WORLD HEALTH DAY 2022

Are we able to reimagine a world where clean air, water and food are available to all?Where economies are focused on health and well-being?Where cities are liveable and people have control over their health and the health of the planet?

 

In the midst of a pandemic, a polluted planet, increasing diseases like cancer, asthma, heart disease, on World Health Day 2022, WHO will focus global attention on urgent actions needed to keep humans and the planet healthy and foster a movement to create societies focused on well-being. WHO estimates that more than 13 million deaths around the world each year are due to avoidable environmental causes. This includes the climate crisis which is the single biggest health threat facing humanity. The climate crisis is also a health crisis. 

Our political, social and commercial decisions are driving the climate and health crisis. Over 90% of people breathe unhealthy air resulting from burning of fossil fuels. A heating world is seeing mosquitos spread diseases farther and faster than ever before. Extreme weather events, land degradation and water scarcity are displacing people and affecting their health. Pollution and plastics are found at the bottom of our deepest oceans, the highest mountains, and have made their way into our food chain. Systems that produce highly processed, unhealthy foods and beverages are driving a wave of obesity, increasing cancer and heart disease while generating a third of global greenhouse gas emissions.
While the COVID-19 pandemic showed us the healing power of science, it also highlighted the inequities in our world. The pandemic has revealed weaknesses in all areas of society and underlined the urgency of creating sustainable well-being societies committed to achieving equitable health now and for future generations without breaching ecological limits. The present design of the economy leads to inequitable distribution of income, wealth and power, with too many people still living in poverty and instability. A well-being economy has human well-being, equity and ecological sustainability as its goals. These goals are translated into long-term investments, well-being budgets, social protection and legal and fiscal strategies. Breaking these cycles of destruction for the planet and human health requires legislative action, corporate reform and individuals to be supported and incentivized to make healthy choices.    
April 7 is celebrated and observed as World Health Day. The day is celebrated annually in accordance with the World Health Organization’s aim to discuss health-related issues and to draw attention to specific health issues concerning people across the world. The first World Health Day was celebrated and observed in 1950, after 7 April was set aside as a designated date to celebrate the creation of the World Health Organization in 1948 in the First Health Assembly. The day thereby marks the anniversary of WHO after it was established in 1948.

World Health Day Theme 2022
The theme for this year’s World Health Day is “Our Planet, Our Health". Amid the ongoing pandemic and pollution growing on the planet, diseases like cancer, asthma, and heart diseases are increasing rapidly. World Health Organization aims to focus global attention on the urgent actions needed to “keep humans and the planet healthy."

World Health Day History

World Health Day was one of the first official acts of the World Health Organization, which came into force on 7th April 1948. The first World Health Day was celebrated on 22 July in 1949 and the date was later changed to 7 April, in order to encourage student participation.

In order to understand the history of World Health Day, it is important to look at the creation of the World Health Organization, which took place in 1945 at the United Nations Conference. A motion was passed to create a new and independent organization that is solely dedicated to discussing health topics. As many as 61 countries signed the agreement for the inception of the World Health Organization on April 7 in 1948.

World Health Day Significance

World Health Day is celebrated every year to raise awareness about the ongoing health issues that concern people across the world. The day is also used as an opportunity to spread awareness about the overall health and well-being of people.

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NUTRITION AT SCHOOL

Nutrition is the intake of food, considered in relation to the body's dietary needs and a

balanced diet, together with physical activity, is a cornerstone of good health. The

international organisations are increasingly focusing their efforts on nutrition as they

underscore the importance of it, not only on at the individual level but as an asset for the

sustainable development of a country . As Ban Ki Moon stated: “Nutrition  is both a maker and a marker of development. Improved nutrition is the platform for progress in health,education, employment, empowerment of women and the reduction of poverty and inequality, and can lay the foundation for peaceful, secure and stable societies”. 

Nutrition is therefore a very complex and multifaceted issue as it encompasses a broad range of topics and, taken form a Sustainable Development Goals perspective, can be taken as the focal point from which one can address every one of those. Unfortunately a big share of the world population faces issues related to malnutrition, this being defined by the WHO as the condition related to deficiencies, excesses, or imbalances in a person’s intake of energy and/or nutrients. Whilst many western countries are facing a growing burden of Obesity and overweight individuals, the other side of the coin is represented by those developing countries affected by undernutrition and micronutrient-related malnutrition, with 90 per cent of the developing world’s chronically undernourished (stunted) children living in Asia and Africa. 

