Marshmellow kids
on Colm in Kenya (Kenya), 12/Jul/2010 14:42, 34 days ago
Babies in Africa taste of marshmellows. I have no concrete evidence to back this up but I am almost certain they do.My clothes cleaners’s baby boy for example, is the chubbiest baby I have ever seen. God bless his cotton socks, he gives me an irrestiable big toothless, dribbly smile every time he sees me with huge black eyes that sing. He almost certainly would taste of marshmellow. Like any of these marshmellow kids, Babies in Africa freaking adorable.Many of them are also unwanted.In Kenya every year, 1,000,000 accidental pregnencies are discovered.For men whose vitality is measured in the community by the amount of children they sire (wonderful word sire, isnt it?) this is not a problem. To women it is.55% of women want more access to family planning to give a choice at an alternative life.But for various reasons; poor access, limited awareness and more to the point, gender inequality the choice is often not theirs to make.Women do not decide when to stop having children (or start– studies show that over a third womens first sexual experience is forced). Men do.So what?The role of women in society is perhaps, along with corruption and governance, the biggest obstacle to the development of societies in Kenya and Africa as a whole.Poor Famiy Planning or increasing populations poses a greater risk to a countries development than HIV/AIDS.Having fewer, healthier children can reduce the economic burden on poor families and allow them to invest more in each child’s care and schooling, helping to break the cycle of poverty.My clothes cleaner has 4 kids so far, 3 girls and their adorable new brother.If she has more, you can be assured it’s the girls who will be first taken out of school.Thus, the cycle will continue and women will continue to suffer.However, satisfying the unmet need for contraceptive services in developing countries would avert 52 million unintended pregnancies annually, that means more girls in school and fewer kids with more mums.More Mums? A woman's lifetime risk of dying from complications in childbirth or pregnancy isabout one in 39 in Kenyaabout one in 48 000 in Ireland(about one in seven in Mali)458 in 100,000 women die due to pregnancy related complication in Kenya every year. In Ireland it’s 4.The Irish Times recently celebrated the improving gender equality in Ireland over the past 30 years and called for a second wave of feminism.Second Wave?Surely society should focus on ensuring the changes in countries like Ireland happen around the world. 99% of the 536,000 women who die from pregnancy-related causes every year—more than 10 million women per generation - happen in the developing world.Statistics damn statistics.Just watch this.You would not accept this if that were your sister. So why accept at all. It doesn’t have to be this way?www.google.com