Many years of civil war have led to unrest in all aspects of Somalian life. Among the areas most affected is primary education in Somalia. Though the United States is doing a great deal to help rebuild, significant differences in the infrastructures of both countries’ primary schools still remain.
Primary schooling is the earliest stage of education in a child’s life, aside from nursery, pre-schooling or kindergarten programs. It is an important phase in the learning process because it teaches children the basics of reading, writing and math that they need for later education and life in general.
Because primary schools are the foundation of an entire educational system’s organization, attention to their efficacy is critical. Comparing primary education in the U.S. to that of a developing country such as Somalia provides interesting insight into the reasons that higher education in both countries may differ so significantly.
From the beginning of formal schooling, fewer children are receiving an education in Somalia. While education at the primary level is mandatory for all children in the U.S., roughly 42 percent of primary school aged children are enrolled in school.
In the U.S., primary school lasts from first to fifth grade, resulting in five years of fundamental education. In Somalia, however, primary school ends in fourth grade. Though schooling continues beyond these four years, many children do not. Dropping out before the fifth grade level becomes almost a social norm, as only 8 percent of Somali children enroll in secondary school.
Accessibility to education in Somalia and the U.S. accounts for these staggering differences. Public education is available to all students in the U.S., making the compulsory nature of schooling possible. However, due to the number of schools destroyed by civil war in Somalia, easily accessible education is not a luxury available to all Somali children.
The children that do attend school in Somalia also face obstacles that U.S. students do not encounter regularly. For example, the teacher-to-student ratio in primary schools in Somalia is one to 33. The average number of pupils per teacher in the U.S. is less than half of that, giving each student greater opportunity for individual attention.
Gender inequality is also apparent in the Somali education system. The current social barriers in Somalia do not encourage women to receive an education, so it is not surprising that less than 36 percent of students are female. Because schooling is mandated by U.S. laws, gender disparity is not a noticeable issue in American primary schools.
Other issues U.S. pupils are less likely to face are disparity of textbooks and other learning materials, a lack of qualified teachers and unstandardized curricula.
In the U.S., curricula are standardized by state. Education at the primary level does not vary too much. Most students learn to read and write at the same age and acquire the same basic skill sets during first through fifth grade.
Consistency is lacking among primary schools in Somalia. What one child learns in second grade may be completely different from what another child learns in second grade at a different school. The lack of a standardized curriculum makes country-wide assessments difficult. Even though the Ministry of Education in Somalia would like to rebuild the educational system, the absence of standardization does not provide an adequate place to start making improvements.
A good place to start may be government funding. Public schools in the U.S. are government funded, but many of the primary schools in Somalia cannot function without receiving at least some financial support from students’ parents. A child raised in a poor family may not be able to afford primary education.
The quality of public education varies in the U.S. depending on the economic state of the school’s area, but public education is always available. In order to provide the most help to the Somali educational system, aid should be given to ensure that some sort of schooling is always available to children, especially at a young age.
The good news is that many U.S. aid programs are working to rebuild schools in Somalia.
SAFE, the Somali and American Fund for Education, works with schools in Somalia to ensure their credibility as learning institutions. The organization looks at the community’s involvement in their local schools and awards certain areas money to fund construction of new school buildings. The even better news is that these schools include all levels of learning through twelfth grade, including primary education.
– Emily Walthouse
Sources: SAFE, Classbase 1, Classbase 2, MOE Somalia, NCES, UNICEF
Photo: Atlanta BlacK Star
Ugandan HIV Law Facing Scrutiny
Uganda’s president is contemplating signing a law that would criminalize the deliberate transmission of HIV. The law would also require pregnant women to get tested for the virus and allow health officials to disclose the HIV status of certain individuals in order to protect potential sexual partners.
The bill was passed in the Ugandan Parliament in March and is awaiting the signature of President Yoweri Museveni to become law. However, the proposal has been met with considerable criticism, as many believe the initiative will exacerbate Ugandan HIV prevalence.
“Uganda has taken a giant leap backwards in the struggle against HIV,” Dr. Noreen Kaleeba, executive of the Aids Support Organization, decried in a statement last month.