Under nutrition is defined as the outcome of insufficient food intake and repeated infectious diseases. It includes being underweight for one’s age, too short for one’s age (stunted), dangerously thin for one’s height (wasted) and deficient in vitamins and minerals (micronutrient malnutrition). According to Unicef, more than one third of the world’s children who are wasted live in India, with the rural communities having the highest rates of undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. Other nutrition issues faced by many underprivileged communities is Iron-deficiency-Anaemia (IDA), for which India earned by far the world sad record, and Protein Energy Malnutrition (PEM). The Indian government recognizes the importance of an adequate nutrition in order to end the vicious circle of poverty and its paramountcy for development, as noted in the national nutrition policy. The same document underlines the importance of nutrition education and the fact that schools are an ideal setting for that. Reason why the Mid-may meal scheme is been designed. Unfortunately, as noted in the previous article the shortcomings about the implementation of the programme are manifest and if we take them from a “nutritional” angle we notice that the programme failed to provide nutritious food as per programme guidelines.Therefore the question is: 

What can be done to remedy to these

shortcomings? The ministry of Human Resource Development highlights the importance of community participation for the successful implementation of the scheme, in order to

ensure an effective monitoring at the local level and underlining the importance of the

participation of NGOs which work at a grassroots level, having a hands-on approach to

such issues and dealing directly with the problems faced by the communities, thus creating a dialogue between those and the government. 

Therefore NGOs such as Heeals can be paramount for the remedying of the government shortcomings regarding the implementation of programmes such as the MDM scheme; tackling issues such as Infrastructure implementation, nutrition education and nutritional balanced meal provision. It is paramount to empower voiceless and unprivileged communities in order to buttress their rights as the issues that their facing are not an accident or a natural outcome of their actions, but they are socio-economical phenomena engendered by asymmetrical power relations and lack of access to the most basic resources and agency. 

As demonstrated by Amartya Sen, hunger and food insecurity are not related to food availability but to the lack of access to it on the part of certain individuals, and if we are to support the right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food, we have to support and empower those people whom are more in need, making their voices audible as well as endorsing a pragmatic solidarity” approach. As Paul Farmer stated, the idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong in the world.

-        By -Andrea Angeli

WASH Intern Coordinator

Source

1 Global Panel on Agriculture and Food systems fo Nutrition; http://glopan.org/sites/default/files/

SDGPolicyBrief.pdf

2http://ucx3x320eshgjxppibt1rqg0.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/SUNMovement-

Strategy-and-Roadmap-Ban-Ki-moon-message.pdf

3 UNSCN; http://glopan.org/sites/default/files/Downloads/SDGPolicyBriefSummary.pdf

4 WHO; https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malnutrition

5 UNICEF; https://unicef.in/Story/1124/Nutrition

6 UNICEF; https://www.unicef.org/progressforchildren/2006n4/undernutritiondefinition.html

7 UNICEF; https://unicef.in/Story/1124/Nutrition

8 WHO; http://www.who-seajph.org/article.asp?

issn=2224-3151;year=2018;volume=7;issue=1;spage=18;epage=23;aulast=Rai ; https://

www.hospitalmanagement.net/comment/anemia-prevalence-nears-40-india/; https://

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/51-of-indian-women-aged-15-49-anaemic-most-in-world-study/

articleshow/61538152.cms

9https://wcd.nic.in/sites/default/files/nnp_0.pdf

10 see “Food and Hygiene” article.

11Government of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development; https://

elementaryeducation.tripura.gov.in/mid-day-meal; see “Food Hygiene” article.

12 Government of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of School

Education and Literacy; http://mdm.nic.in/mdm_website/Files/Guidelines/

3.MDM1%2021.09.2010.pdf

13 Amartya Sen, “Poverty and famines”, 1981, Oxford India Paperbacks

14ICESCR

15 For the concept of “pragmatic

SAFE FOOD FOR HEALTHY COMMUNITIES

The importance of food hygiene for community development The quality of our life is very much determined by the quality of the food that we eat. Food is paramount for human health and well-being as it’s mentioned in the Universal declaration of human rights in the article 25, together with clothing, housing and health care. Notwithstanding the objectives and rhetorical statements periodically put forth by  governments and international organizations, the current trends related to hunger and malnutrition are dire, with an estimated 821 million undernourished people in 2017 (compared to 784 million in 2015) one third of which live in South Asia. Children are  especially vulnerable to malnutrition as this hampers their full development and their ability to learn and lead a healthy and fulfilling life. 

