Today 29/march/2010, as I turn 40, count me as one of the luckiest africans to see the light of the day. Why? perhaps some would say i am exeggerating, or just a numb person, but looking at the figures and official statistics then you'll appreciate my line of argument.
Couple of years ago, my all time Tanzanian favourite columnist, the late Robert Rweyemamu once wrote on East African, "Why Birthdays are rare in Tanzania?" He was sharing a birthday sing along song with other Tanzanians as the Father of the Nation, The late Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere was turning 75. Rweyemamu highlighted a number of diseases inflicting and scaling down lives of Tanzanians including malaria, TB,cholera,and above all, AIDS.
As I celebrate 40th birthdays my mind turns to millions of babies whose lives are wasted on this minute across Africa due to poor maternial care, malaria,manutrition etc etc. In Tanzania by 2007 child mortality rate stood by 116 death per 1000 children under age of five.
One of the basic pre-requisite for development but greatly ignored by african states is the access to clean and reliable water for human consumption. After all 75% of our being is comprised of water. By far this means purifying, reserving sources of water and providing this important resource to all especially the most vulnerable, women and children should be a top priority for any sensible goverment.Animals and plants shares this sacrosanct resource that if one is deprived ecosystem is not balanced.
In african villages women and children spend a big portion of a day searching for water though they are not sure on the safety of the same.As a result looking for water is part of economic undertakings ignoring other important activities with a far liberating results such as education. An african child born in the village is an economic asset for the family and one of the activity is looking for water.This turns out to be a vicious cyle of poverty. A child ( preferaby a girl) mothered by a poor mum does not go to school and ends up doing family undertaking including searching for water. She grows to be a mother material with no education and hence no knowledge of controlling her environment. She gives birth to a child who ends up dying at a tender age simply because her mother do not have enough resources to care for her.
In the year 2000, World nations agreed on Millenium Development Goals ( MDG)and one of the goals was to reduce a number of african people without access to basic sanitation and hygiene by half come to the year 2015.To date no country in Eastern and Southern Africa is on track to meet MDG target on sanitation. In some parts of Dar Es Salaam such as Ukonga suburb pit latrines are dug closer to shallow wells resulting into water contamination.As a result currently one in eight East & Southern african child dies before fifth birthday due to diseases related to poor sanitation and lack of access to safe drinking water. According to The Guardian, ( A Tanzanian daily)Dar Es Salaam has 300 unsafe wells causing an increasing incidences of water borne diseases.
Malaria is the other killer disease claiming lives of africans in magnitude. Malaria is a fatal protozoan disease transmitted by a specific kind of mosquito, the genus anopheles. Malaria is utterly treatable, yet, incredibly claims up to three million lives per year, mostly young children, about 90 percent of whom live in Africa.The fact that virtually everybody in tropical africa contracts malaria at least once a year makes me delighted to see this 40th birthdays. The fate of our children born on this minute as I celebrate across Africa is literally unknown.
Yes children are dying in sheer massive number not seeing their 5th birthday.But another calamity is rampant across Sub-Sahara Africa this time around living behind fortunate survived kids as orphans. This is AIDS, ( Acquired Immune Defficiency Syndrome)
In most African countries, by contrast, only tycoons and cabinet ministers can afford AIDS drugs. By 2002,about 17 million africans had died of AIDS, and 29 millions were HIV positive. Pause for a moment to ponder it: 46 million africans either dead or doomed. Its more than seven times the number of jews, Gypsies and homesexuals murdered by Hitler. Its one and half times the 30 million chinese who died of starvation under Mao Zedong. It is three quarters of the death toll during the whole of the second World War, and by the time AIDS has claimed its last African victim, it may outnumber even that.
At the End of Day. Happy birthday to me!!! & happy birthday to all africans who have seen this day against all odds.
nikaribishe kwa hiyo meza kwanza ndo nicomment pls!!
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