Children without Childhood

If you have had, or will have the opportunity to visit different countries, I invite you to compare the situation of children. The contrast would surprise you.

I say this because even though I am from a developing country (Colombia), I can not stop being  amazed by the privations that the Mozambican children live, but I mean not only material deprivation that would be normal in a country that has placed 184 among 187 countries in the Human Development Index 2011. I refer also to the lack of opportunities that limit their present and future development.

According to UNICEF data for 2010: 883,000 births were stimated in that year; of which only 55% were attended by skilled personnel, while 114,000 children died before age 5. One of the main causes of these deaths is diarrhea (believe it or not) and only half of children with diarrhea have access to oral rehydration and continued feeding. Another reason is that while Malaria treatments are available in health centers, prevention is still poor: only a quarter of children under 5 sleeping under insecticide-treated mosquito nets.

Approximately one fifth of children in early childhood suffer from underweight, moderate and severe, with approximately half of the children in this stage do not have the estimated size for his age. This could be explained by the lack of a balanced diet, drinking water in all regions, health facilities and generally better living conditions.

The threat of AIDS for children is also troubling given that women of childbearing could transmit the virus to their children, if get pregnant, are 760,000. Also, it is estimated that there are 130,000 children in Mozambique under 14, infected with AIDS. An estimated 2100000 children who lost their parents of whom 670,000 were due to AIDS. Among these orphan children 4 out of 5 attend school.

While literacy of young people aged 15 to 24 still has serious deficiencies, the situation is even worse when comparing gender: 78% of men in contrast to 64% of women.

It is estimated that child labor affects one in five children (from what I've seen I would say that the proportion is significantly higher) mainly in the case of girls. Early marriage is also a fact that in the XXI century is unacceptable: 17% of adolescents were married by age 15 and half of 18 year olds were married. Even the 36% of women justify domestic violence including the teenagers.

So if you ask me a strategy for economic development, I would reply that it is necessary to protect and ensure the full development of children, so that when they grow up they can proactively contribute to the growth of their country with ideas and work, but this requires educating them and having a healthy life, including women in the educational system and the labor market.

Everyone's entitled to a toilet?

I recently read an article where Bill Gates stressed the importance of the research to get better hygienic conditions that were affordable for most people considering that approximately 25% of the world's population has no access to potable water and 33% can't use sanitary facilities according to World Bank data.

Perhaps someone tells me that this is just an artifact imported but the importance of hygiene goes beyond being a mere luxury. Lack of aqueduct leads people to seek alternative sources of water that are not always clean, either because the water of rivers or places that are mixed with waste, because the containers used are not appropriate or because their use encourages the proliferation of pests like mosquitoes that cause malaria and every 30 seconds kills a child in Africa.

This is the bathroom for most of the mozambiquean

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The lack of sanitation is an obstacle to evacuate properly the waste. For example, in a neighborhood where I worked in Colombia, the dirty water run down the middle of the road, close to homes and children who inevitably are the first affected by diseases that could be prevented.

Even in the XXI century, women and girls are limited in their daily activities such as work-study when they have their periods. There are still places where there is no access or are not used to using this kind of basic articles.

At least in Mozambique, this is a serious problem that is reflected in the statement of population health. Globally it is estimated that every two seconds a child dies of diarrhea, 57% of pediatric hospitalizations in this country is due to this disease. That coupled with the poor economic conditions and the lack of appropiate food leads to 14% of children die before reaching one year and 24.6% before completing 5 years.

A hole in the ground that is not always connected to a waste management system

So if you ask me some strategy for economic and social development would reply that it is necessary to satisfy itself at least basic health conditions for children to go to school and to be healthy adults who participate actively in the growth of their country.

Starting the path to growth?

The labor force in Mozambique is significantly less than the economically dependent, so the challenge to develop the economy is bigger. Now if the population is not educated and dedicated mostly to the primary sector without a sufficient market to sell the products, is unsustainable.

Less than 40 years ago this country declared its independence and 20 years ago ended the civil war that delayed the construction of infrastructure, destroyed the existing and used the potential workforce.

Given the lack of opportunity and a labor market, most people work in crops here called machambas, mostly for home consumption. This also leads to the exploitation of natural resources like overfishing in rivers and seas or extraction of wood used as fuel.

Moreover, higher education is unaffordable for most people and is one of the causes of continuing poverty trap.

As I mentioned earlier, most tertiary education provision is concentrated in non-university institutions geared toward social and administrative sciences that have not have the same impact as careers like medicine or engineering but again the dilemma of the lack of human and physical resources.

Also the lack of entrepreneurial spirit that encourages ordinary people to start their own businesses when they are small and the incentive to be independent and stop waiting for better opportunities offered to them.

So if you ask me some strategy for economic development, at least in this case, it is necessary to respond to the job training (eg technical education to begin) and to be entrepreneurs so they begin to look for job opportunities , however they may be small.

Education for whom?

Says an old knowneconomic strategy that if a country wants to bet on growth must educate its population. It means start increasing coverage. The problem is that in developing countries such as Mozambique, public policy should be consistent with the social, cultural and even physical conditions.

