Children
As of 2003 (WHO), 35.8% of children under five years of age demonstrated stunted growth and 16.5% were underweight. This is one in two children who do not get enough to eat in any given day. In the United States, the opposite problem of obesity exists. Given this, in regions such as Mount Elgon, where warfare prevents access to food and people are displaced from their homes and livelihood, these numbers are even higher. This deprivation of nutrition during times when children need it the most leads to stunted growth and, more importantly, leaves them unable to fight off infection and disease.In the Kenyan culture, the importance of education is held in very high regard, and, although Kenya’s free and compulsory education system has increased gross enrollment rates to over 90% nationally, 9 out of 10 children from poor households fail to complete their basic education. For the children of Mount Elgon, the turmoil has caused fifteen schools to be shut down and, as a result, this important sanctuary of their homeland has been abruptly cut out from the lives of hundreds of school aged children. This safe, secure place to play, learn, and escape from the noise of daily living has been unfairly excluded from their lives. It is through schools and educating the youth that we will most effectively curb this HIV epidemic and allow leaders to rise up and take action against it. With the increasing poverty that this nation faces in light of conflicts such as that found in Mount Elgon, children are pressured into occupations such as sex work as early as twelve to put food on their family’s tables, furthering the incidence of the HIV epidemic and slowing the speed of progress.
As of 2003 (WHO), 35.8% of children under five years of age demonstrated stunted growth and 16.5% were underweight. This is one in two children who do not get enough to eat in any given day. In the United States, the opposite problem of obesity exists. Given this, in regions such as Mount Elgon, where warfare prevents access to food and people are displaced from their homes and livelihood, these numbers are even higher. This deprivation of nutrition during times when children need it the most leads to stunted growth and, more importantly, leaves them unable to fight off infection and disease.In the Kenyan culture, the importance of education is held in very high regard, and, although Kenya’s free and compulsory education system has increased gross enrollment rates to over 90% nationally, 9 out of 10 children from poor households fail to complete their basic education. For the children of Mount Elgon, the turmoil has caused fifteen schools to be shut down and, as a result, this important sanctuary of their homeland has been abruptly cut out from the lives of hundreds of school aged children. This safe, secure place to play, learn, and escape from the noise of daily living has been unfairly excluded from their lives. It is through schools and educating the youth that we will most effectively curb this HIV epidemic and allow leaders to rise up and take action against it. With the increasing poverty that this nation faces in light of conflicts such as that found in Mount Elgon, children are pressured into occupations such as sex work as early as twelve to put food on their family’s tables, furthering the incidence of the HIV epidemic and slowing the speed of progress.
