Kids’ Doc in Jos

Here’s an email that made me think again about the wider problem of child health in Nigeria. Lately I’ve been pretty absorbed in our own programs at Evangel, but this reminded me of the millions of children who don’t even have the basics, and who need other measures more urgently than hospitals and doctors.

I am conducting research for our church which is putting together 800 shoeboxes to be brought to orphanages in Jos during a mission trip. We are having high school students bring in personal hygiene items such as soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and shoes to include. We are collecting information so we can teach the kids why we are sending the specific items we are bringing. If possible, could you answer my questions or direct me to a website that might provide the answer?

Hi, Kelley. It’s great that you’re helping get your church ready for this mission trip. Could you give me a little more info about the orphanages being visited, the organization setting up the trip, and how many people will be coming? Eight hundred shoeboxes sounds like a fairly big investment in time and shipping (my quick estimate is about $6000 if the boxes are 2.5 pounds each and carried as personal baggage; they’re unlikely to arrive at all if they’re shipped by surface) so it does need to be well planned. I don’t think there are 800 children in orphanages here, but perhaps an orphanage such as Rafiki is planning on giving the boxes out to the village children.

Truthfully, access to hygiene products is not a big reason for poor health in the children here. Handwashing and toothbrushing are important, but the barriers are more lack of knowledge and water than lack of the soap or toothbrushes. Here are some of the big problems

• Diarrhea and dehydration. Most diarrhea can be prevented by (1) having enough water on hand, (2) having clean water (3) having proper sanitation systems (latrines, toilets, drainage, etc), and (4) handwashing. The lack of (1) to (3) is basically a failure of the government’s responsibilities. Simple water filters can be made at home and used to make the water cleaner, or it can be made safer by leaving it to get hot in the sun, and so on. People can learn to wash their hands more often, but it’s hard when there isn’t enough water around. When diarrhea does occur, it can be kept from causing dehydration if parents know how to give oral rehydration solution. People in the US are probably familiar with products like Pedialyte that you can buy in the store. Here, you can buy packets of the salts to mix with water, or you can make your own mix of salt, sugar and water. This simple measure has saved millions of lives around the world and many parents here in Jos now know how to do it. Many of the most poor and those in the villages still don’t know how.
• Malaria. This is carried by mosquitoes and is a dangerous illness in young children. We see it all the time here. The best way to prevent it is to use bed nets (mosquito nets) that are treated with insecticide. People are slowly learning the importance of this and are investing in nets, but there are still many people who can’t afford them or haven’t seen the importance yet or haven’t even heard of such nets. The cost is about $6 for each net.
• Malnutrition is still a problem in many areas. It’s not usually because of simple lack of food, but other factors such as illnesses, being orphaned, being cared for by someone besides the child’s own mother, and so on. Zinc supplement tablets may be especially helpful to children with poor or borderline nutrition.
• Parasites besides malaria are an important health problem and are basically caused by poor sanitation. Shoes do help keep the number of hookworms down when children are walking in areas infested by those. Other than sanitation, the other prevention measure is to treat all children once or twice a year for the common worms.
• Accidents. Yes, auto accidents kill many children here. The roads are unsafe, the driving is barely regulated, people are packed like sardines into public taxis and vans. Kids are hit when crossing or playing along the road, too. Then there are burns from hot water, falling into open fires, exploding kerosene lamps, and other household sources. Almost all of these accidents are preventable though there’s no quick fix.

The best way for a teenager to help? Learning more about the problem is probably the most important way! A teen who learns about the issues, what is at stake, what are potential solutions, etc. will be able to be a good world citizen able to be part of the solution. She can then pray, educate and encourage others, influence churches, communities and governments, even get involved directly by going abroad or working with agencies at home. The truth is, a shoebox probably won’t save a child’s life (though it will certainly give him a happy day). But if the person who gives the shoebox digs a little deeper to find out why the children are poor, sick, and dying, then he might find God calling him to act in some bigger ways.

Here are just a few of the thousands of places to learn more–

• Article on child survival from Global Health Council: I don’t know anything about the organization, but this article is quite a good one explaining the problems. If you understand this article, you’ll know more than most people about child health & child survival. It also has links at the bottom to more resources and ways to get involved.
• Malaria article from World Vision
• World Vision “Gift Catalog”
• Samaritan’s Purse “Gift Catalog” World Vision and Samaritan’s Purse are both Christian organizations that do a great job addressing the big issues while not forgetting the individual and the love of Christ.
• An example of appropriate technology: making a water filter from clay and coffee grounds, baking (firing) it in a cow manure fire. Not central to understanding child health, just an example of the way we have to think.

I’ll be happy to keep in touch with you and answer more questions if I can help. Maybe your team will be able to come visit us while they’re here, and could see the Spring of Life center for HIV/AIDS and the pediatric ward & clinic where we care for many kids with HIV, malaria, and other sicknesses.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 29th, 2007 at 12:34 pm and is filed under Mike's jottings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.