Sierra Leone Poverty

A brief historical account of Sierra Leone may provide only a glimmer as to why the Sierra

Sierra Leone is mainly a mining country, this caused it to be colonized and for their own native people being used as slaves in their mines. This shaped its social development by making it a far higher concentration of natives than other countries. But, because of their enslavement and American control until recently, literacy rates and per capita GDP are disturbingly low. Politically, though, it’s more stable than most countries in this case.

Economic growth has much improved the infant mortality rate though better healthcare facilities and living conditions. Japan has fallen to one of the world’s lowest infant mortality levels at 3.6 per 1,000 live births in 2006 (Saigusa, 2006). Infant mortality is largely affected by the health of the mother, which makes pre-natal health imperative in keeping infant mortality rates low. Since Japan offers health care to all, access to prenatal care is easier to get therefore making mothers healthier and help in finding complications earlier in the pregnancy.

Sierra Leone is a small country found on the west coast of Africa. The country shares a border with the Atlantic Ocean, Liberia, and Guinea. Sierra Leone has a population of 5,525,000 people, and 27,699 square miles of land. In 1462 Freetown, Sierra Leone was founded by Pedro da Cintra, a Portuguese explorer from Lagos, Portugal. da Cintra originally named the country Sierra Lyoa , the Lion Mountains, but in 1787 the British officially adopted Sierra Lyoa changing its name to its modern day spelling- Sierra Leone. This small country has faced many horrors within its history. The Sierra Leone civil war is a major contributing factor to the country’s current state of poverty and corruption. Most problems that the country faces today all stem

As a high-income society, the United States when comparing the health care statistics to others world-wide is one of the most blessed nations in the world, but many people who struggle to pay for their health care find that our health care system has many weaknesses that effect the overall quality of care and their personal well-being. Health is defined by the World Health Organization as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being” (Macionis 236). There are many degrees of both physical and mental health and most people fall short of complete health and find themselves in need of medical care. One indicator that is used to measure a society’s overall health is the infant mortality rate, which is “the number of babies who die before their first birthday out of every thousand babies born” (Macionis 236). As expected, America’s infant mortality rates are low especially when coming comparing the rates to countries that are known to have economic hardships. Another means to measure the overall health well-being of a society is by determining the life expectancy at birth or the number of years that a person is expected to live in a given society. High-income nation’s life-expectancy rates are higher and most people can live long lives without serious health conditions until later in life. Low-income nations unfortunately can have much lower life expectancies. The economy and livelihood of a

Sierra Leone is a country located on the west coast of Africa in between present day Guinea and Liberia. To the left is an image Sierra Leone and its bay depicted on a map. Sierra Leone was only discovered by the Europeans in the 15th century and at that point it was only a small Portuguese colony based around the slave trade and some timber export. There are about 16 ethnicities in Sierra Leone with two major groups, those being the Temne and the Mende. (Ross, 2002)

Sierra Leone is a country with much history. It has many historical sites and great mines that contain so much “treasure”. Its economy is still growing and they’re trying to improve themselves. They’re a diverse country with different ethnic groups and languages but socially and culturally they can agree on the way they eat, what type of music they like, and what they do for fun. This country is unique and is growing from the past to a modern future.

Moreover, because of high living standard has been improved very significantly, females become to live longer as same as males. Even though, because of increased well-treatment during the pregnancy, improved social and health conditions, obtained knowledge of using vaccines and antibiotics would help to increase the death rates in a first year of life.

The nation has experienced economic collapse and the government reaches rock bottom (www.economist.com). Due to this, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) adjudicate to take matters into their own hands. RUF gains control over most of the territory leaving destruction and terror in their wake. As mentioned above, the economic collapse is a factor to the start of the domestic warfare. However, there are many other roots to the conflict. Sierra Leone is known for being rich diamonds. Nevertheless, the people of Sierra Leone do not benefit from the treasure. In fact, the government has benefitted from the profit and shared the gains with business crème de la crème that is close to them (www.sierraleonecivilwar.com). For this reason, the state of economics declined thus causing low pay rate of teachers and downfall

12. I was surprised to learn that agriculture was the country’s biggest employer. I wonder why Africa is portrayed as a country that is less fortunate in some areas. I realize that I am lucky to live in the United States. If I were a youth in Sierra Leone I would be worried about my life once I become an adult. The article stated that without growth and investment, the country will struggle to create jobs for its young population.

According to the MDGs progress report; maternal mortality ratio stands at 16 in the developed countries, 220 in South Asia and 500 in Sub-Saharan Africa (UNDP, 2012). Lack of access to and utilization of health care services for delivery are among the main reasons for the high maternal and neonatal mortality rates in these regions (WHO, 2012). Maternal death can occur anytime in pregnancy, but delivery is by far the most dangerous time for both mother and baby (UNICEF, 2012).

Sierra Leone is a third world country about half the size of Illinois and a population of 6.2 million. The small country is along the west coast of Africa with a mangrove swamp along its coast. The country is between two other countries that are infested with the deadly virus. The main source of income for this country is blood diamonds,

In 2013, 289 000 women died during pregnancy and childbirth and it was estimated that everyday 800 women all over the world died from childbirth or childbirth-related problems (World Health Organization, 2014). Often, maternal mortality is found to occur more often in developing countries than developed countries. Maternal mortality refers women who died from the situation like during pregnancy, termination of pregnancy within 42 days, regardless of duration and place of pregnancy, from aggravation caused by the pregnancy or pregnancy management (Nwagha et al, 2010). Maternal mortality may be resulted from direct or indirect cause. Direct causes are from obstetric complications of pregnancy, labour, and puerperium, and interventions whereas indirect causes are from the worsening of current conditions by pregnancy or delivery (Givewell, 2009). This paper aims to examine the causes for maternal mortality in both developed and developing countries and will end with a proposal for government to ensure women are given reproductive health rights.

Of particular concern is women and maternal health in Ethiopia. According to the millennium goal developments, the fifth goal is to reduce maternal mortality rate by 75% by 2015. One reason that maternal health needs to be increased in Ethiopia is because of the large amount of women who die each year. According to Skolnik (2012), the highest maternal mortality ratios are in sub-Saharan Africa, where there are 940 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. This means that a woman in some countries of sub-Saharan countries of Africa such as Ethiopia face 250 times the risk of dying a maternal death as does a woman in the high-income countries. (Skolnik, 2012) There are many factors that come into play when looking at maternal health. Among the first are the nutritional status and general health status of the mothers, in addition there is a link between maternal death and the level of education and income of the mother (Skolnik, 2012, p. 191). In order to help reduce the high incidence of maternal mortality rate focus should be turned to wards identifying ways to improve the access to care for women who are pregnant. I believe this issue is the important to tackle because it can improve the prenatal care that women in Ethiopia receive resulting

The current death rate is 29 per 1,000 live births and of the 2.8 million newborns dying at birth worldwide, India accounts for 700,000 children dying at birth or shortly after. The National Health Policy to improve care children and women. Poor neonatal health conditions, widespread illiteracy, poverty, poor sanitation and nutrition have also been identified and India’s hopes to tackle these issues by passing this policy.