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Nigeria
One of the major roles of women is the promotion of healthy life in
the family. The happiness of a nation, to a larger extent, depends on the
health of the children who are the leaders of tomorrow. Unfortunately,
in most developing countries, child health has not been given the attention
it deserves and Nigeria has particular health problems militating against
the well-being of children. These may be a result of negligence, ignorance,
traditional practices, poverty, poor environmental sanitation.
Women’s Role in the Family’s Health Needs
Women and children are the most vulnerable to diseases in Nigeria. The
top-heavy health structure means normal medical services are outside the
reach of the majority of the population (Okonjo 1991). This inadequacy,
as well as the preventable nature of most of the diseases, has led to the
institution of a primary health care programme. The basic aim is to achieve
80% coverage of the population in health-care, effectively attacking the
disease problems that contribute up to 80% of the unnecessary deaths and
disabilities affecting Nigerians. The strategy for achieving this target
is the introduction of immunisation campaigns against the six major killer-diseases
of children. While there are no specific moves related to women, the various
components of the primary health-care system are directly related to them
(Okonjo 1991). These include nutrition, provision of adequate water supply,
environmental sanitation, immunisation, maternal and child health, family
planning and treatment of communicable diseases. Women are the implementers
of the child-survival revolution. For example, the success of the expanded
immunisation programmes, launched in 1985, has very much depended on the
ability to persuade mothers of the importance of immunisation.
The major causes of child mortality – malaria and diarrhoea – are related to poor environmental sanitation. Furthermore, several of the communicable diseases affecting both adults and children are water-borne. The numerous and time-consuming tasks of women often mean that they neglect to boil drinking water. Even though they know the advantages of doing so, they do not have the time and the extra fuel cost can impose extra financial burdens. So the mere provision of safe drinking water supplies may not be enough to ensure their use. One of the many factors associated with childhood health problems is poverty.
Poverty
The harsh economic climate, as well as the high inflation rate, undoubtedly hinders parents from giving their children adequate health care. Most families, whose income-generating capacity is too low, often find it difficult to give their children medical attention. When a child is sick, parents who cannot afford to pay medical bills may resort to traditional medical doctors and ‘quack’ medical personnel. These usually aggravate the child’s condition. If the family is poor and has little or no land for cultivation, they may not be able to buy nutritious foods. This predisposes the children to nutritional disorders, such as kwashiorkor, pellagra, beri-beri, blindness and sometimes untimely death.
A UNICEF – sponsored study observed that all the demonstration about the nutritional properties of milk, meat and eggs in health centres and women’s clubs throughout the developing world offer nothing to a mother unless she has the wherewithal either to buy or to grow such foods. Hunger and malnutrition cannot be divorced from the context of people’s lives. Whether people have enough to eat and enough of the right kind of food depends on their income. The only lasting solution to the problem is, therefore, the eradication of poverty. But this process, in many developing countries like Nigeria, is excruciatingly slow. For some communities the process is stagnant or sliding backwards. As has been shown in the previous IAFN newsletter, which told of “the feminine face of poverty”, women are often the most afflicted by poverty.
In Nigeria, only 10% of the people who are at the echelon of power in all
private and public institutions are women (Amali, 1990; UNICEF, 1991).
The poor with low and irregular incomes live in shanty towns, slums, one-room
apartments. Very poor families fall below this level and are generally
destitute. In developing capitalistic economies like Nigeria, many of this
section of the population are women, either as individuals, family members
or unacknowledged heads of households. A good number of women have become
sole providers within their families, with little or no resources.
In order to augment family income, mothers put up their little girls as
servants or domestic child-labour. At times these girls are subjected to
physical and sexual abuse. From an early age, girls are trained to fetch
water and firewood, grind corn, or do road-side selling alongside their
mothers. In most cases, boys have the responsibility of doing less arduous
errands. Any crisis that alters the balance of power in the family is first
felt by women. Where the crisis is finance-related, the task of adjustment
is left to the ingenuity of the mother and the sacrifice of the female
children. Although poverty may be caused by low wages, unemployment and
sickness, given the patriarchal dominance of the Nigerian society, the
resulting circumstances remain outside the control of women (Suara, 1998).
There is no doubt that education is important to understand and solve the problem of poverty. Poverty is genderised in Nigeria because women who are a disadvantaged group are mostly illiterate, unemployed or underemployed. They have little access to credit and have minimal power over their environment. Illiteracy among women must be seriously addressed if poverty is to be degenderised.
Large families are, no doubt, a strain on the available resources in Nigeria.
A child in a polygamous marriage, particularly where resources are lean,
stands a slim chance of benefiting from formal education. A child so disadvantaged
could resort to unlawful means for survival. Similarly, children whose
parents are violent to each other seem to exhibit similar characteristics
as they grow up. The use of ‘double standards’ by parents in
training a child becomes another dehumanising factor. If a father tells
his son “do not steal” but steals government funds the next
day, and is declared a wanted person, the child looks confused at this
paradox. Confusion over norms sets in; and this affects healthy growth.
When the social environment is permissive to drunkenness, smoking cigarettes,
taking hard drugs and indiscriminate sex, many young children may take
to these vices. Many children then become victims of drug addiction, leading
to mental disorder, while others can become victims of HIV/AIDS, either
through sexual intercourse or as a result of direct contact with infected
material or through infected pregnant mothers passing it to their child/foetus.