Currently an estimated 149 million children are stunted worldwide with India having one of the world’s highest children under nutrition rates.  According to the UN 4 out of 10 children in India are not meeting their full human potential because of chronic under nutrition or stunting, leading to diminished learning capacities, poor school performance and increased risks of chronic diseases. As it’s shown by  researches promoted by the WHO, unsafe food creates a vicious circle of disease and malnutrition particularly among the most vulnerable individuals such as children. 

For these reasons the Indian Government decided to launch the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education in 1995, also known as Mid-Day Meal Scheme its stated goals being: enhancing enrollment, retention and attendance and simultaneously improving nutritional levels among children. Unfortunately some surveys and researches showed the gap between the stated goals of the programme and its actual implementation, the shortcomings being: lack of proper infrastructure for the processing, handling and provision of food; the poor nutritional value of the food provided; the lack of implementation in certain areas at all; lack of funds for the implementation of the programme and, as a result, the failure to meet the predetermined goals. Food hygiene is therefore a paramount issue to be addressed in order to prevent food borne diseases and malnutrition, and this has to be tackled both on the educational side (providing knowledge about the measures to take in order to have safe food) and the physical side (providing access to the necessary tools and infrastructure necessary to have safe food). The WHO defines food hygiene as the conditions and measures necessary to ensure the safety of food from production to consumption and identified five key areas related to the implementation of 

The measures necessary to guarantee food hygiene. These issues needs to be addressed  mainly in the rural areas where there’s a lack of awareness and infrastructure about the measures to take in order to prevent food borne diseases and where communities are most vulnerable to problems such as lack of access to services. FAO recognizes that schools are an ideal setting to support nutrition and development as children are at an age where food and health habits are being formed, and they can also influence families and be a channel for wider community participation, therefore creating benefits that extend beyond the classroom to households and communities. Given the shortcomings proved by the governmental program about school meals, the role of NGOs such as HEEALS are fundamental in order to tackle the aforementioned issues, providing educational and physical tools, and promoting development and health through a direct dialogue with the communities themselves. Only through a direct dialogue the empowerment of such communities can be obtained, by listening to the voices of the people on a grassroots level and giving them the freedom to choose. As shown by Amartya Sen freedom is both a mean and an end to development and is necessary to avoid the vicious circle of poverty.

-        - Andrea

Source 

www.un.org › universal-declaration-human-rights 1 https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/hunger/ 2 ibid. 3 https://in.one.un.org/un-priority-areas-in-india/nutrition-and-food-security/ 4 https://www.who.int/health-topics/food-safety/ 5https://mhrd.gov.in/mid-day-meal 6https://scroll.in/latest/935227/;https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2019/09/07/UP-govt-was-aware-7ofsevere-shortcomings-of-mid-day-meal-scheme.html;https://indianexpress.com/article/india/ over-900-children-reported-ill-in-last-three-years-after-consuming-mid-day-meals-hrd-ministry- 5828876/;https://indianexpress.com/article/india/priyanka-gandhi-uttar-pradesh-governmentschool-mid-day-meal-6161112/;https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/health/mid-day-mealhas-failed-to-attract-children-to-government-schools-says-cag-audit-52267

https://www.who.int/foodsafety/areas_work/food-hygiene/5keys/en/ 8http://www.fao.org/school-food/overview/en/ 9A. Sen, “Development as freedom”, 1999 10

How HEEALS implements its WASH projects with origami, the art of paper folding

How HEEALS implements its WASH projects with origami, the art of paper folding

Since its foundation in 2010 HEEALS has a mandate of empowering local and rural communities to become sustainable in Health, Education, Environment and Livelihood Society sectors through engaging workshops,resources distribution and content creation. In a constant effort to improve its projects and find the best solutions to better involve its beneficiaries, HEEALS has recently implemented its WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) projects with sessions of origami making.

What is origami?

“Origami is the art of making objects for decoration by folding sheets of paper into shapes” (Cambridge Dictionary). The

goal is to transform a flat square sheet of paper into a sculpture through folding techniques, discouraging the use of cuts and glue.

Why origami?

We think that active participation of our beneficiaries is essential for a successful project. Usually HEEALS works with young boys and girls of several Indian schools and marginalized communities, and that’s the main reason that pushes us to create interactive workshop sessions that can be fun beyond instructive.

WASH origami

Our idea is to dedicate some time, at the end of our WASH workshops, to teach kids how to fold simple origami shapes. Doing so they will implement their skills, have fun, remember what is WASH about and connect what they have been taught during the workshop with a practical activity.

