In December of 2007 to February of 2008, Kenya experienced ethnic violence triggered by a disputed presidential election held on 27 December 2007, over 1000 individuals were killed and 600,000 were displaced during post-election violence. The opponent’s supporters of the new president, protested saying that he had won due to election manipulation, the countries citizens went on a violent rampage killing Kikuyus, the country’s largest ethnic group. This is significant to global health because more than half a million people were displaced from their villages, homes and their way of life, getting uprooted due to violence especially those on Antiretroviral therapy for HIV which depends on continuous access to medications during those months was impossible. The main topics I will talk about in the essay will be the violence the country went through and the health effects on its citizens.
The lead, up to the 2007 elections, the two main parties that were fighting for government were the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and Party of National Unity (PNU), these two parties were supported by different ethnic groups in the country. The ODM was backed by Luo, Luhya and Kalenjin, tribes represented in the Western Provinces and Rift Valley, while the PNU was supported by Kikuyu, tribe based in the Central and Eastern Provinces and strongly represented in the capital Nairobi, the Coast Province and Rift Valley. Approximately 70% voters came out to participate the country’s highest ever percentage at that time. Polling results published before the election showed that Raila Odinga head of the ODM party with a small lead. However, on 30 December 2007, Kenya’s Electoral Commission announced that Mwai Kibaki the head of the PNU the winner. Odinga and the ODM rejected the results, stating the elections had been rigged, with which foreign election observers agreed. The announcement of the results triggered widespread and systematic violence, resulting in more than 1,000 deaths and the displacement of over 600,000 civilians. Clashes were mostly ethnically targeted killings of those aligned with the PNU and ODM against each other. Following the conflict, evidence arose suggesting that the pattern of violence during this period,
This large population has dealt with and suffered from several detrimental diseases. Even before the 2010 earthquake, nearly half the causes of deaths have been attributed to HIV/AIDS,
For example, “Hospitals have seen an influx of patients suffering from preventable diseases, the aid group said”. These preventable diseases can include diarrhea, typhoid, hepatitis A, and most commonly malaria. Two out of every five children survive into their adulthood; because of unsanitary conditions, these diseases which are not prominent in well developed countries, have pronounced themselves as some of the most dangerous diseases in the country. This decrease of sanitation can be partially blamed on the ongoing war in the Congo. The rebel groups use children soldiers to fight their opponents. Furthermore, hospitals reported that, “Since government troops and rebels began clashing in the volatile eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, ‘the numbers arriving at the hospital have gone through the roof,’ said Dr. Louis Kamate of the Virunga Referral Hospital in Goma”. Conflicts and poverty have been proven to be the main factors of child death in the Congo. In order for the society to be successful, they must put an end to this terrible aspect of the country.
HIV/AIDS has been responsible for one of the worst epidemics in history. In her book “The Invisible Cure” Helen Epstein details why Africa in particular was so devastated by the disease, which countries failed and which succeeded in the struggle to contain the virus, and why this happened. Epstein highlights a particular phenomenon, that first took place in Uganda, but which can be translated to many countries and situations, and which she calls “the invisible cure.”
“I have spent the last four years watching people die.” In his 2005 Massey Lectures, Stephen Lewis, a Canadian politician and humanitarian, caught the attention of millions with these words. Within these lectures, he shared his experiences of watching Africans suffer through the AIDS pandemic, and critically examined how the neglect of global communities and their discrimination contributed to its failure to resolve. While the rest of the world seemed to be unresponsive to an AIDS-ravaged continent, Mr. Lewis found himself passionately involved in the crisis and began to take action. Since his involvement with the United Nations in 1984, Stephen Lewis has tirelessly advocated for African citizens affected by HIV and AIDS, ensured that health care and treatment is provided to victims, and reached out to African citizens with education and counseling through his organizations. Through all of this, Stephen Lewis has proven to be one of Canada’s most influential humanitarian advocates for impacting the HIV and AIDS pandemic in Africa.
In contrast with Lincoln Parish’s population growth rate which is nearly stagnant is Molo Parish, which is in, Kenya, one of the countries in the world with the highest population growth rates. Over the years, the population has more than tripled, greatly increasing pressure on the country’s resources. Together with a widening income gap, this has eroded gains in education, health, food security, employment and income. Also, HIV/AIDS is most prevalent among young and middle-aged Kenyans in Molo Parish, the most productive segment of the population. The illness leaves orphans and households headed by women that are even more vulnerable to poverty. The burden of waterborne diseases, malaria and HIV/AIDS weighs heavily on both the country and Kenyan families, affecting income, food security and development potential. Life expectancy fell to 46 years in
There are an immense amount of problems in Africa caused by the AIDS disease. Healthcare providers are available and located all over Africa. Even though they are available, they have only “enough medicine for long-term survival available for 30,000 Africans” (Copson, 3).
