In mid-November 2019, the UN World Population Conference took place in Nairobi, the
first time in 25 years. At that time, the topic of the still rapidly increasing world
population was in the headlines for a few days; after that, it was back to business
as usual and is now back to more "important" topics. Yet the current figures on the
development of the world population give us reason for deep concern: While in 1950
there were still 2.5 billion people living on our earth, today there are already
more than 7.7 billion; for the middle of this century almost 10 billion are predicted.
In large parts of the western and industrialised world, the population has increased
comparatively slowly in recent decades. On the other hand, our consumption of resources,
the emission of pollutants, the use of toxins, the production of waste, to name just
a few points, has grown considerably, so that our ecological footprint is becoming
ever larger.
The consequences of this unrestrained growth - both in the number of people living
today and in the consumption of available resources - for all of us, for our environment,
for our living conditions, for our society are dramatic. This is especially true
for many countries in Africa.
The goals of our projects in Malawi meet the expectations and specifications of the
UN Population Fund very precisely:
● Strengthening the rights of women
● Investing in education
● Sexual and reproductive health education
● Voluntary birth control
The measures of our projects should contribute significantly to limit the rapid growth
of the population in Africa.
Unfortunately, many influential organisations and groups still reject this promising
path, often for religious or traditional reasons. But also indifference and lack
of interest of official organisations in this central problem of our time prevent
a solution that meets the urgency of the situation.
