The have nots are coping during the new normal
Correspondent | Friday July 2, 2021 10:23
Mmegi also kicked the Kalahari heavy soils walking in motion of a survey which was looking at: “Knowledge, attitudes and practices related to child welfare (Under 5 Immunization, Child Growth monitoring and Child Abuse).” In this endeavour, Botswana Red Cross was working in collaboration with child welfare centre, UNICEF Botswana.
Red Cross’s house to house survey which was also grasped by this publication, came with mixed results. Heath education remains a challenge in the Kgalagadi area as some care givers would not know the real importance to take a child to a clinic montlhy for growth monitoring and immunisation. Some struggled in literacy maybe that is why Red Cross volunteers kept on reminding them about the importance of giving an Infant Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) in terms of diarrhea.
In an interview with Mmegi, BRCS health and care coordinator, Neo Mogowa, admitted that some care givers would not have ORS in their houses or know how it should last in storage.
“While some parents were observed to have been adhering to immunisation and growth monitoring, there have been lapses. Some were missing scheduled dates to send children to clinics citing long distances to a health centre while some will abscond because they relocated to remote cattleposts.” said Mogowa.
Mogowa also said they have noted that as normal immunisation stops at 18 months of a child’s growth, in most cases care givers would stop bothering themselves sending children to health centres to get the vital Vitamin A which guards against blindness. She said care givers would miss Vitamin A doses after 18 months due to lack of understanding that only immunisation for other diseases stops at 18 months not the VItamin A doses.
The are also issues of negligience where care givers would come to clinics without Under 5 records or card and even claim to have left them at cattleposts. It is usually not clear where they avail the truth before health workers at such times, Mogowa said. This leads to helath workers missing on assessment and the issue of missing schedule also affects continuity.
“There are the same issues of children missing out on assessment because they were at ranches around the Gantsi area.
There is also a challenge of education in issues of child abuse. Some people still do not know other type of abuses like psychological abuse. There are instances where witnesses are reluctant to report child abuse saying they are avoiding poking their noses in other people’s businesses. Witnesses should understand that they are as guilty as these perpetrators.”
While loss of jobs and other socio-economic issues were seen as the Have Nots of the area’s direct contact to the impacts of Covid-19, community leaders were seen as a bit exemplary in learning than teaching their community about the pandemic and preventing it.
At villages like Maubelo where BRCS conducted their child health survey, people were maybe put in a conditional social distancing by lack of food which normally gathers households during lunch time. Maybe they went to look for food or Sengaparile so that they may sell since it it its time of the season.
The same people, apart from missing child assessment while gathering Sengaparile, would prove stinging challenges of literacy as they would not keep track of their children’s age or the last time they sent them for immunisation.
No sign of lunch being prepared was seen as people rather gathered around the Red Cross van thinking it has brought groceries as the usual case when this vehicles sojourn to give aid to these remote villages where poverty has made almost permanent residence.
Areas like the salt pan village of Zutshwa, people’s contact with Covid-19 seem to be as remote as the area from developments. And adherence to Covid-19 measures like putting on face masks and sanitasation were also the norm when one is at a Kgotla, clinic or Village Development Committee offices.
But that does not mean these people have not taken the hit from COVID-19 hence Red Cross’ responses since last year. Mogowa said people lost jobs and landed in abject poverty again. She said this could have resulted in mental or psychological health in people and gender based violence or child abuse.
In rapid Assessment and Risk Communication and Community Engagement on COVID-19 where a Knowledge, Attitude and Practice survey was carried on community leaders and influencers towards Covid-19 vaccine, BRCS disaster management coordinator Onkemetse Joseph had a positive story to tell.
“The interesting part was the response to the survey and I really appreciated the level of education on these community leader. Unlike elsewhere in Africa where misinformation caused negative perceptions on the vaccines, leaders of Kgalagadi were poised in their answers showing acceptance and understanding.
Our observation has been skepticism on the vaccine, especially on social media platforms, but Kgalagadi leaders were knowledgeble and their attitude towards the vaccine was good,” said Joseph.
Meanwhile, BRCS are also running an ongoing programme on Food Security and Livelihood in collaboration with the Japan government. The project, which many said came at the right time of Covid-19 impact, has so far reached 18,000 and recently the organisation was working on registering a further 2,400 in the Kgalagadi region.