Hannah's Social Justice Report ?'s About Africa

Our family friend's daughter is writing about Medical Issues in Africa for her High School Social Justice class. She asked if we would answer some questions for it.  Here's the result:

 

1. What has been your experience with medical assistance in Africa?

 

First, I have to say "not much." But, some. You can find some great articles on the UN web-site www.un.org/en search, "Africa Medical" ~ Here is another article from World Vision, (who does a great job with their, “WASH” Focus: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene:

http://www.worldvision.org/content.nsf/learn/ways-we-help-wsh

 

My personal insight is this:

In general western mission & medical assistance has tried very hard to help, and has done a lot of great things. However it seems that there are major errors in creating dependency rather than internal sustainability. Here's what I mean:

Typically a medical team of doctors goes to an impoverished African village and sets up a temporary clinic. They bring in equipment, medicines and do a lot of great work. Dental work, burn victims helped, and etc.

 

Here is a video from a team out of Virginia who served 1500 patients in a few short days in rural Zambia. It was a tremendous time!

http://vimeo.com/22402298

So... I do not want to shine a negative light on this concept of serving, because it's powerful, helpful, needed and beautiful, however…

 

When the medical team leaves... the local Zambians or Kenyans, wait, hope, pray... that another team comes.... soon!

 

This can look like a cycle of dependency.

 

So a major dilemma is how to propagate lasting change.

An additional element is, "what is proper change?"

Is the way we do it correct, right, global, and we take our model and inject it into their culture?

So it takes a lot of "listening and learning." A wonderful model for approaching a culture that is not your own, so that "forced change," to do things "our way," is less the aim, but "deep and lasting, culturally relevant change" becomes the focused outcome: is called the "Model for Mutual Influence," you can find that model here:

http://experiencemission.org/Display.asp?Page=Influence

 

One of the best ways to implement lasting change is to, "listen & learn" and then "serve and partner." Within the serving and partnering comes imparting knowledge, sharing ideas, and teaching.

 

This is a very humble but powerful example of, lasting, duplicative, culture focused change in Uganda.

A single woman, nurse, moved to Uganda. Loved, listened, learned, and saw the need for basic health education.

When I heard Margaret Nelson speak, she noted that the roads are very narrow, and that large trucks which are filled to overflowing with people who need rides to wherever... many times are in accidents that result in people getting hurt and dying.

When a bystander sees an accident, they generally don't know what to do, so they pass on by. She trains them... in what to do.

An example from a person she trained was this... "I saw two men crying, carrying what looked like a dead body. They said their friend had drowned in the lake and they were taking him to be buried. The trained bystander asked if he could take a look and see if he could help. He performed basic CPR and the, "dead man" spit up water and revived. Basic CPR lessons saved this guy from being buried that day. THAT is lasting change. Where the society is equipped to help themselves. This bystander learned something that he can turn around and teach others, and help save lives.

Here is Margaret's web-site:

http://sentbychrist.org/margaretnelson.htm

 

 

 

• On another note.

Malaria is the number one killer in all of Africa.

Malaria can be prevented and treated.

One prevention method is bed-netting, keeping mosquitoes from biting. This example doesn't happen all the time, but one story I heard was in a fishing village where nets where handed out to keep kids from dying of malaria, they decided to use them for fishing nets to catch fish and eat rather than bed nets.

Interesting thoughts, regarding these choices.

Here are a few web-sites that speak to the Malaria issue in Africa:

http://malariacube.com/

http://www.one.org/c/us/issue/14/

http://www.malarianomore.org/

 

Any help is good help. But what are the best, most effective and lasting help concepts, that's the question. And at least asking these questions as we go will help see through glasses of respecting others dignity and look for lasting change.

 

2. How do you educate Africans about AIDS prevention?

See answer for question number 10.

 

3. What was the most rewarding thing that happened to you while you were visiting?

I know this may not sound super powerful, but you asked. The most rewarding for me was, "being in Africa with my family."

