The Conversation

It’s the third annual International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies on Wednesday 7 September. It’s aimed at raising public awareness at all levels of the urgent need to improve air quality. Air pollution is the largest contributor to the burden of disease from the environment, and is one of the main avoidable causes of death and disease globally – killing seven million people a year according to the World Health Organisation. Kim Chakanetsa talks to women from the UK and India who are calling on governments and industry to reduce air pollution.

Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah's daughter Ella died, aged nine, after a violent asthma attack in 2013. Since then Rosamund has become one of the most prominent advocates for clean air worldwide. She challenged a coroner's inquest into her daughter's death and succeeded in getting the death certificate changed to show Ella had died as a result of air pollution. Rosamund is now a WHO BreatheLife ambassador and the founder, director, and trustee of the Ella Roberta Foundation.

Bhavreen Kandhari lives in New Delhi - the most polluted capital city in the world. She has 18 year old twin daughters and is part of Warrior Moms – a group of women from across India connecting with other clean air campaigns globally to bring attention to the issue of air pollution.

Produced by Jane Thurlow

(Image: (L) Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, courtesy of Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah. (R) Bhavreen Kandhari, courtesy Bhavreen Kandhari.)

Have you ever had your heart broken? It can feel all-consuming and unbearable at points, and cause us physical pain. But why is this the case and how can we overcome it? Kim Chakanetsa finds out the answers from two women who are well versed in matters of the heart.

Dr Lucy Brown is an American neuroscientist and clinical professor in Neurology at Einstein College of Medicine in New York, and she’s one of the first people ever to study the neuroscience of romantic love. Lucy is one of the co-creators of The Anatomy Of Love, a website exploring the meaning of romantic love and attachment.

Julia Jacklin is an Australian singer songwriter who has written extensively about love and heartbreak. Her second studio album, Crushing, explores the intensity of love and the difficult process of having to let it go. Her latest album is Pre Pleasure.

Produced by Emily Naylor and Alice Gioia

(Image: (L) Lucy Brown, courtesy of Lucy Brown. (R) Julia Jacklin, credit Nick Mckk.)

Most of us rely on farmers to produce our food and rising costs for farmers are leading to spiralling food prices. It's in part down to huge increases in the cost of fuel and fertiliser, shortages of labour and the pressures of a changing climate. Kim Chakanetsa talks to two women farmers from Australia and the UK about their love for the land, the responsibility of running a family farm and how they deal with the pressure.

Katrina Sasse is an Australian cereal farmer and 2017 Nuffield Australia Scholar. She works on her large family farm and has a smaller bit of land herself. She questioned why, when addressing the shortage of farmers, nothing was focused on the capacity of farm daughters to become farmers. As part of her Nuffield research she travelled the world to interview farmers about the structural and cultural issues within agriculture that need to change for the gender gap to close.

Sarah Bell manages her family’s mixed arable farm in the English Midlands along with her husband and parents. Unusually she’s the one who’s running the family farm despite having a brother – but he didn’t want to go into farming. She also runs a consultancy business to agricultural food industry businesses and other farmers two days a week to supplement the farm income. She jokes there are more men called Mark on boards in the grain trade than there are women. Her key principle is ‘farm profitably and tread lightly’.

Produced by Jane Thurlow

(Image: (L) Katrina Sasse, credit: Kim Storey. (R) Sarah Bell, credit: Sonara Studios Oakham Rutland.)

Women play a crucial role in peace building processes around the world, but their role is rarely recognised. Kim Chakanetsa talks to two women who build bridges between communities at war with each other.

Produced by Alice Gioia

(Image: (L) Ameya Kilara, courtesy of Ameya Kilara. (R) Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, courtesy of Miriam Coronel-Ferrer)

According to the United Nations, at the end of 2021, 89.4 million people around the world had been forced to flee their homes as a result of persecution, conflict, human rights violations or other events. Among them are nearly 27.1 million refugees. Kim Chakanetsa talks to two women from Afghanistan and Zimbabwe about having to leave their country.

Hajira Zaman is 29 years old and left Afghanistan in November 2021. She’d been working in a dentist’s clinic when the Taliban entered the clinic and told her she couldn’t work with a male doctor – unless she took her husband, brother or father with her. After threats from the Taliban she, her husband and young son fled the country. Hajira was nine months pregnant and had her baby shortly after arriving in Pakistan.

Nyasha Masi is a refugee from Zimbabwe living in Cape Town. She was abused by her family for being gay and forced into marriage. She made the devastating decision to leave without her three year old daughter and escaped to South Africa. She now works with the charity Safe Place International and has set up her own group for LGBTI+ refugees called Pachedu. Her daughter (now a teenager) has joined her.

