May 2020

SPEAK WEDNESDAY

Sanitation, Women /

SPEAK WEDNESDAY – MENSTRUAL HEALTH

Menstrual health is about access to menstrual care products to absorb or collect menstrual blood, privacy to change the materials, and access to facilities to dispose of used menstrual care materials. It can also include the “broader systemic factors that link menstruation with health, well-being, gender equality, education, equity, empowerment, and rights”. It can be particularly challenging for girls and women in developing countries, where clean water and toilet facilities are often inadequate. Then with the pandemic “COVID-19” Menstrual care has been a difficult task to uphold, hence Menstrual flow will not stop due to the pandemic.

Adequate measures have to be taken to ensure that young ladies and women from the poor of the poor in Africa as a continent, Nigeria as a country are reached and are sensitized and provided with sanitary pad both usable or reusable so that their state of confidence does not diminish into thin air, while struggling to conform themselves with the societal norm. Community training should not stop in helping them know how the waste should be discarded in an environmentally friendly way, which is largely ignored during this pandemic period in developing countries, despite it being a significant problem.

Menstrual Hygiene Day offers an opportunity to actively advocate for the integration of menstrual care into global, national, and local policies and programs. In Nigeria, CFHI has over the years carried out adequate sensitization programs to curb or reduce to the minimum the problem of menstrual care. Since menstruation would not stop or pause as a result of COVID-19 pandemic then we (CFHI) won’t stop in making sure that our young ladies and women are continuously sensitized about Menstrual Health and how to make sanitary pad available too.

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MONDAY HEALTH BURST – MAY 25, 2020

COVID-19, Gender, Health, Sanitation /

SAFETY MEASURES FOR CHILDREN DURING LOCKDOWN

Children witness families struggling with government lock downs that prevent their parents from earning a living and bringing their education to a stand-still. It is important to keep the children busy at home so they can adhere to the lock down rules and still have a stable mental health.

Children can do the following to keep themselves busy at home

  • Talk on the phone or do a video call with family and friends
  • Text or use other messaging apps to talk with family and friends.
  • Play online games that let them play with other kids from home.
  • Exercise daily
  • Trying out new skills and reading new books/story books

Important safety precautions at home to help prevent infection and spread of COVID-19 in children includes:

  • Regular hand washing with soap and running water
  • Regular laundry of their wears
  • Disinfecting frequently used surfaces such as doorknobs, switch, toys, remote, sink handles, etc
  • Adequate nutrition such as lots of fruits and vegetables to help build their immune system.
  • Avoid self-medication. When a child is noticed to have developed any symptom of ill health, visit a health facility.

Important safety precautions at the health facilities during the pandemic

  • Collaborate to ensure child-friendly health facilities/access to health care, including guidance for health staff on child-friendly communication and special measures to support children’s psycho-social well-being when undergoing treatment and quarantine.
  • Support child safeguarding training for health workers (particularly where children are separated from their families or caregivers).
  • Establish safe, child-friendly complaints and feedback mechanisms in health care facilities.
  • Strengthen capacity on clinical management of rape (CMR) and ensure minimum CMR supplies are available in key facilities to appropriately respond to sexual violence.
  • Collaborate on mental health and psycho-social support care and messaging for children and caregivers affected by COVID-19.
  • Collaborate to ensure child-friendly hand-washing stations are available at health facilities, schools, childcare centres, alternative care centres, and other locations children are likely to visit.

Psychologists and economists have considered parenting style such as how warm, strict, or communicative a parent is, is an important determinant of a child’s skills. During a period of home schooling, parents will try to enforce rules and boundaries so that their children can learn. However, harsh parenting including shouting at or smacking children particularly when the socio-emotional skills of children are low, will exacerbate children’s behavioral and emotional problems. Instead, moving to a more sensitive style of parenting can help close the socio-emotional gaps observed across children. Policy makers should also ensure that information, education, and communication (IEC) materials, including information on available services, are produced, and displayed with limited text in child-friendly versions.

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SPEAK WEDNESDAY

Gender, WHO, Women /

GENDER THEORIES PART 4 – Social Learning Theory by Judith Butler.