Critics like Dr. Kaleeba believe the pending law will discourage citizens from being tested in order to skirt any possible criminal liability, and many fear the measure will disproportionately impact Ugandan women. In addition, the text appears to be an abusive invasion of privacy that will intensify the already paralyzing stigmatization suffered by those carrying the virus.
Only 33 percent of the Ugandan population has been tested for HIV. In addition, recent undercover reporting conducted by BBC journalists indicates that many Ugandans are going as far as to procure fake HIV negative tests results in order to mislead employers and avoid stigmatization.
However, most Ugandan politicians disagree with critic’s assessments of this new law, citing the recent increase in HIV infections — a disconcerting trend that suggests many citizens are transmitting the virus willfully. Today, 1.5 million Ugandans are infected.
“The law is not unfairly targeting anybody, but rather it is addressing somebody who has tested for HIV and knows his or her status and, out of malice, intentionally wants to infect others,” stated Chris Baryomunsi, a respected member of Ugandan Parliament.
Despite significant opposition to thwart the bill’s passage, the measure appears destined to pass, as the opposition has voiced recent discouragement over an inability to engage the global community. However, popular protest has yielded positive results in the past, as the President vetoed a radical anti-gay bill earlier this year after significant international pressure demanded Museveni squash the hateful and violent legislation.
President Museveni is expected to make a decision in the next couple of weeks.
– Sam Preston
Sources: All Africa, BBC News, The Globe and Mail
Photo: Cloud Front
Cordes Foundation 101
In 2006, Ron Cordes and his family started to make some changes. First, Cordes sold his successful business, AssetMark Investment Services, to Genworth Financial. Then, after a short three-year stint as CEO of Genworth Wealth Management, Ron and Marty Cordes started giving back.
After $10 million in donations, Ron had begun devoting his time to the initiatives of the Cordes Foundation, and stayed on as co-chairman of Genworth. Marty had started devoting her time to the organizations that the Cordes Foundation supports — organizations that empower women and girls and promote global human rights.
Three key initiatives pave the way for the Cordes Foundation:
1. Catalyzing new sources of capital for impact investments.
Cordes started building the foundations of this initiative when he co-founded ImpactAssets, a nonprofit that garners investment capital to achieve the greatest impact possible in various global environmental, social and financial issues. ImpactAssests has its own set of goals, which include creating positive social and environmental impacts that generate a return for investors.
2. Equipping the next generation of social entrepreneurs.
The Cordes Foundation does this by supporting the Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship. It is a university-based center where practice and training are offered to young social entrepreneurs. The center works to instill values of solution-mindedness and innovation in the coming generations.
3. Connect and support global leaders in social enterprise.
As co-chairs of the Opportunity Collaboration, Marty and Ron foster the sharing of innovation between a number of different parties like social entrepreneurs, impact investors and the public sector. The collaboration gets together annually in October, when 300 delegates gather to represent leaders from 30 countries. But the Cordes Foundation is certainly not alone. It serves as a great example of two recent trends that are quickly gaining speed.
Cordes has five pieces of advice for his daughter:
Cordes seems to be doing all of those things as he takes part in the wave of nonprofit family organizations that have the potential to leave a positive legacy across the world. These family nonprofits offer philanthropists a way to better control their giving, and just like Cordes, they work to leave their children and the next generation with values of generosity and compassion.
Cordes says “Since my early 40s, I had an itch that there was something else out there that I could be accomplishing and a greater purpose out that I could be achieving than running a successful business. The opportunity to sell the business gave me the resources so I could pursue that. I went from trying to build the best business in the world to building the best businesses for the world.”
Ron Cordes represents a great example of how the encore career later in life can be beneficial in the fight against global poverty, hunger and other humanitarian efforts.
– Rachel Davis
Sources: Forbes, New York Times
Latin American Youth Struggle to Find Employment
Latin American youth are finding it increasingly difficult to find gainful employment. Of the region’s 108 million people in the 18 to 24 year age bracket, 21.8 million of them are known as NEETs – not in employment, education or training. In Spanish they are called NiNis – ni estudian ni trabajan (they do not study, nor do they work). NiNis are a stigmatized group, pegged as lazy, unmotivated and apathetic.
To make matters worse, many Latin American youth who do find jobs end up working in poor conditions and lack the protection of labor rights. Six in every 10 young people in Latin America work in unlawful labor conditions, according to a recent International Labor Organization report.
