WHO

MONDAY HEALTH BURST

Gender, Health, WHO, Women / cfhinitiative

SEXUAL HEALTH

Sexual health is a state of physical, mental and social well-being in relation to sexuality. It requires a positive and respectful approach to sexuality and sexual relationships, as well as the possibility of having pleasurable and safe sexual experiences, free of coercion, discrimination and violence.

Sexual health cannot be defined, understood or made operational without a broad consideration of sexuality, which is a central aspect of being human. It encompasses sex, gender identities and roles, sexual orientation, eroticism, pleasure, intimacy and reproduction.

In promoting sexual health, there are some fundamental human rights attached. They include the rights to equality and non-discrimination, the right to be free from torture, cruelty, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment, the right to privacy, the rights to the highest attainable standard of sexual health and social security, the right to marry with free and full consent of the intending spouses, and to equality in and at the dissolution of marriages, the right to decide the number of children to have and when to have them, the rights to information as well as education, the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, and the right to an effective remedy for violations of fundamental rights.

Sexual rights protect the rights of everyone to fulfill and express their sexuality with due regard for the rights of others and within a framework of protection against discrimination. Sexual health is a very sensitive and wide aspect of health as it affects the psychological aspect as well as the genital organs.

Gender equality and sexual orientation are very key aspects of sexual health, as there is need for freedom from all forms of discrimination based on gender, need for respect and acceptance of gender differences, need for freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation, and need for freedom to express sexual orientation in safe and responsible manners within a values framework that is respectful of the rights of others. There is also need to foster the practice of consensual, non-exploitative, honest, mutually pleasurable relationships.

If everyone is made to understand and respect the sexual rights of others, issues of rape, pedophilia, female genital mutilation, child marriage, breast ironing, and all manner of evil perpetrated against girls and even children will be mitigated. There will be more people to make responsible decisions regarding sexuality that will help build a better society. Note also that sexual health is all encompassing and it is incomplete not to mention regular check-ups like health screening, breast and testicular self-scans in order to identify sexual problems in time.

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MONDAY HEALTH BURST

COVID-19, Health, WHO / cfhinitiative

DEPRESSION: THE SILENT KILLER

Depression is a mental health disorder characterized by persistently unhappy mood or loss of interest in activities, causing significant impairment in daily life. It is a very common mental disorder and in Nigeria, there are about 1.5million cases annually.

Possible causes of depression include a combination of biological, psychological and social sources of distress. Everyone who experiences depression is different and have different contributing factors. Some of these causes are identified as stressful life events including loss of a loved one, stress, isolation or loneliness, low self-esteem, personal factors like family history, personality, serious medical illness, drug and alcohol use, and chemical changes in the brain.

Symptoms of depression involve changes in sleep, appetite, energy level, concentration, daily behavior or self-esteem.

Change in Mood: anxiety, apathy, general discontent, guilt, hopelessness, loss of interest or pleasure in activities, mood swings, or sadness.
Change in Behavior: agitation, excessive crying, irritability, restlessness, or social isolation.
Change in Sleep: early awakening, excess sleepiness, insomnia, or restless sleep.
Change in Whole body: excessive hunger, fatigue, or loss of appetite.
Cognitive change: lack of concentration, slowness in activity, or suicidal thoughts.
Change in Weight; weight gain or weight loss.

Many people suffering from depression never seek medical attention during their entire lives. They choose to absorb the burden of depression into their different body systems. This can lead to physical symptoms and various diseases at a later stage. If left untreated, major depression is life threatening.

The mainstay of treatment is usually medication, talk therapy or a combination of the two. Mild depression can be handled with family support, behavioral therapy, lifestyle changes, and learning skills for managing while Severe or chronic depression with other underlying health issues need medical therapy.

CFHI Monday Health Burst is an initiative of the organization to tackle issues of basic health concerns. Join us every Monday for more health related articles on all our social media platforms.

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SPEAK WEDNESDAY

Gender, Health, WHO, Women / cfhinitiative

EMOTIONAL VIOLENCE

Have you ever been in a situation where you have suffered emotional neglect and isolation, experienced co-dependency, accusation, blaming, shame, verbal abuse, control, humiliation, bullying, intimidation, manipulation, cyber bullying and abusive criticism? All these devices are palpable signs of emotional violence geared towards hurting and destroying one’s self esteem. The abuser can be anyone: a spouse, business partner, boss, friends, family members, etc.

To exercise power and control over its victim, an emotional abuser propels one to believe that they are indispensable, leaving the victim in perpetual fear. It is important to know that everyone, regardless of race, religion, beliefs, are entitled to respect, independence, self-worth and safety in any relationship.

The emotionally abused sustain injuries that are not necessarily physical but invisible. Only the abused knows he/she is injured and weighs the burden of this injury. What happens next? The abused begins to wallow in self-doubt and concludes that he/she is worthless. The effects of emotional abuse can be short term damages or long lasting scars for those who survive it. The victims may suffer from insomnia, eating disorders, heart palpitations, depression, stomach ulcers, anxiety and even death.

One of the toughest types of violence to detect is emotional abuse because it may not necessarily be physical. Just like other kinds of violence emotional violence can sabotage the mental and psychological health. The abused may begin to feel that all the hurtful comments and abusive criticism used by the abuser are true and blame themselves for the abuse. This may push the abused into the silent killer called depression. We need to live with the consciousness that what we say to people, or how we use words when relating with people can affect them positively or negatively.

To tackle emotional abuse, you must first overcome self-blame. It is not your fault that you are abused. Yes! You will survive irrespective of whether that person is in your life or not. Make yourself a priority! It is important to establish boundaries in your relationship to preserve self-worth and respect. In cases where there is constant breach of boundaries, draw an exit plan, speak to close and trusted persons about it as this may boost the chances of healing internally.

