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"Three Rounds of Tuareg Tea" From Breastfeeding Education
to Hygiene Promotion in Niger: A Public Health Project
Editor’s Note:
Ariane Alzhara Kirtley, M.P.H. ’04, spent the summer of 2003 working
on a CARE International breastfeeding promotion initiative in Niger. This
spring, she shared her work, travels, and relationships in Niger with
the EPH and medical school communities through a photo exhibit entitled
“‘Three Rounds of Tuareg Tea’ From Breastfeeding Education
to Hygiene Promotion in Niger: A Public Health Project.” Thanks
to Kirtley’s generosity, the exhibit is reproduced here. Kirtley’s
introductory text, immediately below, provides background for the exhibit’s
first set of photos, which depict some of the individuals, cultures and
aspects of life in the regions in which Kirtley worked. Kirtley’s
description of her public health work, appearing farther down on this
page, introduces a second set of photos depicting the multiple public
health issues with which Kirtley dealt, and with which the people of Niger
live.
Ariane Alzhara Kirtley ’04
Yale School of Public Health, Global Health Division
My name mirrors my roots, planted firmly on three continents: Kirtley
the American born, Ariane daughter of my French mother, and Alzhara the
African. Alzhara, "desert flower" in Arabic, has a most special
meaning for me; it suggests that I blossomed in Africa.
I crossed the Sahara Desert for the first time when I was six months
old -- in a basket tied to the back seat of the family Land-Cruiser. From
those earliest months until I turned ten, my home was in North and West
Africa. Together with my brother and National Geographic journalist
parents, I lived among the nomadic Bozo fishermen in Mali, the Ibadite
Muslims of central Algeria, the animist Gueré of western Ivory
Coast, and the Inadan artisans of Niger’s Ayr Mountains in the Sahara
Desert. The African people we met were our surrogate extended family:
no matter how poor they were in material wealth, they welcomed my family
with open arms, always offering us their best food and most comfortable
dwelling in the village.
Last summer, I returned to Niger to work for CARE International on a
breastfeeding promotion initiative. I was once again received with open
arms and treated like a princess. I rediscovered a land filled with simple
treasures: drinking fura prepared from millet, goat cheese, dates, and
rare desert herbs by my surrogate mother, Bashi; walking friends home
after afternoons spent together chatting inside my hut (it would be rude
to let them go home alone after honoring me with their visit); lingering
in the streets to greet the passers-by with multiple Hausa salutations,
inquiring about their health, their work, their children, their animals,
and their fields; sipping three rounds of Tuareg tea under the shooting
stars of the Saharan sky and awakening before dawn to the grunts of camels
and women pounding millet.
Through my pictures, I hope that you too will experience this rich and
diverse land of extremes: extreme kindness, extreme heat, extreme beauty,
and extreme challenges. With these pictures, I share with you my African
home and my family, and hopefully, my life’s work.
View First Set of Photos
Work Experience: From Breastfeeding Education to Hygiene Promotion
This past summer, I returned to my African home as an intern for CARE
International in Niger. I began my work with CARE's Food Security Initiative,
promoting the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding. After only a few weeks,
I recognized that I was the least qualified person for this campaign,
considering that all the women I worked with had experience lactating,
whereas I had none. At the same time, I became deeply concerned by the
"black plastic bag" phenomenon. In towns and villages, trees and bushes,
the roads and homes were "decorated" with black plastic bags. This came
to me as a great surprise, because in my childhood memory, the West African
landscape was pristine. I remembered only golden dunes and luscious millet
fields unblemished by the byproducts of Western society. In fact, the
West Africans were among the first people to give me lessons in recycling:
among other things, they converted sardine cans into musical instruments
and road springs into garden tools.
After a few weeks in Niger, I began researching viable waste management
strategies for the non-biodegradable waste polluting the landscape. I
first anticipated finding innovative solutions for discarding plastic
bags. Through interviews, personal observations, and experiences such
as receiving a bag of feces on my head, I quickly realized that proper
disposal of plastic bags is not the Nigerien priority. Basic personal
and environmental hygiene must first be enhanced through education and
improved infrastructure if I hope to someday “uncover” anew
a pristine Nigerien landscape, untarnished by black plastic bags.
I am currently developing a proposal for CARE in Niger to implement a hygiene and sanitation initiative. I have also received a Fulbright grant to return to Niger next year in order to research the special needs of women and minority ethnic populations with regard to hygiene and sanitation, with the hope that the results will be used to inform hygiene promotion campaigns sponsored by non-profit organizations such as CARE International.
View Second Set of Photos
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