Kiana Dabay Reflection Essay

Global Studies
Health Care in the Orphanage

There are estimated 153 million orphans around the world who have lost one or
both of their parents or have been abandoned by their families. In Kenya there are
650,000 of orphans and 16,000 of those live in Homa Bay, Kenya an area in the
southwest of the country. That my group focused on researching, we specially studied
about the health care situation. Homa Bay is a remote area that has one of the worsts
health situations in Kenya. They dont have enough money to buy effective medicine and
they dont have highly trained health professionals.

Homa Bay Orphanage holds fifty orphans who used to live in the streets. However,
they only have five dedicated volunteers who help the orphanage to give foods and
shelters at some point and assessing with the basic needs of the orphans. Some of the
kids still live in the streets because Homa Bay Orphanage still doesnt have enough
facilities for all of the kids in the streets. Some volunteers offer to take children at home
and take care of them there. However, the problem goes beyond simply providing for
the number of orphans in the region. Years of living on the streets has left these children
to malaria, cholera, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. For so many years that the orphans
lived in the streets they have encountered a lot of individuals that have diseases that
sometimes can be pass to them quickly without even knowing it.

Fifty-eight point three percent of people in Homa Bay have malaria. The
symptoms usually came after ten days to four weeks some may feel very ill as early as a
week but other than that a person who may have malaria can feel vomiting, headache
and fever. Malaria is a life threatening blood disease that was caused by a parasite.
There is no total treatment but taking an anti-malaria drug can prevent it as well as
using a mosquito net while they are sleeping and wearing long sleeve shirts that are not
dark colors. The orphanage needs mosquito nets and clothes that could protect the
orphans from malaria. If the orphanage doesnt receive any of those things the number
of orphans who have malaria will increase.

In Homa Bay, Kenya ten percent have cholera. It is caused by drinking unclean
water and eating foods with bacteria. The symptoms are having a fever, weight loss and
dehydration. If the bacteria is really severe the person can die within hours. Cholera is
mostly found in the remote areas like Homa Bay. Drinking lukewarm water with salt is
one way to treat a person who is infected by cholera as well as taking an antibiotic drug.
The orphanage needs clean drink water so that it could lessen the number of orphans
who have cholera. They also need to have access to restrooms because feces and bad
hygiene also cause cholera. If they dont receive these kind of basic needs they will have
more orphans that will have cholera or it can worsen the the situation of the orphans
who already have it.

There are ten percent of people in Homa Bay living with tuberculosis. Tuberculosis
is the second deadliest disease in Kenya and around the world. Tuberculosis(TB) can
occur when someone who have TB cough, sneeze or spit that move through the air. If
someone inhales only a few of the germs then he/she might get tuberculosis. The
symptoms are cough with sputum and with blood sometimes, weight loss, fever, night
sweat, chest pain and weakness.If TB is treated immediately by taking several antibiotic
drugs for only six months then the person is healthy again in a way that he could not
pass it to other people. However, there are no particular drug that could really prevent
TB. If TB is not treated there is a high chance that the person who has it will die. They
need mask to cover their mouth in order to prevent any saliva to move through the air or
land to the person around them. If they dont receive those things then there might be a
lot orphans and probably volunteers that may get tuberculosis in the future.

The mother to child transmission of HIV is more than ten percent in Kenya.
HIV/AIDS is the number one top disease in Kenya that kills most of their citizens. Sex-
for-fish is one of the reasons why HIV/AIDS spread quickly in Kenya. Due to lack of
money the citizens especially women have to sell themselves in exchange for fish just to
sell and make profit. Most of the fishermen have HIV/AIDS that they pass to other
people they had contact with, many buyers of the fish got pregnant and through that
they pass their HIV/AIDS to their child even when they are still in the womb. Other
fluids that may contain HIV/AIDS except for blood, breast milk and vaginal fluids are
saliva, urine, feces, tears and vomit. However, those do not really contain a lot of
HIV/AIDS but if it have blood the person can get a high chance to have HIV/AIDS.
There is no any medications that can get rid of HIV/AIDS but there is a medication
called the Antiretroviral Drug(ARV or ART) that could help you live longer, lower the
risks of having other illness that develops when you have HIV and it reduce the chances
to pass it to other people.

The solutions that are needed for this problem are continuously supported by
donating money every month and giving them basic needs such as clothing and
mosquito nets. Also giving them a land where they can plant and take care for animals
will be a great way to save some money and to develop their orphanage. These solutions
will help with this problem because the more money they have the more they can help
and save a life. Money and transportation are also the two problems that they have
because if someone is ill and needed to go to the hospital the child would go and walk
with the volunteer for miles and some died along the way. Having to realized that
transportation or a vehicle is very important I think that giving or buying a car could
help them in many ways such as transporting goods, orphans and other reasonable
things with emergency such as health problem conditions.

There are two organizations that are working to provide a solution to this
problem those organizations are Serv International. The organization are non-profit
which means that they are dependant to donations. In Serv International there are
variety of options on how you can donate to them such as Serv 1 Feed 1, buy a goat and
by supporting a particular orphan in an orphanage monthly which they called Rescue
Orphans. There you can pay five cents per meal every day and you can give the child or
the family thirty-five meals. For every week donation you can donate one dollar and fifty
cents and can give them thirty meals. Rescue for Orphans is where you can support a
child every month for about fifty-five dollars or one dollar and eighty-three cents per
day. If you choose Rescue for Orphans Serv International will invite you to go to Kenya
to see the orphan you have been supporting and as well as building new shelters for
other Kenyan citizens. Also if you donate fifty-five dollars a month the orphan will
receive three meals per day, clean drinking water, medical care and many more.

Serv International is a successful organizations because they get enough money
and support to other people and organizations. Also its because Serv International had
brought people to Kenya that supports orphans every month. They also changed the
lives of some of the orphans by educating them and having to access health care. Serv
actually have a store that sell brand new products in Georgia, USA and half of their
profit is send to the orphanages and they call it Shopping With A Purpose. I would
suggest that they can establish more stores around the United States, so that the more
they have stores the more they can get money to support for the orphanages.

Health care is really hard to get in the orphanages because they dont have
enough money even the governments dont support them. Many orphans got diseases
easily through the exposure that they get when they were still living in the streets. Many
organizations try to help and support the orphanages in many ways but it is not enough.
As an individual what I can do to help with this issue are to fundraise and spread the
word about the organizations that really made an impact to the lives of orphans. The
steps that I can take in the next five years is to save money every month until December
and donate it to the orphanage(s) or in the organizations. Just remember that one
person can change something small into being big.