The ILO study, titled Trabajo decente y juventud: políticas para la acción (Decent Work and Youth: Policies for Action), also reported that the youth unemployment rate is three times as high as that of adults and twice as high as the overall rate. Young people are unable to find decent jobs even though the current generation is better educated than any previous cohort.
In Guatemala, 78 percent of NiNis work informal positions doing housework and other menial chores. Yet the hard core of NiNis exists in Paraguay and Uruguay, with 48 and 45 percent of young people respectively neither employed, nor enrolled in an academic institution.
Several causes for youth unemployment exist. Education is key – if the education system is not in sync with an area’s labor market, graduates will not leave their educational institution with the necessary skills to break into and thrive in the workforce. Population growth has also contributed to the existence of such high numbers of unemployed youth around the globe. Additionally, during times of economic hardship, employers are more likely to lay off younger workers who do not represent as significant of an investment as their older, better trained counterparts.
The fundamental problem, outlined by the ILO report, is that not enough opportunities exist for Latin American youth. Guy Rider, director of the International Labor Organization, says that the “lack of access to opportunities for decent work generates frustration and discouragement among youth. There are 108 million reasons why we must act now.”
The good news is that some organizations are acting. Work4Youth, a collaborative project between the ILO and MasterCard Foundation, seeks to match underprivileged youths aged 14 to 24 with local businesses in order to give young people the resources they need to break into the workforce. W4Y has operations all around the globe, and it maintains a presence in Brazil, Peru, El Salvador and Colombia.
The young generation currently entering the workforce is a valuable resource. Some estimates hold that if unemployment among young people were halved, the global GDP would experience an increase of 4 to 7 percent. In the words of 21-year-old Astrid Estefanía Garibay of Mexico: “People think ‘young’ and ‘NiNi,’ and they think about drug addicts and bums.” These young people simply need help connecting with opportunities rather than being stigmatized for their employment status.
– Kayla Strickland
Sources: IB Times, ILO, Pravda.ru, Press TV
Photo: Work4Youth
Point of Concern: Education in Bangladesh
With roughly 57,000 square miles and over 150 million people, Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. It is also firmly entrenched in the rising power narrative that characterizes much of the south Asian region it occupies. For this reason, it is in the context of slow development where education in Bangladesh must be considered.
In 1990, the Primary Education Compulsory Act came into law and primary education became free and compulsory for all children up to grade five. Today in Bangladesh, there are approximately 56,867,000 people under the age of 18, 15 million of which are under the age of 5. There are currently 16 million children enrolled in grades one through five, and only 55 percent of children in Bangladesh who begin primary education make it to grade five. Only 50.7 percent complete all five years. The effects of this low rate of formal education are clear. In the young adult age range of 15 to 24, only 77.1 percent of male and 80.4 percent of females can read.
The many problems of education in Bangladesh can be linked to resources. As of 2009 Bangladesh spent 2.2 percent of its GDP on public education. In that same year the United States spent 5.2 percent. Despite government efforts to prove the contrary, education in Bangladesh remains an area in need of drastic reform. A total of 24 percent of primary school teachers are untrained and the average student-teacher ratio is 49 to one. These figures prove to be debilitating realities for the formative years of youth education.
To right the ship of education in Bangladesh, many private enterprises have lent their assistance. One such organization is BRAC. Formerly known as the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee, BRAC is now the world’s largest non-governmental organization. BRAC concentrates on impoverished rural areas. It also actively seeks female inclusion, often recruiting local women as teachers for their schools. These women receive extensive training and regular organizational evaluations. BRAC provides its education services free of charge and focuses on a unique curriculum that steers clear of the rote memorization techniques utilized in government schools. This innovative approach has proven beneficial, as BRAC students regularly outperform their government school counterparts. According to the New York Times, BRAC now administers “the largest secular non-governmental education system in the world.”
However, education in Bangladesh is still a concern. With high dropout rates and little access available to children in rural areas, the compulsory part of primary education in Bangladesh has not taken hold in the two decades since its legal codification. Potential resources remain untapped and a country of millions remains affected.
