Maravi

Let's pay attention to the health of our children

Let's pay attention to the health of our children
By The Post
Thu 17 May 2012, 09:20 CAT

A society which values its future affords the highest priority to providing quality healthcare for all its children.

There is no future development without healthy and educated children. And one cannot claim to uphold the sanctity of life and to value the future of our children if there is no provision for minimal healthcare for them.

Children are the most vulnerable citizens in any society and the greatest of our treasures. Our children must no longer be tortured by the pangs of hunger or ravaged by disease or threatened with the scourge of ignorance.

The value of our independence and development must be measured by the happiness and welfare of our children. The children who are ravaged by disease, who sleep in the streets and are reduced to begging to make a living, are testimony of an unfinished job. There can be no keener revelation of our nation's soul than the way in which it treats its children. The true character of a society is revealed in how it treats its children. When you see the children, the way they look, the way they are dressed, completely emaciated, you should really be moved.

There is so much that affects the health of our children. Some of it is not so easily visible. But we all know that the wounds that cannot be seen are more painful than those that can be treated by a doctor. There is so much abandonment of children, of their health and of their education.

Every child in this country should have the right to medical care when sick. This should oblige the government to create conditions in which every child has access to medical services and attention in the event of sickness. This right obliges the government to provide enough funds for preventive healthcare and basic healthcare assistance.

This right extends to the preventive access of healthcare. This includes improved nutrition for children, sanitation and immunisation, improvement of all aspects of environmental hygiene. This right obliges the government to pay a special attention to the improvement of health conditions of our children. We should use the maximum of our available resources to realise this right.

Children are the greatest resource and the future of our country. Our children are our greatest resource, our richest treasure, our best hope for the future. But we seem to be wasting away this great resource. We sadly note that this resource is being reduced amidst great suffering, a suffering which, by and large, seems to go unnoticed by those in power and is often inadequately responded to by government programmes.

We are aware of, and we do commend, our government's efforts to try and deal with the health problems of our children. But we feel that much more needs to be said and done if we are to meet effectively the massive problems of children's suffering in Zambia today. We should not be silent in the face of this suffering of our children. We must speak out and call upon all people of goodwill in our country to deal more forthrightly with this increasing suffering of children in our midst.

We all know of our children's suffering.
The enjoyment of the right to adequate standard of living entails adequate and equal access to health services for all our children. This requires an acknowledgement of the problems that beset health services and the willingness to tackle them. Equality among citizens and the demands of justice call for policies which aim to provide healthcare for all without distinction. Moreover, we should never forget that the life of every child is sacred. It is a gift from God to be valued from the moment of conception until death. Children can never be reduced to the status of objects.

Every child is of equal dignity.
Absolute equality of access to healthcare for all our children is difficult to achieve. However, this is an ideal which must always be striven for. The guiding principle determining whether a child will receive priority treatment ought not to be the parents' position in society. Rather, every child should have equal right to receive healthcare.

In saying all this, we are aware of the severe difficulties which the health services of our country are experiencing at present. Without doubt, the most serious problem is the acute shortage of health centres to cater for all our children. But as we have already stated, one cannot claim to uphold the principle of the sanctity of life if provision has not been made even for minimal healthcare for every child.

This is a priority which we cannot ignore if we wish to be a caring and compassionate nation towards our children. It must be recognised that if this problem is to be tackled effectively, efficiently and in an orderly manner, it will demand the allocation of more resources from the state.

While we greatly value the generous dedication to service of those who work in the medical field like Dr Christine Kaseba, we cannot ignore that the quality of medical care is often seriously inadequate.

We have children not being attended to for long periods of time; the lack of commitment on the part of some personnel; the failure to recognise each child as deserving the best healthcare possible. We therefore invite all health workers to serve every child without exception, with responsibility and due dedication.

Childhood is entitled to special care and assistance. All children should enjoy the same social protection. Each child should have the right to special care and attention. The welfare and interests of the child should be recognised and protected. The children are vulnerable and therefore need special protection to enjoy their human rights in full.

The interest of the child should take precedence. Respecting the rights of the child entails promoting the welfare of the children. And in promoting the welfare of the child, we must be guided by the values of our cultural tradition and in the Bible. For example, the cultural value that the children are to be seen as a gift from God.

For our people, children are a sign of God's blessings, a blessing that is received with gratitude and treasured with love. They are a joy to their parents and a welcome gift to the community in which they are born. We recommend that these traditional values be maintained and treasured and that they be passed on to future generations.

The rights of welfare of the child are best realised in the context of the welfare of the family. The promotion of the welfare of the child therefore requires the promotion of the welfare of the family.

We cannot be serious about promoting the interests and the rights of the children unless we are fully committed to promoting the interests of the family. It is impossible to promote the good of the children without promoting the good of the family. The world is theirs, as well as ours, but in the last analysis, it is theirs. Our hope is placed on them. Zambia's future belongs to them. Without them, there is no future for our country.

We must care for our children and show great concern for their health. And as Dr Kaseba has correctly observed, there is nothing more important to people than the health of children and their future. And it is saddening that easily preventable diseases disable children. Today, even diseases that we thought were wiped out are re-emerging to ravage our children. This is sad. This is unacceptable. This must be remedied.

Labels: HEALTHCARE

posted by MrK @ 6:07 PM