Social impacts of violence are detrimental to individuals, communities, and entire nations. Beah’s harrowing ordeal in Sierra Leone’s civil war exposes him to all of these impacts. A sense of community is quickly lost
In Tracy Kidder’s book, Strength In What Remains, a refugee named Deogratias Niyizonkiza flees from the mass murders present in his home country, Burundi, and its neighboring country, Rwanda. When he was young, Deo witnessed the death of his friend, Clovis, from a treatable disease commonly known as Malaria. Ever since the tragic event, Deo wanted to improve his country’s healthcare system by building health clinics. Prior to accomplishing his goal, a civil war erupted, killing an estimated eight hundred thousand innocent civilians during a four-month period in 1994. Hardships like these interrupted his medical career even before he was able to leave Burundi. During the civil war, he was forced to survive in the corpse-filled forest, living
In The Invisible Cure, Helen Epstein talks about why HIV/AIDS rate is so high in Africa compared to the rest of the world. Through the book, she gives us an account of the disease and the struggles that many health experts and ordinary Africans went through to understand this disease, and how different African countries approached the same problem differently. Through this paper, I will first address the different ways Uganda and Southern African countries, South Africa and Botswana in particular, dealt with this epidemic, and then explain how we can use what we have learned from these African countries to control outbreaks of communicable disease elsewhere around the world.
Mass killings have disrupted and affected many communities in the world. The ethnic violence witnessed in Rwanda, and its neighbor Burundi is a relatively recent twentieth century example. Tracy Kidder, in his book Strength in what Remains, tells the story of a Burundi immigrant, Deogratias (Deo) Niyizonkiza, who witnessed the Burundi and Rwanda genocide and eventually becomes a U.S. citizen. It follows his flight from this predicament, and recounts how he suffered and overcame homelessness to graduate from Columbia University, and finally- to his unrelenting pursuit and achievement of his childhood dream of building a health care
Stephanie Nolen was already known for her work as the Globe and Mail’s Africa correspondent, ranging from the effects of war on women and children, to Stephen Lewis’ fight to end AIDS in Africa, when she published 28 Stories of AIDS in Africa in 2007. 28 is Nolen’s attempt to reflect the 28 million Africans who had HIV in 2007. Nolen gathered the testimonies of 28 individuals including orphans, miners, grandmothers, soldiers, the clergy, and Nelson Mandela. In this book, Nolen seamlessly integrates personal stories of the victims with shocking statistics and engrossing quotes, effortlessly bring a ‘human face’ to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This is a great piece of work demanding both empathy and immediate action.
In recent years, Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone have launched major healthcare initiatives in order to expand and improve access to services. However, the state of health systems for the last 20 years is difficult to overcome. Liberia and Sierra Leone were each embroiled in civil wars until the mid-2000s. Porous borders and a shared diamond belt meant that their conflicts were often shared, as political strife, violence, looting, armed forces, and refugees moved to neighboring countries. , Guinea in particular was on the receiving end of refugees. During that time in all three countries, health systems were uniformly poor, with under-staffed and under-resourced facilities, significant health disparities, and almost no systematic infectious disease surveillance or control.
The residents of Africa are suffering from preventable, treatable, and fatal diseases everyday at a higher rate compared to developed countries. The healthcare crisis in Africa is the primary cause of all these deaths, and includes inefficient healthcare systems. Consequently, African's inefficient healthcare systems results in poor delivery of care and a shortage of health professionals. The healthcare crisis in Africa is a current issue impacting the lives of many African's who don't have the same access to resources as developed countries such as the United States. These resources can save the lives of many African's dying of preventable and curable disease, and understanding why the African continent has little access to them
In developing countries such as Sierra Leone and Sudan, there are many types of violence, propaganda, and corruption used to create this vulnerability, which leads to vicious cycles of displacement and war. The corruption that is present in these governments is rather significant and the fear that is instilled into civilians by the military or militia causes a power imbalance. Furthermore, the abuse of drugs and alcohol is caused by the lack of education in many of these developing countries. Civilians are persuaded to join these organizations with the use of drugs such and cocaine and crack. The lack of availability of education and awareness of the effects of such drugs puts civilians in a vulnerable position. Being born in certain developing countries comes with everlasting conflict, which commonly leads to vulnerable environments and further displacement. Most of the time these conflicts arise over natural resources, religion or contrasting political views. The current action being taken by foreign aid has had a very minor impact. New Statesman writer Dinaw Mengestu discusses African literature comparing past to present, “Growing up in the United States, I was acutely aware of how everything I saw and heard about my native Ethiopia was being translated...We died by the millions, and with the exception of a handful of thoughtful accounts by western journalists, little was said and done from the outside, and even less was uttered out loud from within” (Mengestu, 2007). This further reflects the issue of not being recognized on a global scale and being misinterpreted by the rest of society. In order to protect these civilians from the corruption, violence and propaganda, there is a need for further action. Firstly, this issue needs to be recognized and humanized by foreign governments. The amount of awareness needs to drastically increase in order for civilians and foreign
I give the instructor, Dr. Ashish Chandra, permission to use this assignment, Healthcare in Kenya as an example for future students and classes.