– Taylor Dow
Sources: The Financial Express, The Guardian, The New York Times, UNDP, UNICEF(1), UNICEF(2), Worldbank
Photo: The World Bank
Employment Disparities among Black Women in South Africa
South Africa has a complex history when it comes to race. The apartheid that persisted for much of the 20th century and ended in 1994 caused huge international scrutiny and debate. Since the end of apartheid, how have the black communities fared in terms of mending the years of damage this event caused? A look at one of the most disadvantaged groups in South African society, the black woman, will help us understand if South Africa has progressed.
The most recent study by the Department of Labor in South Africa was conducted in 2011. The report shows that only 31 percent of black women in South Africa were employed, which was the lowest number for all groups. Compare this to the most advantaged group, white males, at 73 percent employment. It should be noted that all other categories — black men, white women and Indian/Asian — all had higher employment than black women in South Africa. However, only the extremes between the most advantaged group and the most disadvantaged group will be compared in this case to exemplify the shocking disparity.
Looking at the rest of the numbers, we see that 14 percent of black women were unemployed, which means they did not work the week before the survey was taken but they were actively looking for work. To be fair, 14 percent unemployment does not seem relatively high, but there is another number to account for the rest of the women. Forty-five percent of black women were considered not economically active (NEA). This category includes discouraged work seekers who were not employed during the week of the survey, but wanted to work and could not find work due to a lack of available jobs or lost hope of finding work. Compare that to 4 percent unemployed white males and 23 percent of white males as NEA.
These numbers show a glaring disparity that exists in the labor market between black women and white males. Apartheid supposedly ended two decades ago, so why does this inequality still exist? One of the main reasons is education. A lack of education and usable skills are characteristic of the chronically unemployed and, conversely, those with a tertiary degree have the lowest rate of unemployment.
In South Africa “the large majority of black students come from low-income families that do not have the financial resources to support the pursuit of higher education.” About 9 percent of black women in South Africa advance to schooling past grade 12, compared to 40 percent of white males. However, a 2013 report from the county’s Council on Higher Education (CHE) states that the university dropout rate for black students is over 50 percent. From this we can estimate that only 4.5 percent of black women even receive a university degree. Clearly, black women are not being given easy access to higher education and are therefore suffering in the job market.
If there is low unemployment amongst people who have tertiary degrees, it would seem that the South African government needs to spend more time and money on making higher education available to lower-income individuals like black women. Higher levels of university graduates will help the South African society and economy grow in numerous ways. Reversing racism and, in this case, also sexism, is of course quite a difficult task. With such obvious structural racist and sexist disparities between white males and black females in South Africa, it is clear the country has not progressed enough. We can only hope that those working hard to change this unfair situation have success in the near future.
— Eleni Marino
Sources: CHE, SA News, South African DOL, Statistics South Africa, The Guardian
Photo: Jaunt to Joberg
Wives of Jailed Venezuelan Politicians Win Big
Since February 2014, Venezuelan protests against the government have been flaring throughout the country. Two Venezuelan politicians, Daniel Ceballos of San Cristobal and Enzo Scarano of San Diego, were placed in jail due to these protests and their clear defiance of President Nicolas Maduro. A State Department official stated that the arrests of these men solely based on their opposition exemplifies that Maduro’s government “continues to persecute political opponents.”
Maduro won the Presidential election in April 2013, but by a very narrow marigin, seeing as Venezuela is notoriously divided into those in favor of the late Hugo Chavez, whose policies are closely followed by Maduro, and those who strongly oppose him.
The new president has been running the country with the same socialist style that Chavez did, but with an increasingly high inflation rate, power cuts and lack of certain staple foods. As a result, defiance against Maduro and his government have been increasing.
Although the President is attempting to keep the opposition down, the wives of the imprisoned mayors continued the fight by running as mayors in their husbands’ places. On May 25, they both won in a landslide, making their constituents’ support clear.
Daniel Ceballos, former mayor of San Cristobal where the protests began, was given a 12-month sentence for civil rebellion and conspiracy after he did not follow an order to halt the protests going on in the city. His wife, Patricia Gutierrez de Ceballos, won the election for mayor with 73 percent of the votes. About the election, the newly elected mayor states:
“They have converted me into mayor and ratified Daniel Ceballos as mayor. And today, San Cristobal has the privilege of having two mayors governing its city.”
