Saturday, July 30, 2011

Women: The Silent Ones

By Alpha Bedoh Kamara
Despite the passing of the Three Gender Bills into law, violations and abuse of women and girls still continue in most sectors of the country, with cases of rape becoming a challenge for the criminal law officials.
Two weeks ago, an eight-year-old girl was reportedly abducted in Bawuya, Moyamba District and raped. She is presently waiting surgical operation at the Bo Government Hospital. According to a neighbor, the victim who was living with her grandmother after the death of her father was unable to identify the perpetrators.
This information was disclosed on Friday when the UNFPA Country Representative in Sierra Leone, Madam Ratidzai Ndlovu led a provincial tour of Americans for UNFPA, media practitioners and UNFPA Country office staff to the Bo Government Hospital to evaluate the impact of donor funds and assess resources to be mobilized to address the health needs of vulnerable women in society.
The Chief Executive Officer of Campaign for Human Rights and Development - Sierra Leone, Abdul Fatoma, also said there has been progress in the struggle to end violence against women but that many challenges persist.
Fatoma said discrimination continues against women’s participation in politics and decision-making processes concerning national development, and that this is despite tremendous efforts made by civil society organizations, human rights groups and women’s groups for the inclusion of women in politics and other strategic positions in the government and other public institutions.
“This is the essence of effective campaigning, but it is not easy to do. Moreover, it may come across as being unduly cynical,” he said, adding that it appears that governments are ahead of the human rights community in understanding that this is the way in which events can move forward and in particular, it seems that governments recognize that the sober-minded NGO community in Sierra Leone in general can do many things that governments cannot.
The United Nations Human Rights on Women and Violence (http://www.un.org/rights/dpi1772e.htm) states that violence affects the lives of millions of women worldwide, in all socio-economic and educational classes. It cuts across cultural and religious barriers, impeding the rights of women to participate fully in society.
“Violence against women takes a dismaying variety of forms, from domestic abuse and rape to child marriages and female circumcision. All are violations of the most fundamental human rights,” the report states.
These are few instances of the position of women in Sierra Leone, challenges that are being influenced by many factors in society.
However the Three Gender Laws that are supposed to address the challenges faced by women and girls in our society can only do so with the support and willingness of the people to make them work.
Among the many challenges facing women in Sierra Leone are high rate of illiteracy, poverty and unemployment, coupled with traditional and religious beliefs.
These challenges faced by women in Africa, and Sierra Leone in particular, makes them to continue to suffer in silence; the reason being that those that want to stand for their rights or challenge their predicament are often frustrated by tradition and religion.
Therefore the majority suffer in silence with perpetrators committing their crimes with impunity.
This trend cannot be disassociated with the heinous crimes perpetrated against women and girls during the 11 year war in Sierra Leone, when they were subjected to rape, forced marriage, amputations with pregnant women’s wombs split open for combatants to know the sex of the fetus.
The eight-year-old girl and many others raped daily will continue to suffer until all stakeholders in society are made to understand the laws with proper sensitization about how vital they are to socio-economic development. The laws can also be fully understood with improvement in the girl-child education and protection from sexual and societal harassment.
The Three Gender Laws bring hope to the many that continue to cry in the dark, because until now women found it difficult to seek legal redress for grievances because of the poor state of the law.
However while the government has signed up to all major international instruments, most notably the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), it struggled to domesticate them into national law until 2007 when they helped to turn these international commitments into national legal treaties.
The irony now is: though the laws are there to protect women and girls, yet violence continues unabated, with tears their only solace for getting even.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

NCDs: A Growing Global Heath Threat

What are NCDs
A non-communicable Disease is a disease that is not spread through contact or germs. It is caused by how people live (e.g. harmful lifestyle behavior) , conditions that they are born with (either genetic , inherited or due to unknown causes) , or exposure to environmental hazards (e.g. second hand smoke, fumes, toxic substances etc.).
The main lifestyle related risk factors of NCDs are tobacco use, inadequate eating habits, physical inactivity and alcohol misuse, all of which are avoidable and preventable social determinants that also increase high blood pressure, dyslipidemia and obesity.
• Why should the world take notice of NCDs?
“To do justice by our duty as the voice of all those who have been affected by NCDs, and to protect the lives of all those who will be affected by them in the coming years, we need to ensure that NCDs receive a new label marked “urgent action required now.” Her Royal Highness, Princess Mired.
The WHO has identified the following chronic diseases as the main threats to human health: cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases: “These four diseases are the main causes of death and disability worldwide, representing about 60% of deaths and 44% of early deaths (35 Million deaths every year, 80% of which occur in low and middle income countries”
NCDs represent a serious public health issue and are a health emergency worldwide. Deaths from NCDs are rising quicker in Africa than in the rest of the world (27%), with the Eastern Mediterranean region (25%) a close second. The highest absolute number of deaths will occur in the Western Pacific and South-East Asia regions. In spite of the severity of the situation and the enormous strain they have on health systems worldwide, the funding to fight NCDs is only 1% of the total funding that is dedicated to development.
The negative impact of NCDs has increased due to urbanization, the modifications of lifestyles, growing reach and power of corporations that promote the use of harmful substances (unhealthy food, etc), social inequality and poverty, difficulty in access to affordable health systems, and political and social inaction.
NCDs deepen social inequality since they have a greater impact on poor, less educated people, members of certain ethnic groups, women, children and the elderly, all of whom have lower access to health services, thus hindering human development, counteracting the efforts in the fight against poverty and increasing health inequalities. Despite this, NCDs are still not part of the political agenda of most countries and the Millennium Development Goals.
Prevention and control of NCDs is not only a health strategy, but also a development intervention as a key action in ensuring sustainable human rights and human development. There are several international treaties in which States have assumed obligations and commitments to guarantee essential human rights that are directly connected to the prevention and control of NCDs. However, implementation of these treaties is insufficient.
Some Ministers from National Health Department have made comments like: “Health systems are nearly bankrupt and prevention on NCD’s is the solution” and “because of the current economic situation it is necessary to prioritize prevention”. There is as a result, an emerging tension in 2011 between those who believe that such a meeting should concentrate on prevention and those who believe that support and research for a cure for NCDs is also crucial.
While a focus on prevention, where possible, is necessary, it is vital that similar importance be given to research and to providing affordable, accessible, quality care for patients already suffering from cancer as well as for those suffering unpreventable cancers.

No solution to Kargbo's hand despite years of suffering. wound in the hand discharges pus, and has been with her for years.