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Humanitarian and Medical Aid
Basic Needs, Basic Rights
Clean water is the most fundamental necessity for life. Similarly, everyone needs basic sanitation. These things are essential to health and human dignity, and they are your right guaranteed under all national/international conventions and faiths (esp Islam).
But …
- More than a billion people do not have access to safe drinking water.
- More than two and a half billion people do not have a sanitary way of getting rid of excreta (urine and faeces).
- Up to a third of disease globally is thought to be caused by environmental factors such as polluted water and air.
Children are particularly vulnerable to disease. This is because children's bodies are not fully developed, so they have less resistance to illness. Also, in proportion to their weight, young children breathe more air, drink more water and eat more food than adults do, so they take in bigger doses of any contaminants.
Environment, Education And Poverty
Bad health linked to water and sanitation problems can disrupt your education and stop you reaching your full potential. When you are sick you cannot go to school or learn well. Another reason why many children — particularly girls — miss school is that they have to spend so much time and energy collecting water at home. Yet another reason is that some schools do not have clean water or appropriate sanitation facilities, such as separate latrines for boys and girls, discouraging children from going to school
Poverty underlies all these issues. It is the world's poorest people who have no sanitation and safe water, so it is the poor who are most at risk from water-related diseases. Illness may prevent people from working, making families even poorer. It may also disrupt children's education, so they have fewer chances to learn about water and sanitation, among other things, and fewer opportunities for employment. An ill, poorly educated and unproductive population makes for a poor nation; a poor nation makes for an ill nation. And so on it goes …
Action on these problems produces results. In particular, improved sanitation and water sources, combined with information about hygiene and how to prevent infection, dramatically improve the health of communities.
The urgency for this kind of action is recognized across the globe. Governments should ensure that their development programmes will not damage the environment.
The responsibility lies with communities and governments to work with young people to protect these fundamental rights
Common Health Diseases Amongst The Poor
In many cases poverty is the leading risk factor for incidence of such diseases, and some disease can (or allegedly) cause poverty. The three primary diseases associated with poverty are :-
- AIDS
- Malaria
- Tuberculosis
Developing nations account for 95% of the global AIDS prevalence, 98% of active tuberculosis infections, and 90% of malaria deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Together, these three diseases account for 10% of global mortalities.
Three additional diseases, measles, pneumonia, and diarrheal diseases also closely associated with poverty, and are often included with AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis in broader definitions and discussions of diseases of poverty. Finally, infant and maternal mortalities are far more prevalent among the poor.
For example, 98% of the 11,600 daily maternal and neo-natal deaths occur in developing nations.
Together diseases of poverty kill approximately 14 million people annually.
Mechanisms and Causes of Diseases of Poverty
Due to a plethora of environmental and social factors, including crowded living conditions, inadequate sanitation, and higher prevalence in the sex-trade, the poor are more likely to be exposed to infectious disease. Further, malnutrition and inadequate, inaccessible, or wholly non-existent healthcare can hinder recovery and exacerbate the disease.
For example, malnutrition is associated with 54% of childhood deaths from diseases of poverty, and lack of skilled maternal care for childbirth is primarily responsible for the high maternal and infant death rates among the poor.
Effects of Diseases of Poverty
Diseases of poverty reflect the dynamic relationship between poverty and poor health; while such diseases result directly from poverty, they also perpetuate and deepen impoverishment by sapping personal and national health and financial resources.
For example, malaria decreases GDP growth by up to 1.3% in some developing nations, and by killing tens of millions in sub-Saharan Africa, AIDS alone threatens ˇ§the economies, social structures, and political stability of entire societiesˇ¨. Children die each day from malnutrition.
Diseases as a Cause of Poverty
They are some diseases that allegedly can cause poverty; many of them are mental illnesses that affect socialization, awareness, and intelligence. Examples are autism, schizophrenia, antisocial personality disorder, and certain mental damage caused by substance abuse.
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