She also said that each ballot cast for her represented a sentence of justice and freedom, as well as a blow against “the dictatorship” of Venezuela.
The other imprisoned politician, Enzo Scarano, was placed in jail for a 10-month sentence for his failure to comply with a previous order from the Supreme Tribunal of Justice to take down the barricades in San Diego, in the state Carabobo. Rosa Brandonisio de Scarano, wife of Scarano and former City Council Member of San Diego, won about 88 percent of the votes on May 25.
“The people will remain peacefully in the streets, making people listen, so that it echoes throughout the world that Venezuela right now is going through a very difficult time, economically, socially, morally and politically,” she stated after the election.
On the bright side, the fact that these women were clearly a part of the opposition and won with an overwhelming majority of the votes shows that the elections can be impartial and fair.
The concerning portion of all of this is President Maduro’s possible reaction if the protests continue. He has described the protesters as “fascists and extreme-right thugs” who are attempting to destabilize the government for a coup. As far as future action, he states, “If they go crazy and start burning the municipality again, the authorities will act … and elections will be called every three months, until there is peace.”
– Courtney Prentice
Sources: CNN, Huffington Post, BBC
Photo: Panorama
Primary Education in Somalia & the U.S.
Many years of civil war have led to unrest in all aspects of Somalian life. Among the areas most affected is primary education in Somalia. Though the United States is doing a great deal to help rebuild, significant differences in the infrastructures of both countries’ primary schools still remain.
Primary schooling is the earliest stage of education in a child’s life, aside from nursery, pre-schooling or kindergarten programs. It is an important phase in the learning process because it teaches children the basics of reading, writing and math that they need for later education and life in general.
Because primary schools are the foundation of an entire educational system’s organization, attention to their efficacy is critical. Comparing primary education in the U.S. to that of a developing country such as Somalia provides interesting insight into the reasons that higher education in both countries may differ so significantly.
From the beginning of formal schooling, fewer children are receiving an education in Somalia. While education at the primary level is mandatory for all children in the U.S., roughly 42 percent of primary school aged children are enrolled in school.
In the U.S., primary school lasts from first to fifth grade, resulting in five years of fundamental education. In Somalia, however, primary school ends in fourth grade. Though schooling continues beyond these four years, many children do not. Dropping out before the fifth grade level becomes almost a social norm, as only 8 percent of Somali children enroll in secondary school.
Accessibility to education in Somalia and the U.S. accounts for these staggering differences. Public education is available to all students in the U.S., making the compulsory nature of schooling possible. However, due to the number of schools destroyed by civil war in Somalia, easily accessible education is not a luxury available to all Somali children.
The children that do attend school in Somalia also face obstacles that U.S. students do not encounter regularly. For example, the teacher-to-student ratio in primary schools in Somalia is one to 33. The average number of pupils per teacher in the U.S. is less than half of that, giving each student greater opportunity for individual attention.
Gender inequality is also apparent in the Somali education system. The current social barriers in Somalia do not encourage women to receive an education, so it is not surprising that less than 36 percent of students are female. Because schooling is mandated by U.S. laws, gender disparity is not a noticeable issue in American primary schools.
Other issues U.S. pupils are less likely to face are disparity of textbooks and other learning materials, a lack of qualified teachers and unstandardized curricula.
In the U.S., curricula are standardized by state. Education at the primary level does not vary too much. Most students learn to read and write at the same age and acquire the same basic skill sets during first through fifth grade.
Consistency is lacking among primary schools in Somalia. What one child learns in second grade may be completely different from what another child learns in second grade at a different school. The lack of a standardized curriculum makes country-wide assessments difficult. Even though the Ministry of Education in Somalia would like to rebuild the educational system, the absence of standardization does not provide an adequate place to start making improvements.
A good place to start may be government funding. Public schools in the U.S. are government funded, but many of the primary schools in Somalia cannot function without receiving at least some financial support from students’ parents. A child raised in a poor family may not be able to afford primary education.
The quality of public education varies in the U.S. depending on the economic state of the school’s area, but public education is always available. In order to provide the most help to the Somali educational system, aid should be given to ensure that some sort of schooling is always available to children, especially at a young age.
The good news is that many U.S. aid programs are working to rebuild schools in Somalia.
