EDUCATION

Health and education are friends, are inseparable. With poor education people can end up with poor health as it is said in the moodle/unipid that, increased education has been an indication to improve health in different levels, at individual level, society level and at global level. The second UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) aimed at Achieving Universal Primary Education by 2015. The way I see, it is hard to achieve this goal at 100%, we still have a long way to go. If we evaluate the state of education across the globe, the image would shock many of us. Current estimates place the number of out of school children at 93 million which is more than the entire population of Phillipines (http://www.unicef.org/girlseducation /index_44870.html). The majority of these children are girls, and almost 80% of them live in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

From the Millenium Development Goals to the Dakar Declaration, countries have repeatedly committed themselves to achieving Universla Primary Education and eliminating gender disparites at all levels of education by 2025. The number of enrolment at different level of education is not the same as the number of school attendance. Take example of Tanzania in Table 5 of Education, primary school enrolment ratio (2000-2006) net was 99 and 97 for males and females respectively, while the primary school attendance ration net in the same years was 71 and 75 for males and females respectively. This figures shows that there are many who drop on the way. This data is for one country, other countries shows different trend. With this trend I don't believe if we can meet the second MDG which aimed at Achieving Universal Primary Education. We will work to a certain point not one hundred percent.

I spent sometimes listening to the video in the course and realize that education is very important and is a good thing for anyone to have. One video was composed in Ethiopia. Student in that video showed very good ambitious after school. Some were expecting to be teachers, to be doctors, to be pilots and even to be soldiers. According to the video there are different importance of education, life saving, life sustenance and education lay a foundation for peace and development.

Basing on the table the situation is shorking especially for women. Enrolment to all level of education is not the same. Men are leading in enrollment numbers in many countries. And when you look on the number of women completing different level of education is also discouraging. There are many cause of this which is not obvious in the table. It is very difficult to meet Millennium Development Goal with this speed. Women has a lot of setbacks including taking care of the family, susceptible to problems like marriage, pregnancies and culture. Some of the societies are not read to educate girls, there is a notion that parents or relatives will not benefit from girls because after education they will get marriage. thus the husband or the husband's relatives will benefit the fruits of education which the girl have acquired. Take Sub-Saharan Africa for example, the number of men and women completing different level of education in comparison with enrolment is decreasing, but for women is more decreasing.

My comments is that, education is a better contraceptive for poor health. To have healthy and energetic people, education should be the priority. When I was listening the video in the course I realize that, education is a tool for liberation. The video portrayed the student from Ethiopia with positive ambitions after completing their education. I explained this in the beginning. All these ambitious are hindered by different factors, culture, scio-economic factors, beliefs, corruption and politicalfactors.

Reference

http://www.unicef.org/sowc08_table_5.pdf

http://www.unicef.org/girlseducation/index_44870.htm

Poverty and Health

Poverty is defined by comparing issues or conditions. Phibbs (2003) defined poverty as having less than others in the society. In other words poverty is the feeling that someone do not have enough to use or to eat. According to the Constitution of the World Health Organization (2006), health is being in a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of diseases or infirmity.

Poverty and health are two words which can not be discussed in solation. These words are connected in one way or another. Poor people are the most susceptible to any kind of diseases such as malaria ni tropical countries, malnutrition, HIV/AIDS, to mention but a few. Thus, poor people are not able to pay for treatment, buying mosquitoe nets for malaria, or eating proper food, all these are symptoms of poverty. In the reading by Farmer et al (2006) it is noted that HIV/AIDS is a disease of the poor. It is so because the symptoms are more obvious to the poor than the well-off people.

The two concepts I see in the reading are structural violence and clinical medicine. Structural violence is a man-made situation which can be also be stopped. It is the situation against human rights. A study in Rwanda is a challenge to every one as it was also found in Haiti. These two places portray the same situation s which exist in other poor countries. With violence people cannot engage in production activities as the result poverty.