(Masculinity and Femininity roles are not biologically fixed but socially constructed)

Social learning theorists hold that a huge array of different influences socialize us as women and men. Females become women through a process whereby they acquire feminine traits and learn feminine behavior. Masculinity and femininity are thoughts conceived through nurture or upbringing. The roles are never innate but with how the society has actually interpreted it.
In our contemporary African society, we put conscious and deliberate efforts towards impacting good values into our female children as compared to the male children. Judith Butler’s gender theory of masculinity and femininity opines that when we equally treat every child alike, we most likely would have almost same features in both the male and female folks. This is because feminine and masculine roles as created and accepted by people in the society is a misconception.
Historically, many feminists have understood ‘woman’ differently: not as a sex term, but as a gender term that depends on social and cultural factors (like social position). In so doing, they distinguished sex (being female or male) from gender (being a woman or a man), although most ordinary language users appear to treat the two interchangeably. More recently this distinction has come under sustained attack and many view it nowadays with (at least some) suspicion.
Feminine and masculine gender-norms, however, are problematic in that gendered behavior conveniently fits with and reinforces women’s subordination so that women are socialized into subordinate social roles: they learn to be passive, ignorant, docile, emotional help meets for men. Since these roles are simply learned, we can create more equal societies by ‘unlearning’ social roles. That is, feminists should aim to diminish the influence of socialization.

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MONDAY HEALTH BURST – COMPLEMENTARY FEEDING

Health, Women /

MONDAY HEALTH BURST – COMPLEMENTARY FEEDING

Complementary feeding is defined as the process starting when breast milk alone is not sufficient to meet the nutritional requirements of infants, and therefore other foods and liquids are needed along with breast milk. It is the transition from exclusive breastfeeding to family foods which typically covers the period from 6-24 months of age.

Complementary feeding prevents malnutrition, deficiency diseases, like anaemia and promotes growth. Children who are not started on complementary feeding by 6 months of age consume in-adequate variety and amount of food to meet their nutritional needs.

It is important to note that complimentary feeding is done during “weaning” and should be a gradual process. It could be tweaked or limited to semi solids for the first trials and then stepped up to solids. These feeds range from grains, vegetables, fruits, meat, dairy and other classes of food.

To meet evolving nutritional requirements, infants should receive nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods, while continuing to breastfeed for up to two years. Exclusive breastfeeding is essential for the first 6months of life to achieve optimal growth, development, and health, after which weaning can commence.

When weaning is not instituted in time, children may be deprived of adequate nutrition to continue their growth and can affect the immunity and health.

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SPEAK WEDNESDAY

Gender, Women /

SPEAK WEDNESDAY – GENDER THEORIES PART 3

(OBJECT RELATIONS THEORY)

According to Object Relations Theory, humans are birthed with an inbuilt capacity to make and sustain relationships and to socialize in their various environment. Once a baby makes his/her first entry into the world, the innate capacity begins to develop immediately he meets “the object”. The object is usually an interior image of one who constantly cares for the infant. In most cases, the first object is the child’s mother. Other objects are the father or guardian who take up parenting responsibilities.

Sάndor Ferenczi initiated the first idea of the Object Relations Theory, followed by other scholars in the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s who extended the theory. However, in 1952, Ronald Fairbairn popularized his theory of Object Relations. These scholars who have contributed to the development of the theory are trying to explicate the role of “the object” in the development of a child psyche.

The theory proposes that family incidences as infants grow tend to structure the way people socialize with others in their environment. Experiences in adulthood may alter the individual’s personality but the impact from “the object” during childhood still greatly influences the person even as he/she grows older. Children raised in a home ravaged by Gender Based Violence tend to be aggressive as adults and see violence as normal in every home or develop low self-esteem. These positive and negative incidences shapen their character and behavior consciously or unconsciously.

Ronald Fairbairn believes that the first object (mother) plays a key role in the formation of a child’s character. Therefore, emphasizing the importance of raising children in a healthy environment. A mother takes care of her children and unconsciously her children begin to form character from the things they watch her do and say. Mothers’ Day is celebrated not just because a mother cares for her children but because the society understands that a mother plays a key role in producing either bad or patriotic citizens.