 

 

4. What was the most shocking thing you learned from your visits to Africa?

The vast chasm between the super wealthy and the ultra poor. Many times living right next to each other.

 

5. How often have you visited the country of Zambia?

2 (not enough:)

 

6. How prevalent was AIDS in Zambia compared to the other countries in Africa that you visited?

7. What country seemed to be the most affected by AIDS?

 

Let me answer 6 & 7 together.

The United States Central Intelligence Agency, (CIA) has a GREAT source called the “World Fact Book.” I highly recommend it, and use it a lot.

 

Zambia is 13.5% “adults living with Aids”

The saying goes: a percentage is infected with Aids but the entire population is affected by it.

 

My friend Richard in Zambia has 14 kids living in his house. Because his brother died of aids, so the children are being raised by him with his biological 7 kids.

 

The country most affected is: Swaziland, at nearly 26%

 

This link shows Country Comparison :: HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankord...

 

 

 

8. Did you notice if it was easier to seek medical attention in certain African countries opposed to others? If so, why do you think that is?

 

Absolutely.

Money.

 

This page is a list of African countries by GDP.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African_countries_by_GDP_%28no...

 

There are many other factors other than GDP, like, the size of the country, what natural resources does that country have, the government and more.

 

But, when you have finances you can set up infrastructure to care for people.

• As individuals, if you have money, you can afford to be seen by doctors.

South Africa a has world class medical infrastructure. Most big cities do too. However the more rural you get, the more focus leans to “spiritual healers,” which are prevalent today.

 

Many women and or babies die during childbirth simply because they cannot get from their villages to a medical clinic in the city, in time. Here’s a story about that:

http://www.hearandtell.com/profiles/blogs/a-medical-clinic-in-mozam...

 

This was interesting too:

http://hospitals.webometrics.info/top100_continent.asp?cont=africa

 

I don’t pretend to know even a miniscule proportion of the scope of the continent and the intricacies of medical offerings.

 

 

9. When are you planning on returning to Africa and what do you plan to do next?

 

 Jennifer goes to Mozambique in July. With a group of about 18 women. Women are mistreated in Mozambique, and many of the young girls are not afforded education because their families want to get them married off at a young age.

So there are a lot of dynamics in this, “women’s conference” in Mozambique, to come alongside and serve with the women there who generally do not have a voice in society or the church.

 

I go as well in July & in August. During this time we will host a team from Oxnard, CA who will come and serve alongside the “herd boys” of Lesotho.

Herd Boys, are young men ages 8 to 18, 35,000 of them who shepherd the family livestock, and are gone from home for months at a time. They make their own shelter and lack certain education options. Here’s a video I made of some photos taken while there in Feb. 2011.

http://www.hearandtell.com/video/lesotho-africa-herd-boys

Additionally I’ll be with a small team of leadership going to Rwanda. This will be a set up trip for 2012, where we hope to see many Americans come to Rwanda to learn about this genocide nation. We are working alongside http://www.theamia.org who will help us discover more about the church in Rwanda and areas we can partner and serve together.

10. What are actions that someone else can take to help prevent AIDS, too?

Prevention of AIDS stems from education.

So a question is, what is the best way to educate?

Do you simply pass out millions of condoms and say use these all the time to stop the spread of AIDS?

Training people how to train others and duplicate an educational process is vital.

 

Here is a video ~ that show’s a phenomenal process of explaining what is, what is not HIV/Aids, a great tool for education. And something that can be duplicated in any language, it only uses images.

So this works great in lot’s of settings:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zwNOzl3XuI&feature=player_embedded

 

An organization we work with in South Africa is doing a great job at multiplying HIV/AIDS educators.

Their web-site is:

http://www.buildinghope.org.za/Building_Hope_Foundation/HIV_cube.html

 

 

Africa is a huge, warm, welcoming place. There are stark harshness’s as well, with crooks and the crooked. But most of the people are lovely.

The landscape is vast and diverse; it would take several lifetimes to see it all.

My encouragement is to go.

 

 

Many blessings,

 

Mike Greenberg

www.HearAndTell.com