Medical Care

Rosella Baldelli - 01.03.2017 13:07

Let's discuss here about Medical Care in Europe and Global South.

Women's Healthcare:

breaking the chains of ignorance and subordination

by Anna Maria Gullo, LSP Assisi/Italy

Health, as defined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art.25, is a right that should be assured to everyone; consequently, everyone in the world should have access to medical care whenever they need it. Regrettably, worldwide, as reported by the WHO and World Bank in the “Tracking Universal Health Coverage: First Global Monitoring Report”, “at least 400 million people are currently lacking access to one of seven essential services for health”. These people are largely concentrated in the developing countries of Southern and Eastern Asia and of Sub-Saharan Africa. To them what we take for granted like removing the appendix, getting a caesarean section or having a heart bypass may not be an option. Their scarcity of health care is due to poverty, to the long distance they need to travel to get to a hospital, to the absence of enough trained surgeons and clinics and to the lack of necessary tools and equipment. But not only this.

As witnessed by Edna Adan Ismail, a nurse-midwife, UN diplomat and former Foreign Minister of Somaliland who struggles for women's health care, for women there are other relevant barriers that prevent them from accessing to a better health care (in addition to the ones aforementioned): they often are not aware that they need and deserve it and, if they are, they are not allowed to decide. As a matter of fact, they always have to request their husband's and their father's permission (even in case of emergencies) for example to buy medicines, to attend a health clinic, to have prenatal treatments, to take care of their sick child, to have a caesarean section or to have important surgical operations. Furthermore, in their culture, they think that they do not need health care because they have always managed among themselves, like giving birth in their homes with the only help of the female members of the family, which is a risk to their own health and that of the baby. That is the reason why they do not see medical care as a priority and necessity. It is a vicious circle: the less women are conscious that they should demand for better access and infrastructures, the less the latter will be provided, the less there will be places where women can be cured, aided and assisted, the less they will know and, therefore, women will not demand for these health centres.

The problem cannot be solved only by spending more money to build a clinic, to provide medical care or to buy medicines but also by improving education in order to fight ignorance, to defeat the suspicion regarding health care and to help the majority of women who cannot read or write, left alone to understand themes such as the human reproductive system, the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases or the dangers of poor sanitation. The situation of the women in Somaliland is an example to remark the fact that we could contribute, with donations or as volunteers, to make people aware of the importance of medical care and of the right to have freedom of choice, and that we could limit many deaths.

Photos taken from pixabay.com; Posted 06.03.2017 16:33

A woman making a difference

by Francesca Acori, LSP Assisi/Italy

Dr Dora Nkem Akunyili (1954 – 2014) was a Nigerian world-famous pharmacist and the Director General of NAFDAC ( National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control). She also was the Nigerian Minister of Information and Communications from 2008 to 2010.  She received many international awards and recognitions for her work in public health and human rights. Dora Akunyili was born into a well off Christian family in the state of Anabra in the south of the country, she was top of her class at school and after completing her pharmaceutical studies, she did a PHD inLagosand special studies in London.

Later she stood out in particular for waging, for many years, a merciless war against the traffic of false medical drugs in Nigeria, risking her life and that of her family. She was not able to see her children because they were obliged to move to the USA for their safety, she had to use an armor-plated car and she could not go back to her home region because that was also her enemy’s home. During her office in fact she had to endure continuous attacks and assassination attempts by traffickers (especially from Marcel Nnakwe, Nigeria’s biggest producer of counterfeit drugs) but nevertheless she resisted courageously to ensure her fellow countrymen authentic medications, bringing a new culture of excellence and honesty to NAFDAC.

from StarGist

 

As a result the level of fake and counterfeit drugs substantially dropped and the pharmaceutical industry in the country changed and developed. After living a life of fight she died of complications arising from uterine cancer in India on 7th June 2014. Akunyili’s story is an important example of the difference a valiant educated woman can make for her country and it should make us reflect on the importance of granting an education to every girl in the world in order to improve women’s conditions and to enrich and improve the status of their nation. In fact a literate woman, who is aware of her rights, can bring benefits to other women, to her children and her country. For this reason, if we want to make the world a better place we definitely need to start granting every girl the right to go to school.

Posted 06.03.2017 21:35

Julia Walczak - 19.03.2017 13:18

I see that you focused on women's access to health care. I totally support Francesca’s point of view. Undeniably, educated women are prepared to struggle for the rights to women's health care. Literate and energetic women can influence the future of the country, they are living in. They can do this by sharing their knowledge with their children and their fellow countrywomen. The most engaged in every case are always the ones who the case directly refers to. In other words, no one will be as much involved in improving women's health care in the countries of the Global South, as the women themselves. The point is that, they are not able to achieve that, without access to education. Finally, we reach the same conclusion, as we did during our first Erasmus project. The education is the key to a dreamed-of world, where everyone, including women, children, the elderly and people from every walk of life have access to a high - quality health care. Now, we can just try to consider how we can grant every child the right to education, thus, the chance to go to school.