WASH is about three things: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. Each of these parts can be easily represented by simple origami shapes.

• Water, what we explain during our workshops is that having safe water is essential to human life and health. Safe or drinking water is water that “does not represent any significant risk to health over a lifetime of consumption, including different sensitivities that may occur between life stages” (WHO, 2017). Safe water can be daily

used for cooking, bathing, cleaning and much more. We decided to represent Water with a fish origami that is per excellence the inhabitant of clear and neat waters.

• Sanitation, this term describes the strategies used to provide adequate water for drinking and other needs and it refers to the provision of facilities and services in order to accomplish this goal. Providing water filters,collectors or tanks to schools and marginalized communities is a priority for 

HEEALS. A water bomb

origami can best represent and simplify this idea. It is fun for kids and it could be a nice option and a more environmental friendly solution to the huge number of plastic balloons filled with colors and used during the Holi festival. In fact this simple origami shape can be blown with air, filled with water or with colored powders and kids can used them as a very easy-to-make toy.

• Hygiene “refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases” (WHO).

Personal hygiene refers to maintaining the body's cleanliness. During our workshops we always remind kids that personal cleanliness can be preserved by practicing simple daily activities to maintain clean and neat our body, the place where we live and the environment around us. This idea can be represented and simplified by an origami broom, a very common and simple object used daily in every house.

-Manuel

Wash Intern

Anemia in India

Anemia has been plaguing the Indian population at incredibly high rates for decades, and while the government has been trying to implement programs to lower the rate of this deficiency among Indian people, there have been ongoing calls for a more effective effort to be made. According to the World Health Organization, 63.7% of Indian women and 22.3% of Indian men were anemic in 1958. In 2016 these numbers had dropped to 53.1% for women and had risen to 22.7% for men. So while it could be argued that the public health effort has been helpful at least for women, it is also very plausible that there are outside factors affecting these numbers, especially because we see a slight increase in men suffering from anemia. In fact, while government programs do provide iron supplement pills for children and pregnant women (low iron is one of the main causes of anemia) very few people are actually receiving these supplements, and of the people who do receive them, even fewer are taking them regularly due to lack of understanding about what they are.¹ 

So, the question remains now... how can you tell if you are anemic? And if you are, how can you treat it? How much cause for concern is there really? First of all, let’s talk about what anemia actually is. There are different levels of anemia deficiency, so someone could have mild anemia and never even realize it. In more severe cases, anemia can seriously interfere with one’s day-to-day activities and even be life threatening. When someone is anemic, it means that they carry smaller amounts of something called haemoglobin in their blood. Haemoglobin helps carry oxygen through your veins to reach your organs and the rest of your body.²

Some common symptoms of anemia are fatigue, headaches, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, and numbness in extremities. If you are concerned that you may have anemia, reach out to your doctor. They can ask you to get a blood test which will reveal your red blood count cell and tell you your haemoglobin levels- this will be under the blood test section called CBC (Complete Blood Count). Since one of the main causes of anemia is low iron levels, a good way to avoid this deficiency is through a healthy diet including lots of leafy dark green vegetables like spinach, soybeans and peanuts, and if you’re non-veg red lean meats and organ meats. Citrus fruits and other foods with lots of Vitamin C are also great for keeping anemia at bay. If you are already eating lots of these foods on a regular basis and are concerned you may be anemic, reach out to your doctor. While iron deficiency is the most common cause, anemia can also be genetic or may be caused by parasites. ³

Remember, in most cases, anemia is mild. If are anemic and your symptoms are mild, likely all you will need to do is adjust your diet or add a supplement. Whether or not you have anemia, it is important to be aware of the symptoms so that if you or a loved one begin to experience them you will know what to do for relief. If you have a teenage daughter or know a woman who is pregnant, be sure that you speak to them about anemia. These groups are at high risk: menstruating girls because of the blood loss and pregnant women because they need to support a whole extra little person with nutrient-rich blood.

HEEALS is trying to raise awareness about anemia because it is such a big issue in India. If you would like to volunteer with HEEALS or learn more about what we do, reach out to us at : communications@heeals.org and don’t forget to check out our social media!


-Rachel 
wash & intern coordinator 

^source

^{Picture : HEEALS} 

¹ http://www.indiaspend.com/cover-story/making-india-anaemia-free-can-india-achieve-what-it-has-failed-to-for-70-years-39256

² https://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-anemia.aspx

³ https://food.ndtv.com/health/anemia-in-indian-women-causes-symptoms-and-steps-for-prevention-1410155