Centre for Family Health Initiative through Child Protection Committee interventions provides psycho-social, economic and legal support to emotionally and physically abused persons who cannot afford justice. Also, Speak Wednesday is a service of CFHI to encourage victims of all forms of abuse to speak up, with the aims of providing justice for everyone, irrespective of their socio-economic status.

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SPEAK WEDNESDAY

Gender, Health, WHO, Women / cfhinitiative

SPEAK WEDNESDAY- FAMILY VIOLENCE

Family violence can be referred to as domestic violence. This could be physical, verbal, psychological, sexual, social, financial, spiritual and emotional. It has been proven overtime that anyone can be affected by family violence, regardless of age, gender, sexual identity, cultural background, ability, religion, wealth, status or location.

Family violence can have serious and sometimes disastrous consequences for victims and for those around the violence. It may rage from physical abuse like pushes or shoves, hits, slaps, kicks, stabs, cuts, which may sometimes lead to death; sexual abuse like forceful sex or engaging in sexual activity without consent. This occurs even in marriages; financial abuse like being a sole controller of family funds no matter who earns it. It could also be depriving a partner of working so that she may depend solely on you for financial needs; emotional abuse is another form of family abuse and it entails name calling, threats, bulling, intimidation, humiliations, and more.

It is pertinent to note that women are not only victims of domestic violence. The men are not left out as well. The social and cultural stigma associated with male violence sometimes hinders them from speaking. Our society forbids a man to be abused in whatever form by his wife and children. Therefore they become too ashamed to speak to avoid the dishonor of being called weak. However, men should realize that speaking about it is not shameful but a thing of dignity to muster the courage to ask for help. Anyone can be abused!

There are unique cases where the abused is ignorant of the fact that he or she is being abused by the abuser. A good example is emotional, spiritual and economic abuse. In some relationships, one partner or spouse manipulates the other’s emotions to do certain things and making the victims develop low self-esteem over time. Some other spouses or partners exploit the economic resources of their spouses. They cover this exploitation with lies making their partners unaware of the fact that they are being abused.

#SayNoToRape #JusticeForEveryone #EndFamilyViolenceNow

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SPEAK WEDNESDAY

Gender, WHO, Women / cfhinitiative

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

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

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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MONDAY HEALTH BURST – PROPER HYGIENE AND SANITATION

Health, Hygiene, Sanitation, Uncategorized, WHO / cfhinitiative

MONDAY HEALTH BURST – PROPER HYGIENE AND SANITATION:

Simply put, hygiene is the personal practices we imbibe that contribute to healthy living like hand washing, hair trimming and keeping nails short and clean, bathing, brushing of teeth morning and evening, among others. Sanitation on the other hand, is the actions and use of tools we combine towards keeping our environment clean, safe and healthy. These include effective drainage and proper waste disposal, how we prepare food, maintain toilet facilities and washing stations.
According to WHO, these practices are important towards the availability of clean water, combating Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTP) like helminths via contaminated soil and water, lymphatic filariasis which affects 1 billion of the world’s poorest people in about 149 countries. It includes prevention of water borne diseases like diarrhoea, cholera and breeding of organisms that cause malaria and onchocerciasis.
Globally, 2.4 billion people lack access to proper toilet facilities, hence, the high rate of open defecation. Over 946 million people worldwide practice open defecation according to a WHO report, leading to contamination of the soil and nearby water bodies, often resulting in diseases affecting communities.
To ensure we understand the scope and scale of the need for hygiene and sanitation, we need to start with us as individuals, making sure we imbibe hygienic practices and sanitize our environment by disposing waste properly, recycling, cleaning of our homes and surroundings, culminating in the next step of community led sanitation. Communities can provide proper latrines and waste disposal means which is an important part of sanitation and can drastically reduce diseases in the communities.
To help build and maintain a healthy community and personal health, especially in this prevailing pandemic, we must embrace proper hygiene and sanitation.
#HygieneAndSanitation #MondayHealthBurst #Stayhome #Staysafe

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WORLD MALARIA DAY 2020

COVID-19, Health, Special Events, Uncategorized, WHO / cfhinitiative

WORLD MALARIA DAY 2020: ZERO MALARIA STARTS WITH ME:

“From 2000 to 2015, several countries made tremendous progress in the fight against malaria. Globally, malaria deaths fell by more than 50%. Seventeen countries eliminated malaria, and six were certified by the WHO as malaria-free”. This exceptional progress demonstrated that malaria elimination is achievable.

Despite the progress made in the fight against malaria, half of the world population is still at risk of this devastating disease. According to WHO’s World Malaria Report for 2019, the scourge of malaria continues to strike hardest against pregnant women and young children in Africa. Scaling up efforts to reduce cases and deaths among these two populations would provide significant boost in the fight against malaria.

With the present Covid-19 pandemic concerns taking the front line, there is need to ensure that efforts and progress gained in the fight against malaria are not lost and there is continued testing and treatment of malaria cases even within this pandemic. WHO warned on Thursday, April 23, that the number of deaths caused by malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa could double to 769,000 this year, as efforts to curb the disease are disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is essential that we keep to the guidelines of cleaning the environment and dispensing stagnant waters around homes, ensuring proper covering of openings, fumigate regularly, appropriate clothing especially for children at night and most importantly the use of insecticide treated mosquito net. In as much as we enjoin everyone to stay at home, never hesitate to seek medical help if fever occurs.

Happy World Malaria Day!

#StaySafe #WMD2020

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