Children and Racism-War and Poverty

When I started this assignment I decided to ask a few of my elderly family member about racism when they were a child.  Majority of my family is from the South and I always heard them tell stories about the way their lives were as kids.   My grandmother told me that the things there were not allowed to do because of their color became a normal for them. She said, "Yes it wasn't fair but that is all they knew." She stated that the town she lived in was majority Black but the stores in town were owned by White people.  She told me about a water spring that was in town that they were not allowed to go get water from.  She informed me about not being allowed to sit in certain places in stores and the buses. She also shared that at the movie theater they had to sit at the top they were not allowed to sit downstairs and their were two bathrooms separating the races.  As a child she had to always show respect by answering yes mam, yes sir and no mam and no sir to white people.  My godfather describe picking cotton in Georgia.  He said he would get soars on his hands from the bulbs.  He showed me how he would hold his hand so he could pick faster. One time  my grandparents told me about the Confederate Flag.  That if they saw the flag on cars in town they knew to stay away. They shared that as they got older they wanted to move up North to get away from the South to get better jobs.  They did move up North and received better paying factory jobs but the lives that they lived followed them.  I noticed that a lot of my elders mannerisms are still like the way they were as a child.  For instance, my grandfather did not want to be referred to as an Afro-American.  He would state that he is Colored.




I also read an article about the lasting effects of war towards children.

The article talks about the children from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.  That the war has destroyed thousands of families forcing them into poverty.   The children live on the streets as beggars, thugs and drug addicts.  In one case a 34 year old mother of five has been struggling to make a living since her husband was killed in military crossfire ten years ago.  She sleeps with her children on a straw mat on the mud floor of her shack.  She makes money by washing clothes but the income is not enough to feed her children or pay for them to go to school. Two of her older children ran away from home and became thieves on the street of Goma.  "Those street children have become a danger to the whole society," is how one woman explains the plight of this nation.  Goma is a region that has been severely affected by the years of fighting.  According to the 2009 United Nations Human Development Index, nearly 80% of households in this Central African nation now live on less than two dollars a day.  The streets of Goma is filled with thousands of street children and reintegrating them into society is not an easy task. The children are violent and steel from the others.  At this time efforts are made to try and help the children but aid from different nations is to far in between.

Public Health

Public Health-Access to Healthy Water

I have to admit that I was one person that took the earth’s most natural resource for granted.  I was very wasteful of water.  I had no problem leaving the water running while washing my dishes and brushing my teeth.  I used to wash my clothes with the highest water level for a small load.  I didn’t care anything about water until one day my water was so rusty that it was the color of my skin and black grit was left in the bottom of my tub.  This happened one morning as I was preparing to go to work.  There was nothing I could do, the longer I ran the water the darker it turned.   There was no way I was going to bath or cook using that water.  I was fortunate enough that I was able to go to someone else’s house to prepare for work.   It was that day that I realized that some people have no other choice but to use water that I refused to use.

While researching this topic I remembered an episode of the Potter’s House that talked about missionary work that was done in Africa.  It stated that they went to Kenya, Africa to drill water wells to help the people in that nation receive clean drinking water.  The people in West Pokot were walking 17 kilometers one way in order to obtain contaminated water for their families. http://www.megacaremissions.org/humanitarian/fieldstory

In impoverished areas of the world such as Kenya, Africa they are facing a severe drought.  The drought has caused the animals and people to search for the water.  People have walked as far away as 20 kilometers a day just to get water for cooking. In their quest for water they are sharing the water as a source of drinking, bathing and cooking with animals.  Furthermore, the water they have is polluted from chemicals from miners, farmers and others that have their buildings to close to the rivers and steams.  

The missionaries were able to strike a mega well and they were able to dig a 12 kilometer pipeline to reach the tribes. To service the pipelines, they hired and trained 100 men from two local tribes.  The pipeline supplies water to thousands of people, goats, sheep, cattle, wild life and crops.

Due to clean water the people are healthier, the women can stay home with their young and the children can get an education because they do not have to spend their day carrying water for 20 kilometers one way. http://www.megacaremissions.org

Ever since I realized that I took having water for granted, and watching the episode on the Potter’s House about their missionary work in Africa, I have been more aware of my wastefulness. I try not to be too careless. I have donated money to the Potter’s House to help them continue their missionary work.  

In my school I have talked to my students about ways they can help people that are less fortunate than them.  We have had numerous penny drives so we could donate money to different organizations.
             

Childbirth In My Life.

The birthing experience that I choose to write about is my own birth. The information I have about my birth is very limited because my father was stationed in Thailand when I was born. Unfortunately, my mother passed away when I was 10 years old and no one knows the complete medical history of why I was born early.


I was born October 5,  to Arthur and Louise Cooke. I decided to enter the world early at 7 1/2 months. I weighed only 2lbs and 6oz.  As a preterm baby I had a few complications with my breathing, my right eye is underdeveloped and I had a hernia. As of today I have asthma and wear glasses.


It is very hard for me to believe that I was a preterm baby.  I can not imagine weighing only 2lbs. Besides the issues I have with asthma and wearing glasses the only distinguishing marks I have is on my hand were the I.V. was placed at and scars from the hernia operation.


I choose my birth as an example because I do not have children of my own and because we have read information about premature babies and I was one.  From what was told to me my mother did not smoke or consume alcohol so I was wondering what caused me to be born early?




For the second part of our assignment I asked my coworker for her help.  She is from Sierra Leone.  She gave birth to her first born in Africa and her second was born the United States.  She basically said that her childbirth experiences were the same.  In Africa, she was from the city so she had prenatal care.  She gave birth in a hospital with a physician present.  My co worker stated that while she was pregnant she would take daily walks and did her normal house work. After giving birth to her son she had to stay at home for a week.  During that week she had to keep her body covered, including her ears.  Also,  she had to "band" her stomach with a piece of cloth.  The cloth was to help you get back in shape.  After 8 days the baby was introduced to the world.  That was when the baby was named in a ceremony.  This ceremony was done in the morning.   She also stated that she did not have a baby shower.