SAFE, the Somali and American Fund for Education, works with schools in Somalia to ensure their credibility as learning institutions. The organization looks at the community’s involvement in their local schools and awards certain areas money to fund construction of new school buildings. The even better news is that these schools include all levels of learning through twelfth grade, including primary education.
– Emily Walthouse
Sources: SAFE, Classbase 1, Classbase 2, MOE Somalia, NCES, UNICEF
Photo: Atlanta BlacK Star
Food Alone Not Enough for Malnourished Children
Researchers studying malnourished children in Bangladesh have concluded that current therapeutic food interventions, while effective in saving lives, is not enough to reverse damage done in formative years.
Doctors have been trying to address problems that formerly malnourished children now in treatment still face such as stunted growth, immune deficiencies and slow intellectual growth. It is now becoming apparent that these development challenges are due to an immature system of microbial organisms that inhabit the digestive tracts of healthy children.
In the study, researchers compared fecal samples of 64 malnourished children to samples from 50 healthy Bangladeshi children that had been collected monthly over the first two years of their lives. In the healthy samples, 24 species of bacteria were found and used to predict the maturity of a child’s microbial system.
The study showed that when these children were afflicted with diarrhea, their microbial systems quickly recovered. The malnourished children hospitalized for diarrhea showed little recovery in the maturity of these systems after treatment with antibiotics and therapeutic foods, as they were lacking in healthy microbes to begin with.
This deficiency likely stems from undernourishment in the first two years of life, a formative period that is essential to developing a healthy brain, immune system and microbial system.
“Perhaps healthy growth and attainment of our full potential requires healthy development of our microbial organ, and also microbes living in other parts of our bodies,” said researcher Jeffrey I. Gordon of Washington University in St. Louis.
Current treatment for undernourishment includes rehydration, a liquid diet of milk suji (whole milk powder, rice powder, sugar and soya oil) and a series of multivitamins and antibiotics to help fight infection. This method has decreased the mortality rate in malnourished children by 47 percent and reduced risk of hypoglycemia.
Researchers in the recent study questioned the long-term results of such treatment protocols and the extent to which they restore normal growth and development. Gordon stated that the current methods should be adjusted to include probiotic supplements, as well as prolonged consumption of therapeutic foods.
“We need to think of food as interacting with this microbial organ,” he said.
Ed Yong, a science writer for Discover Magazine, writes that roughly 1,000 species of bacteria reside in the human bowel, though the makeup of these species varies from person to person. Each individual carries about 160 different bacterial species; it is estimated that 57 exist in the majority of the population. These microbes serve functions such as breaking down complex sugars, producing vitamins and fatty acids and converting chemicals into useful substances.
Factors that impact the development of healthy bacteria include diet, genetics and locale. Research has shown that even the method of delivery can impact the bacterial makeup of an infant; those that are delivered via C-section show less diversity in microbial systems than those delivered naturally. These differences can affect other facets of daily life including susceptibility to disease, predisposition to obesity and the ease with which certain foods are digested.
– Kristen Bezner
Sources: Discover, Science Direct, National Geographic 1, National Geographic 2, Nature
Photo: Chai Counselors
Battling the Solomon Islands Diarrhea Outbreak
The nation of Solomon Islands is facing a new and deadly threat after flooding destroyed delicate water infrastructure. The Solomon Islands diarrhea outbreak has already killed 18 people and threatens to claim more lives if measures are not taken soon.
Solomon Islands was decimated in early April by a series of destructive floods. The small nation, located north and east off the coast of Queensland, Australia, saw 60,000 of its residents made homeless by the storms—over 10 percent of its population.
The flood’s direct damage to human life was great enough, but two months later, outbreaks of diarrhea in late May and early June are extending the death toll. The rotavirus, a deadly and highly-contagious virus transmitted by vomit and fecal matter, has claimed victims in six of Solomon Islands’ ten provinces.
The virus is communicable by food, drink and, depending on the sick person’s hygiene, basic physical contact. Those who contract the virus show symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea within 1-3 days of infection.
Though upward of 20,000 children were vaccinated against the rotavirus following April’s flooding, the contamination of Solomon Islanders’ water supply was complete enough that over 1,000 cases of extreme diarrhea have been reported in the past two weeks. Most of the infected are young, and all 18 of the reported deaths have been children under the age of 5.
