for other people too. So she has
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: been doing this for a very long time. After her
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: dad passed away when she was ten, she had to
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: help her mother bring in money to support the family.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Although she wanted to go to high school to further
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: her education, she stayed to help her mother as they
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: could not afford for her to leave to go to school,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: but she didn't give up on her dreams. Instead, at
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: the age of twenty, she sold her cow that she
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: had inherited from her father and went on to attend
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: the Gambia Technical Treating Institute to train to become a secretary,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: but after she returned home, she actually volunteered with the
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: US Peace Corps that was there to train as well
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: as helping her community, and it was here that she
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: kind of learned about the possibilities of recycling as well
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: as up cycling, which kind of tact me what she's
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: been doing. Without access to trash collection or having space
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: specific to taking the trash and waste, it would often
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: be in the streets and piles around and behind the
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: homes um and as a little girl, after her basket
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: broke down from a market, she discovered of the usefulness
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: of plastic bags and found that many other people started
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: to use them as well, so that kind of became
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: a big thing. But unfortunately, she also realized that because
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: of the waste issue, instead of having a way to
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: recycle them and or just at least safely discarding them,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: people would just discard these bags into the streets or
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: around the home, and this caused some major problems, including
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: that if it collected water from storms or rain, it
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: would attract large populations of mosquitoes, which could lead to
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: outbreaks of malaria in the area, and also caused issues
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: with livestock because some would ingest the bags, which could
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: cause major damage or even kill them, and it also
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: caused damage to the soil which would prevent vegetation from growing.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: So it was really messing up her community. And many
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: of the families were burning the plastic bags as well.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: That often would release the toxic fumes from the burning
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: and causing harm to individuals, whether it went into the
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: cooking or just breathing it in, so it was causing
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: a lot of havoc for them. With her new training
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: from the Peace Corps her skill of crocheting which she
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: learned from her sister, Um, she came up with this
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: idea of taking plastic bags and plastic waists turning that
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: waist into something to use and value. She made new
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: things like purses, which you should look up. They're they're awesome.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: She met up with five women to start a women's
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: group to gather bags from the rubbish and clean them
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: up and take them into what she called plarn p
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: l a r N, which is plastic yarn, which they
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: used to crochet into purses and coin purses. And this
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: whole process Um would take somewhere like eight hours and
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: has led to even more creations like shoulder bags and
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: cosmetic purses and more right and of course doing this
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: brought so many obstacles, including naysayers and the fact that
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: women at that time did not typically own or run
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: any type of business in the area, so a lot
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: of like pushback, but she didn't back down, and with
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: influence from her mother who kind of inspired her to
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: make her own future essentially and um knowing how to
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: solve any issues that maybe in her way she the
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: others did it, kept going forward with it, first secretly,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: uh doing it at her house, doing it by candle light,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: and then making a big collection of persons which she
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: actually took to the city market and it was a success,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: as he say, was able to sell the entire collection.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: She said that she had so many people coming about
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: how unique and beautiful they were, and so they made
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: some money. With the fact they were able to make
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: money and help their household, more women joined and they
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: no longer crafted this in secret. The people were like, okay,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: it's working cool, and the organization grew to have up
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: to fifty fifty women and even a hundred women. In
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: another article, it says, and she's been around for a minute,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: So some of this may be outdated information. I did
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: try to get more, but she's still doing things which
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: she say has now named this group or this organization
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: and GIL Recycling Income Generation Group or n r i
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: g G also later known as the Women's Initiative Gambia.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: So she's doing some things. Yeah, and it has allowed
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: for women in her community to learn different kills and
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: earned money for themselves which could lead to educational opportunities,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: ability to get medical treatment, and support their families beyond
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: just the bare necessities, and even help the community, whether
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: it's funding um community gardens, are helping children without families,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: things like that. Her story has spread all over the
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: nation with her speaking at different organizations and functions, a
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: book written about her journey, and she has been able
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: to train well over eleven thousand women in these skills.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Because of her hard work and attention to the problem.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Her village is no longer littered with plastic bags and
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: the government of Gambia even banned at the import or
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: use of plastic bags in They're ahead of us on
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: this amazing and of course her work has gotten her
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: accolades for accomplishments, including the Making a World of Difference
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: award from the International Alliance for Women. And yes, her
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: work has become an example in her country and the
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: village of the power of women and leadership. She's been
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: showing how her initiative not only empowers women, but helps
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: the entire village as a whole fin dangely economically and environmentally.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: And because of this, there are women who have been
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: put into leadership positions, including being on the in jail
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: village council. So it went from women don't work to
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: being a part of the leadership because of her initiative
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: and because of her willingness to push forward. And when
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: she was talking about what she's been doing and the
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: fact that this is something that was made a difference,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: she talks about having her kids of her own and
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: hoping that she has passed down this love uh for
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: helping the environment, helping the community as well, and maybe
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: they will learn and take care of the world and
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: the planet a little better than we have essentially and
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: going forward and conservation and environmental issues. So she's phenomenal
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: And yeah, you should go and take a look if
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: you just google her name, and I think if you
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: look at some of like I said, she has a book,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: so you can look that up to I believe It's
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: one Plastic Bag is the title of the book another
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: woman had written about her. But the persons are cute.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: I feel like I need to go and see if
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: they're still available to the one. Absolutely yeah, it's It's
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: an amazing story and if you have any amazing stories
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: we should be highlighting on the segment. Listeners, please let
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: us know. You can emails at Stuff India, mom Stuff
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: at iHeart media dot com. You can find us on
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Twitter at mom Stuff podcast or on Instagram at Stuff
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: I've Never Told You. Thanks as always to our super
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: producer Christina, also another incredible woman. Oh yes, and thanks
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: to you for listening Stuff one Ever Told. Use protection
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio for more podcast on my Heart Radios,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: that the Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.