Rwanda is one of the densely populated country as Farmer et al (2006) pointed out in the reading, the main economic activity of this country and other countries is agriculture. As we all knows, agriculture is seasonal activity which does not give people stable income. The activity is mainly affected by climate, diseases and market situation. For this case income or yield generated is very low which can not give farmers stable income to pay for food and treatment. Both countries Haiti and Rwanda have experinced political violence which in one way or another retarded their economic development speed.

HIV/AIDS has recently worsened people's health and economic situation leading to young adult

death or lost their life, young people are the great labor force for the family and for any nation development. In spite of the availability significant resources to treat complications of HIV/AIDS infections in Africa, almost all patients enrolled on ART live in cities or towns (Farmer et al (2006). Indeed, some have noted that rapid treatment scale-up is likely to occur largely in urban settings, where infrastructure, though poor, is better than rural regions.

The second concept is clinical medicine. This is associated with delivering of treatment to the patients. Clinicians have different understanding of the causes of HIV/AIDS social. Most focus is placed on behaviours and lifestyles that place some one in HIV infections. Social factors such as poverty, gender inequality and racism need to be also taken aboard.

Lesson learnt from the artilce

The artical bring challenges associated with poverty and health. Poor people are the most vulnerable and victims of poor health and diseases. Thus, there is a need of helping the poor. Stopping structural violence is one step towards solving the problems associated with poverty including poor health conditions. Education is also a point to consider when supporitng the poor who accriding to the Farmer's reading is in rural areas.

References

Farmer et al. 2003. Structural Violence and Clinical Medicine. Plos Medicine.

Phibbs, S. 2003. The Impact of Poverty on Health. A Scan of Research Literature CPHI. Collected Papers.

Constitution of the World Health Organization, 2006. Basic Documents. Forty-fifth Edition, Supplement, October 2006.

Who is to blame poverty or disease?

Poverty and health go hand in hand, and poverty affects health and its determinats in many ways. I am exchange student at the University of Turku. I was born in Tanzania one of the country in developing countries. About 80% of population in Tanzania lives in rural areas where main economic activity is agriculture. Life in rural areas is very difficulty as it is faced with various problems such as climate, diseases, poor harvesting and hunger. Poverty is the main problem in most rural areas. People live with less than 2 US Dollars a day which is below the poverty line. Most of the villages in rural areas don't have health facilities. Health services are delivered in a very far distances. A person had to walk about more than 5 km searching for health services. Some people mostly pregnant women die on the way to hospital. Above all rural people don't have money to pay for health services. Lack of money which is the feature of poverty contributes to high death in rural areas. Some people die out of the diseases which can be treated. In this perspective who is to shoulder this problem.

Why is it important to consider health at the Global Level?

Kickbusch (2002), state that the goal of global health is the equitable access to health in all regions of the globe. Global health encompasses health problems, issues and concerns that transcend national boundaries, may be influenced by circumstances or experiences in other countries, and are best addressed by cooperatives actions and solutions. With that definition health at global level is of high important as diseases does not have boundaries. There are some diseases which transcend boundaries such as infectious and insect-borne diseases that can spread from one country to another. It also includes health problems that are of such magnitude that they have a global and economic impact (familiesusa.org/.../global-health/what-is-global-health.html). Diseases which cross boundary need cooperation to control it, that's where the important of health at global level play its role.

Health is Wealth. People with poor health can not work or produce. A person who is health is the one who can work and produce dofferent things. with knowledge on global health it is when people can be aware on contagious diseases which spread very fast. Precaution is taken if someone is aware about the diseases. Diseases have no boundaries, thus it is important to consider health at global level because it is simple to work at local level.

Reference

familiesusa.org.../global-health/what-is-global-health.html

Global health issues

Health is one of the important condition of life. Everyone need to be fine in terms of health so that s/he can perform duties properly. I belive in this course I will learn a lot about global health issues. I will share different views with you and other students from different part of the world. I am from Tanzania.