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MONDAY HEALTH BURST

COVID-19, Health, Hygiene, Sanitation, WHO /

MONDAY HEALTH BURST

Studies are limited in how effective the use of face masks on healthy individuals affect the outcome of prevention of a respiratory virus. However, during the Covid-19 pandemic, we have seen nations use the precaution of implementing the use of face masks nationwide and have seen remarkable results on the prevention of the spread of the virus together with hand washing and social distancing. This among other studies led to the recommendation of non medical masks by WHO and Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

According to WHO guidelines, appropriate use and disposal of face masks are essential to ensure that they are effective and to avoid any increase in transmission. Hence, the need for proper sensitization to the proper way of using a face mask and how to dispose it, since so many people had little or no knowledge of what a face mask is prior to the pandemic.

Below are recommended steps on the correct use of face masks by Practices in Healthcare Settings:

  • Place the mask carefully, ensuring it covers the mouth and nose and tie it securely to minimize any gaps between the face and the mask.
  • Avoid touching the mask while wearing it.
  • Remove the mask appropriately by not touching the front of the mask but untie from behind.
  • After removal, clean hands using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer or wash with soap and water.
  • Replace masks as soon as they become dampened.
  • Do not re-use single-use masks.
  • Discard single-use masks after each use and dispose of them immediately upon removal.
  • For non medical masks, make sure to wash with disinfectant as well as soap and water after single use and make sure to dry under the sun. It is also advisable to have more than one non medical mask.

#StaySafe #MondayHealthBurst

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SPEAK WEDNESDAY- GENDER THEORIES PART 2

Gender, Women /

SPEAK WEDNESDAY- GENDER THEORIES PART 2

(STANDPOINT THEORY BY DOROTHY SMITH)

Through the standpoint theory, Smith argues that notions and beliefs are greatly influenced by location. “We begin from the world as we actually experience it, and what we know of the world and of the other is conditional on that location” (Smith 1987).

At different parts of the world, harboring different kinds of people, beliefs, religions, ideologies and values define who we are and what we believe. To her, as we grow, our values developed from incidences around our environment and this is why the value placed on each gender differs in every society. Then, we begin to take stands (stand point) in our society from what we know through our experiences and the experiences of others.

In Africa, male children are celebrated over their female folks and this has in so many ways contributed to how less important females feel at home, school, social gathering and even at work place. This has affected the mind-set of most female children and as they grow into adulthood, they are made them see themselves as the weaker gender, whose voice should be heard only when asked.

Since we were all born at different locations of the world, we lack the entire knowledge of it. No one knows the entire information of the world. Smith therefore puts a limitation on the knowledge of man.

According to Smith, standpoint is individualistic. This means that no two persons can have the same standpoint irrespective of if they were born and raised in the same environment or society. She therefore encourages us to take our standpoint seriously because it explicates the totality of an individual.

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MONDAY HEALTH BURST – COVID-19 LOCKDOWN

Uncategorized /
MONDAY HEALTH BURST – COVID-19 LOCKDOWN

About five months ago, the world woke up to the news of a new Corona virus, a Novel virus which led to Nigeria’s decision of locking down her major cities to slow down the spread for the past 5 weeks.

During the recent address by Mr. President, it was stated that the stay at home order will be lifted by May 4th. However, it is important that as we go back to work, we need not throw caution to the wind and return to business as usual. It is expected that we remember why the lockdown was enforced in the first place.

According to worldometer figures, we are presently at over 3.2 million confirmed cases of the corona virus (Covid-19) and more than two thousand deaths. This means all hands must be on deck.

As we leave the lockdown, kindly follow the prescribed WHO guidelines of:

Hand hygiene; Washing hands with soap under running water for at least 20 seconds or use of an alcohol-based sanitizer.

Wear a face mask; WHO encourages the use of non-medical face masks for the fear of shortage for medical professionals.

When coughing or sneezing; Cough and sneeze in a flexed elbow or into tissue/handkerchief and dispose of it immediately.

Clean all surfaces; Regularly clean tables, counter tops, door handles, windows, etc, with bleach or disinfectant solutions.

When sick, stay at home; If you notice any symptom of Covid-19, stay at home and call NCDC hotlines in your state if need be.

Avoid public gatherings/places; As much as possible, regulate your movement till this pandemic is mitigated.

Keep social distance; Do not mistake eased restrictions to the end of Covid-19. Social distancing is very essential. This is not the time to visit or hold parties.

As much as possible, maintain the routines as stated while on lockdown. Spread the awareness not the virus. Let us all do our parts to flatten the curve and together with our medical professionals we will beat Covid-19.
#Stay Safe

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