This week I watched a video from the Save The Children
YouTube channel. Save the Children is an
organization whose goal is to make sure children around the world are healthy,
happy and have their needs met. They
have several programs ranging from providing preschool services, health clinics
and farming supplies to poor families.
They also work to alleviate HIV and AIDS and respond to natural
disasters with aid.
The video, found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgNh-ZlzMiI&list=PL00004DF975592015,
focused on the health care available to
poor villagers in Ethiopia.
In the video is
Aster, a local health worker.
Everyday, in order to provide meager basic care in a village clinic she
walks 12 kilometers from her home. At
the clinic, the only one for miles around, she works to dispense medicine,
vaccinations and provide what we would term as well baby checkups. She also spends half of her day traveling to
visits new mothers in their homes to check on them and baby after giving
birth. She instructs them in
breastfeeding, among other things. And
then she walks 12 kilometers home. She
is just one woman who has to work to treat preventable illnesses for a
community of people who are poverty stricken.
It puts into perspective how we take our own health care system
(as riddled wit flaws as it is) for granted.
In general, every child and mother who needs health care can get access,
and with Obamacare that will be affordably extended to even more families who
fall in the grey area of not being considered “poor”, but also still having to
scrape by every month. I cannot imagine
the grief if my baby were to become ill and die from some simple, preventable
sickness that a common antibiotic could have dealt with.
It is a shame, because there are too many rich countries in
the world, and basic drugs are too cheap, that any child should have to go to
such lengths for medical care.
Your heart is so beautiful, as evidenced in what you post with such compassion. I am proud to be colleagues with someone like you. I was really excited about the new healthcare law in the USA but it seems many low wage providers are skirting the requirements of the law in order to get away with providing health care to their labor force. Cracker Barrel has instituted a new policy that 30 hours is the new full time that way they will no longer have enough workers working 40 hours so they do not have to provide them with healthcare. I know this for a fact about Cracker Barrel and I have heard that many other companies are doing the same. It seems to me that the privileged elite want American workers to suffer the same way our 3rd world counterparts do and have been systematically working to put Amricans in a similar situation. My brother who is unemployed had to go to the emergency room twice for an infected tooth but there are no emergency dental services in our community. He now owes the hospital $50,000.00 for 30 minute total time served. We may not be exactly the same as Ethiopia but the parallels are there and it troubles me greatly.
ReplyDeleteAnother wonderful post! I truly enjoy reading your postings on the discussion board and blogs each week, as I can feel the love and passion for children and education you have coming through in your words. You have great goals, insights, and outlooks and are driven to make a difference, for which I respect you greatly. Health care is such a concern all over the world. I think we are on the right track in our country and wish we could have more support behind it. I know nothing is perfect and since this is just beginning it will have flaws but we have the right idea in mind. I am hopeful we can find ways to make a difference in health care in other countries. So many children suffer world wide due to lack of health care and it is heart breaking. Another passionate post! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement of taking for granted the issues and concerns of poverty in our area. As a professional in this field of early childhood it seems as we impact more than just education; but the health and welfare of children and families. I am certainly learning how to appreciate advantages I have now.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing such wonderful information. I will have to look up this YouTube channel! You have given me a good visual into the realities of poverty in other parts of the world. The more we see and learn about poverty in the world the more we are able to help and improve the situation. It may be sad to think about the realities of poverty and how it effects children and their families but I am really glad I have learned all the things I have this week about this issue.
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