In redressing these ills, a desirable environment can help a child overcome
acquired tendencies towards unfavourable traits. Undesirable environments
may cause children’s growth to become stunted, as they become victims
of diseases or disturbed emotions.
Healthy Environment
Closely related to home is the environment. The need for a healthy environment is crucial to all human beings. Dalumo (1988) noted that the foundation of environmental health rests on man’s need for fresh air, potable water, healthy food and good shelter. It is important to ensure sustainable and adequate environmental sanitation inside and outside the home, and the Federal Government has introduced compulsory monthly environment sanitation. Some states also introduced bi-weekly sanitation. Regrettably, an average Nigerian has acquired the habit of polluting and littering the environment by indiscriminate throwing away of empty cans, kitchen refuse, and all sorts of rubbish carelessly around his dwelling. People urinate and defecate along the streets. Poor drainage systems, lack of potable water, and enough water for performing domestic duties, also contribute to poor environmental sanitation. In most cities and public places, conveniences are not provided. Human beings, especially the women, have close links to the environment. If healthy social development is to be maintained, not just promised during electoral campaigns, the environment must be targeted for change. The various governments in Nigeria have great tasks to provide the basic environmental infrastructure. At the same time, the process of cultivating a healthy mind for establishing priorities and for cultivating the right attitudes is essential.
Malnutrition
Malnutrition constitutes a significant threat to the life and well-being of children. Consistently hungry and malnourished children tend to be apathetic and hostile. The result of a recent study conducted in 53 countries, including Nigeria (1997) revealed that 6.5 million children die of malnutrition yearly. UNICEF reported in 1998 that in Nigeria, malnutrition is a public health problem with an estimated 28% of children below five years of age being underweight, 11% wasted and 52.2% stunted. After few decades of strenuous wrestling with the problem of malnutrition, the agony of the hungry child is still very much with us. Notwithstanding efforts by governments to improve agricultural production and nutrition education programmes, these have not brought positive results. If there is one issue in the development litany which seems clear-cut, it is the issue of hunger. The hungry child is the image etched into the consciousness of everyone who responds to the challenge of poverty and deprivation in the developing world.
Crucial role of women
Women produce 60-80% of all food grown in Sub-Saharan Africa (FAO 1996). They suffer disproportionately from hunger and malnutrition, but they also contribute disproportionately to reducing it. Women grow a large share of the world’s food for domestic consumption. When they have income, they tend to spend more of it on food for the household than men do. So a woman’s direct access to cash or production – or lack of it – has a direct bearing on how much the family has to eat. Yet conditions often conspire against women. When women work long hours, they have less time to produce food for the household, provide child and health care and collect clean water and fuel. Women are rarely permitted to decide how much of their food crops is sold and how much is to be kept for the household. While the numbers of female-headed rural households rise, women are still denied the land, credit, technology and training they need to feed their families. Women must be a larger part of the solution. Due to the poor economic situations in the country, their work is now doubled. They cannot sit at home and watch the children yell for hunger. There is an observable shifting of roles from feminine to masculine with women paying fees, engaging in agriculture, bricklaying and concreting. These were the supposed roles of the men, which the women are taking over in their struggles to provide health for their families.
Strategies for attaining healthy family life
Some of the workable strategies that could be adopted by women to promote healthy family life are:
- self-help groups: Women collectives or cooperatives should be encouraged to integrate health education and other activities. These could form the media through which the Nigerian women could disseminate information on health issues
- women should be encouraged and given access to bank loans and credit facilities
- women should ensure that their children receive immunisation early to protect them from communicable diseases
- women should ensure that the living environment is healthy by keeping it clean
- women should create a supportive environment for health through increased vegetable production and other fruits for sale and home consumption during the dry season. This will go a long way towards improving the nutritional status of the family.
- lliteracy in itself is a contribution to ill-health and this may relate to lack of knowledge about possibilities and choice or lack of healthy food. This calls for involvement by literate women to help educate the illiterate ones.
- Families should limit their size to what they can afford.
Conclusion
Being a parent is an awesome responsibility. To educate a woman means to educate a family, and indeed a nation. Therefore, women must ensure that they are not marginalised, but become instruments of conscious and directed positive change. The goal is the immediate development of themselves and their children’s quality of life. Women must be provided with every support which they, acting in concert, can use to shape and improve their lives through the awareness and the practice of healthy living. This should not be done in isolation or exclusion of the men. Both should be equal partners in the developmental process to ensure maximum benefits to all.
Amali, E (1990) “Developing Nigerian women managers for the socio-economic
transformation of Nigeria”, in Management in Nigeria Vol.27 No 6.
pp 6-13.
Dalumo, H (1988) Family health in the rural area. The role of Home Economics
Education. The Fafaru Journal of Multi-displinary Studies. Vol 2;1.
FAO World Food Summit (1996) Fighting hunger and malnutrition. Rome. 13-17
November.
Okonjo, K (1991) Acknowledging the existence of women: Its consequences,
in MO Ijere (ed) Women in Nigerian Economy. Enugu. ACENA publishers Ltd.
Enugu, Nigeria.
Suara, JSO (1988) Genderisation of poverty: some shocking realities about
women in Nigeria. Journal of Women in Colleges of Education Vol. 2 pp 1-3.
UNICEF (1991) Girls and Women: A Unicef Development Priority, Paris. UNICEF.
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