Produced by Jane Thurlow

(Image: (L) Nyasha Masi, courtesy Nyasha Masi. (R) Hajira Zaman, courtesy Hajira Zaman.)

When doubt creeps in about the faith you’ve grown up in and nobody will tolerate your questions, when you look at your life ahead mapped out by others and wonder where your ambitions fit - how do you step away? Kim Chakanetsa talks to two women from Tanzania and Scotland about leaving their religion.

Zara Kay grew up in Tanzania in a strict Muslim family. She faced disapproval when she chose not to wear a hijab, for moving abroad to study, and for her career as an IT engineer. But the abuse she received after expressing support for gay marriage exposed such hate in her community that she left the religion. On a recent trip to visit family in Tanzania she was arrested. She now lives in Sweden and works with an online organisation, Faithless Hijabi, supporting other former-Muslims.

Ali Millar was raised in a community of Jehovah’s Witness in Scotland - spending Saturdays knocking on doors trying to convert people. As a teenager she struggled with trying to fit in at school and make friends while at the same time obeying the rules of her religion. Married young she wasn't allowed to follow the career she dreamed of. Realising her daughter would face the same restricted life, she walked out on the religion and hasn't seen her mother or sister since. Ali’s book about her experience is called The Last Days.

Produced by Jane Thurlow

(Image: (L) Zara Kay, credit Andrew Bott Phototherapy. (R) Ali Millar, courtesy Ebury Press.)

What would you do if a loved one went missing? Kim Chakanetsa talks to two women whose lives have been touched by a missing person’s case, and now help other families find answers.

Dr Chung Pham is an anti-trafficking specialist from Vietnam. When she was a teenager, she stopped the initial abduction of a schoolmate, who was later trafficked into China. After relocating to the UK, Chung became an advocate for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, often victims of trafficking or modern slavery. This inspired her to join Locate International, a charity helping relatives of missing people find their loved ones.

Dr Michelle Jeanis is an assistant professor in the Criminal Justice department at University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Her research focuses on the best practices to help locate people who disappear and on the media coverage of missing people’s cases. She decided to study this topic after her friend’s sister, Mickey Shunik, disappeared in 2012.

Produced by Alice Gioia

(Image: (L) Michelle Jeanis, credit Scarlett Davis. (R) Chung Pham, credit Hong Van.)

Kim Chakanetsa meets two women who bring electricity to communities in the US and New Zealand.

Maureen Miller is a listener from Wisconsin in the US who got in touch to tell us why she is so passionate about being a journeyman lineman. She talks about bringing power to communities devastated by hurricanes and floods and she tells us about the skills required to do this extremely dangerous work.

Laisa Pickering-Bryant is the first female distribution line mechanic at her company to work on live high voltage lines. She was born and raised on the Fiji Islands and she currently lives in Auckland, New Zealand. Laisa is also part of Connexis, a project training and mentoring women working in infrastructure.

Produced by Alice Gioia

(Image: (L) Maureen Miller, credit courtesy of Maureen Miller. (R) Laisa Pickering-Bryant, credit courtesy of Laisa Pickering-Bryant.)

Why are friends who are always there for you so important? Kim Chakanetsa meets two women who’ve put friendships at the heart of their work to make hugely successful TV series.

Nicole Amarteifio is a Ghanaian film director and screenwriter. She’s best known for her show An African City, which chronicles the adventures of five female friends who return to live in Ghana after spending time abroad. The story is autobiographical and one of the main actors is Nicole's childhood friend.

Produced by Alice Gioia

(Image: (L) Marta Kauffman, credit Okay Goodnight. (R) Nicole Amarteifio, credit Emmanuel Bobbie.)

Two women confronting the dangers of plastic pollution talk to Kim Chakanetsa. They’re sounding the alarm and working on innovative solutions: from an island clear-up that collected 750,000 empty plastic bottles to reducing microplastics in the air and waterways.

Estrela Matilde lives on the island of Príncipe off the coast of West Africa – where her work to reduce plastic pollution has helped increase the number of turtle nests by more than 40 percent to 2,500 over six years. Estrela is a Whitley Fund for Nature winner 2022.

Siobhan Anderson is a co-founder of a start-up called The Tyre Collective. They're working to find a solution to the plastic pollution caused by tyre wear. The waste from tyres as they degrade is the second largest microplastic pollutant in the environment – making up to 28% of primary microplastics in our oceans, as well as contributing to airborne pollution. Siobhan is from California in the United States and is now based in London.

Produced by Jane Thurlow

(Image: (L) Estrela Matilde, credit Fundação Príncipe & Yves Rocher Award. (R) Siobhan Anderson, courtesy Siobhan Anderson.)