by Keziah Watatua, AWA Kenya
[To my esteemed reader...I pen this article from a lovely suburban village west of Nairobi, a beautiful city with balanced weather under the sun. The name Nairobi comes from a Maasai word, Enkarenairobi, which means “cool place.”]
Poverty and disease are correlated because the impact that each of them places upon those affected is more or less the same. The two have similar effects on the psychological, emotional and physical states of the affected individuals. There is a consensus among educators that their learners will only perform optimally and attain their full potential if, and only when, these three aspects of humanity are well managed. Learners’ emotional, physiological and psychological states of learners largely determine their levels of success in education, and subsequently how productive they end up being in their communities. This, in turn, has ripple effects on the economies locally and then globally.
Additionally, one thing leads to the other. For instance, needy and sick children both lack proper nutrition, and this may lead to high infant mortality rates globally. Approximately 3.1 million children die from undernutrition each year (UNICEF, 2018a). Hunger and undernutrition contribute to more than half of all global child deaths, as undernutrition can make children more vulnerable to illness and exacerbate disease (UNICEF, 2018a). In view of the current COVID-19 pandemic, I often witness disadvantaged children, particularly in the developing nations, being caught up in very unfortunate circumstances. In my village, for example, I happen to live close to many children whose parents travel long distances from their respective rural areas in search of jobs as casual laborers around the capital city. Some come to set up vegetable bandas in the market area so as to make ends meet. Many of these women, who are mostly single, end up leaving their children unattended, causing them to loiter around the village seeking some source of food or trying to find some meaningful activity to keep them engaged. Eating healthy foods regularly so as to be able to stengthen their immune systems becomes a challenge. I often find that many of them do not include fruits in their diets regularly, thereby compromising their health even further.
These unattended children, whose innate abilities make them capable of being molded into innovative and creative global citizens, end up being prey to drug peddlers, while others risk being taken advantage of in one negative way or another. Additionally, due to the pandemic, they are likely to fall into the high-risk category of groups vulnerable to infections, as many may find it difficult to practice physical distancing and regular handwashing. Few if any have sufficient running water in their homes. Further, following the closure of schools by the government, most of these children have been lagging behind academically due to a lack of sufficient educational materials, access to technology, and the fact that most cannot afford wifi to access information. These children usually stagnate in their cognitive development and creative abilities, hence reducing their chances of securing a bright future. As a result, the morale of both the parents and their children remains low, as hope turns to despair day by day. Opportunities are lost, crime rates worsen and economies retrogress. Children who perhaps potentially hold the key to finding solutions to global issues, such as finding cures for chronic diseases like cancer and discovering innovative ways for sustainable development, sadly have their lives wasted. This leads to a downward spiral: developing nations that would otherwise be flourishing with manufacturing hubs, bustling with fruitful activities such as bilateral trade with the more developed nations benefiting the entire globe, end up missing the mark, and the children continue to suffer for it.
References:
Photo by Gabriele Stravinskaite on Unsplash