Why am I saying this? Well, because the number of teachers is insufficient for the demand. To give an example, in primary education there are on average 58.49 students per teacher  by 2010 and 34.95 in secondary education according to UNESCO data. These same teachers had a poor primary and secondary education and the tertiary education in pedagogy is limited to less than 3 years in institutions that do not always get to be classified as colleges.

So they do not have sufficient technical training or pedagogical methods known to optimize the learning of children who in most cases simply repeat the lessons and copy what's on the board without learning. While most children with great effort, got notebooks and pencils to study only a minority has books, which in some cases are in disrepair. I really admire these teachers who teach with limited resources to children that are not well fed.

 

I am currently working with several groups of orphaned children with severe learning difficulties, for example there are 14-year olds in sixth grade who can not complete a dictation, the situation is worse in younger children who can not even read or write and therefore do not reach the minimum standards for their age.

Perhaps one explanation for this situation is that they are taught in the official language (Portuguese) that is different from their mother tongue. If so, the educational policy should value and include the cultural tradition of the nation.

Another aspect to consider is to ensure the necessary infrastructure to get over this challenge, in some of the most remote communities I visited, I saw that teachers hanging the board on the trees to give their classes, classrooms made of caniço or cane, classrooms made of wooden sticks and tiling without chairs for children, sometimes even for the teacher.


So if you ask me a strategy to achieve economic development I would say that the first step is to ensure not only education but also coverage in the minimum conditions including physical, human resources and material so that people learn effectively, bring new ideas and work in the development process.

The quest to get medical attention

A few days ago one of my friends got sick and had an unforgettable experience, but to start would be worthwhile to remember a song in spanish that would help me tell this story: El Niágara en bicicleta by Juan Luis Guerra.

Why? Well because the quest to find decent medical care in this country is more or less what this song tells: a complete ordeal. The only recognized disease in the hospital we went (the best in the area) is malaria, relatively common, even I'm not doctor nor I have no idea about medicine know is not the only one that exists here. It turns out that my partner began to feel ill, to show serious symptoms and went to the hospital where the same nurses determine who has priority, being white entered first. I only did a test Malaria Express, but was negative as was returned home just as if nothing had happened.

And continued several days and returned to the hospital emergency room was closed at dawn. I mean, do not even think about getting ill outside office hours. By the time we got the doors opened, the nurse only gave some medication to relieve chest pain but I really think that she was not sure what was happening. To complete the power went out, no water to take pills or even a blanket for warmth.

When at last the doctor arrived followed by giving more analgesics for pain but had not the slightest idea of ​​the cause. Moreover, he tried several times to complete the injection.

According to WHO there are 548 doctors in Mozambique in 2010, ie 0.3 per 10000 inhabitants but says it takes at least 23 (per 10,000 pop.) to cover at least the basic health needs for the population. The problem is that most of them are in the city and this country needs to supply more than the basic limits because the poor quality of food, water and general living conditions is more a liability than an asset .

Then both the rights proclaimed in the paper, in this case access to care, simply not met. Is it that we call developing countries if we are not betting on the development of our society, people who daily strives to build the country? Sadly there are stories more difficult than ours of ordinary people who deserve but do not have access to such freedoms.

If you ask me any strategy to achieve desired economic development I would answer that investment in improving living conditions for the prevention, medical attention and a health system for the common people would be a first step.

One woman fainted in line to take an exam

There are not gentlemen

Mozambican women have the strength that I never imagined anyone could have, they can carry kilos of firewood on their heads, heavy packages that not any mortal would dare to carry on their hands and a baby on their back with the most incredible delicacy that could provide their feminine nature.

I am not saying anything against the gentlemen here but I have not seen that social custom  in which men were the ones responsible for carrying the heavier work, to carry the heaviest things. Here I realized that this role is mostly for women: if a couple is walking it is she who takes most of the load, regardless of age.

As in most developing countries the literacy rate (in the country is less than 40%) is slightly lower in women than in men. 46% of children between 6 and 12 years attending schools in contrast to 35% of girls. The cultural influence, the difficult economic conditions (as of 8th grade education payment required), teenage pregnancy and the unequal participation of women in the family have influenced the lower female schooling.

This has resulted in lower training of women for effective participation in the labor market but still some of them have decided to work on crops to ensure at least one daily meal of their children. Working with the same or even greater force than men but always taking care of their babies who always carry with them.

Before making any judgment on it is worth knowing the situation of women in this country is that while 51% of the population, I would say it is a major force that drives this society.

My experience in Colombia made me believe that poverty is particularly unfair to women by social, political, economic and even cultural reasons. Our central position in the family, and therefore in society, is an advantage and also a disadvantage that can be understood as a barrier and also a personal challenge.

Even if the women of this country have lived in a completely different context that you couldn't imagine; this has encouraged them to be stronger. If you ask me a strategy to achieve economic development, I would say that it is necessary to empower women with job skills that allow them to participate actively in the labor market, allowing it to decide on his plan of life, where they can choose the number of children they may have, educate them and ensure they grow up healthy, in short they like the men can be agents of that path to reach sustainable growth.