Rotavirus causes intense diarrhea, which in turn leads to severe dehydration. If untreated, this dehydration can kill. At a certain point, children simply stop drinking water despite their desperate need for it, and proper medical intervention is required to save a child’s life.
Fortunately, UNICEF is fighting the Solomon Islands diarrhea outbreak with two very basic tools: soap and information. The soap is distributed in the hardest-hit areas, and colorful, hand-shaped information cards are also given out. These cards not only emphasize the importance of hand-washing by their shape, but they also contain valuable tips for staying safe and healthy during the outbreak.
Instructions for preventing the spread of the rotavirus include washing hands for at least 10 seconds after using the toilet, before handling or eating food and after caring for or coming into contact with any infected individuals.
Health officials currently do not plan on bringing the rotavirus vaccine back to Solomon Islands. Instead, they predict that proper hygiene should be enough to put an end to the outbreak.
In the meantime, parents who notice signs of illness in their children are urged to bring them to a doctor right away. Doctors can provide a child with oral rehydration salts and zinc tablets, both of which help prevent dehydration and can reverse even severe cases.
However, this safety net may not be so reliable. Dorothy Wickham, correspondent for Radio New Zealand, reports that hospitals in Solomon Islands are becoming overburdened. Doctors may not be able to treat all of the children who are brought in, and epidemiologist Jennie Musto predicts the outbreak could last up to another month.
For now, both parents and aid groups are doing what they can to combat the outbreak and to keep their children safe.
– Patricia Mackey
Sources: World Vision, WHO, Australia Network News, 3 News, Radio New Zealand International, Pacific Scoop
Photo: Parade
Malnutrition in Mali
Ranking 182nd on the Human Development Index (the 6th lowest ranking on the planet,) Mali is recognized as one of the most nutritionally unstable and under developed countries in the world. About four in 10 children under the age of 5 are underweight, and one in four people are as well. As a study from 2014 indicates, over 1.5 million people are not sustained by a regular supply of food.
This landlocked country is often afflicted by droughts and insect infestations, which deplete the crops upon which they often rely on for food. While malnutrition in Mali afflicts the entire population, it is the second largest killer of children under the age of 5.
In her intensive ethnographic study of Magnambougou, Mali, “Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa,” however, Dr. Katherine Dettwyler suggests that rather than poverty, a lack of education surrounding nutrition is the main root of malnutrition in infants and young children. It is the mothers’ misunderstanding that it is not simply enough to give children food, but in the early stages of development, it is crucial to distribute the right kinds of food.
On one of her visits to Mali, Dettwyler examined a little girl with kwashiorkor, of which the primary symptom is swelling all over the body and particularly in the abdomen. The disease is a result of protein deficiency combined with a high caloric intake and often appears when the child cannot sustain the same level of protein intake after being weaned.
The mother who summoned Dettwyler called the disease “funu bana,” meaning “swelling sickness,” and believed her daughter caught it from another child. She begged Dettwyler for medicine to cure her daughter despite Dettwyler’s assurance that all her daughter needed was to have a higher quantity of protein slowly introduced to her diet.
Dettwyler also offers an anecdote regarding misconceptions about nutrition that occurred when she brought her young daughter Miranda to Mali. When the two were eating with some of the villagers and Dettwyler gave her piece of chicken to her daughter, she was immediately questioned. One man explained that good food should not be wasted on the young, because they have their whole lives to eat, while the old should be honored because they will soon die. Dettwyler, however, tried to explain that children should be the ones to receive the better food because they need the protein to fuel their growth.
Moreover, a large reason for the high child mortality rate due to malnutrition is because adults often have trouble identifying the signs of malnutrition. In her ethnography, Dettwyler notes that “people simply get used to the way children look. If the typical child is mildly to moderately malnourished, then that becomes the standard… normal is what you’re used to” In addition to providing emergency relief, Dettwyler, along with Action Against Hunger, argue that the key to combating malnutrition in Mali is education, and that teaching Malians how to identify malnourished children will be an enormous step in the process.
– Jordyn Horowitz
Sources: Action Against Hunger, Dancing Skeletons, WFP
Photo: Flickr