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What Happens When People Get Sick?

15/7/2014

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When we get sick in New Zealand we can always go off to the doctor if things get nasty. Very few villages in the Congo have doctors (unless you count the witch doctor of course!). For many people this means travelling over 100km by either walking, or on a bicycle, in order to get to a clinic. If you are very sick it will often mean that someone will need to carry you.

There are some very nasty conditions here that people suffer from. I will list them below and perhaps you can find out more about them?

Typhoid
This is a very nasty disease and there are many patients in hospital here because of it. If Typhoid is not treated early on it can be very hard to cure. It often ends up making holes in your stomach intestines, which means that things you eat and drink leak out and cause infection. If this happens your stomach looks very big because it is full of liquid that cannot get out.
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A child with advanced Typhoid
Malaria
This disease is also very nasty and is carried by mosquitos. When the mosquito bites you the disease gets into your bloodstream and gives you all sorts of problems, including very high temperatures. Many people die of malaria. The best way to protect yourself from malaria is to sleep underneath a mosquito net so that the mosquitos can’t bite you when you are sleeping. Fortunately the mosquitos we have in New Zealand do not carry the Malaria disease!
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A child being treated for Malaria
Malnutrition
This is not a disease but a lack of good food. Some people are not able to get enough good food to eat so they slowly get thinner and thinner until eventually they do not have enough energy to walk or even to get up off the ground. If they can get someone to bring them to a clinic they can be saved by putting food directly into them through a drip feed system that plugs into their veins. If they are able, they can also be fed small amounts of special food until they can eat properly again.
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A child being helped to recover from Malnutrition
Meningitis (Bacterial)
There are different types of this disease but the main one here in the Congo is caused by tiny bacteria. The type of Meningitis here is different to the one we sometimes see in New Zealand. No one here gets jabs when they are young to prevent them getting diseases like this so they are very common. If Meningitis is not treated quickly it can cause serious problems. Many children who get this disease either die, loose their sight or hearing, or have serious brain damage.

TB (Tuberculosis)
This disease used to be in New Zealand up until about 50 years ago but is now very rare in people there. The disease is present in many people in developing countries like the DR Congo, and is passed on by people who become active carriers through sneezing, coughing or spit. TB can be treated as long as people get help for it, but it can take many months to get back to full health again once you get it. This is a big problem here because it means that you cannot work and grow food for your family while you have the disease.
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Feeding A Family

3/7/2014

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In New Zealand, most people have a job and earn money that they can buy food, clothing and shelter with. Even if you don't have work, the government pays you enough to live on so that you won't go hungry.

In a typical village in the Congo people live from day to day. Very few people have a paid job, and the government does not give out any money to live on. It is not too difficult to build a simple house out of mud or dirt bricks, but how do you find clothing and food? What would you do if you needed food and clothes but had no money?

In the village, almost everyone has a garden. Each family grows their own food and most try to grow more food than they need so that they can sell some to others who have money. Most families in the village also have a goat or some chickens. Some villages also have pigs. The goats and chickens roam around the village and eat whatever they can. People can tell who owns the animals by various bits of string or cloth tied to the animal, or by the colour or patterns on the animal. Most people only get to eat meat once or twice a month. The rest of the time they eat only vegetables.
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A garden near a stream

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Bananas nearly ready to pick

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There are LOTS of goats in most villages

There is no electricity in the village, so there is no way to freeze food or keep it cold to stop it going rotten. That means food must be either dried to use later, or used fresh. 

If the village is near a lake, people go fishing in very small boats that they make themselves. The boats are made out of hollowed logs. A lot of the fish that is caught is sold to others who have money, and some is dried in the sun so that it can keep a bit longer.
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Fishing boats on the river

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Bowls of small fish for sale

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Dried fish for sale (they smell really bad!!)

So how do people buy clothes? They usually sell any spare food they have so that they can buy other things. People who grow extra vegetables sell them to people that have extra fish to sell, or other people who sell bricks or who sell sugar cane, or grass thatching used to make a roof.

What happens if the weather is bad or if you get sick and cannot plant your garden or go fishing? That’s when things get really tough. Many people go hungry if they get sick because they cannot spend time in their garden or go fishing. Sometimes people only eat once a day when this happens, and sometimes they eat nothing at all. If the weather is bad then no one in the village can grow food and they all go hungry.
Picture
Kabwe is a 10 year old girl who weighs just 11 kg
because she does not have enough food
Some organisations that help feed these large homeless groups until they can go home again are World Vision, Oxfam, and Unesco.

Aren’t you glad you live in New Zealand where you have clothes and food? Even people who are very poor in New Zealand do not need to starve or go without any clothes.
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    Geoff & CarolAnne Paynter travelled to the DRC for the first time in mid-2014.

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