The chaotic abduction of the Chibok girls

# BRINGBACK OUR GIRLS#

On the 14^th of April 2014, gunmen suspected to be members of terror movement Boko Haram abducted about 270 girls from an all-girls government secondary school in a town called Chibok in northeast Nigeria. This Islamic Jihadist and terrorist organization based in northeast Nigeria is opposed to the westernization of Nigeria, which they maintain is the root cause of criminal behavior in the country. Thousands of people have been killed in attacks perpetrated by the group, and the Nigerian federal government declared a state of emergency in May 2013 in Borno State in its fight against the insurgency.

This Islamic Jihadist and terrorist organization has been causing a lot of chaos in Nigeria, they started with the bombing a lot of catholic churches every Sunday morning putting fear in all Christians especially the Catholics. In order to fight against this attack, security measures were taking every Sunday morning before mass.

Since 2010, Boko Haram has targeted schools, killing hundreds of student. One of the consequences of Boko Haram attack on school children especially the girls is lack of interest in continuing their education because of fear of being kidnapped or in worst scenario killed.

One of the country that is experiencing this particular stressor is Pakistan, we all had about the story of Malala Yousafzai  the Pakistani  school girl that was attack on her way back from school with her school mates in the country’s northwestern swat valley. From the interviews carried out by various news networks, to hear from these victims about their experiences, you can tell that most of them are still traumatized by what they went through.

Picture of  Malala and the Chibok girls (Photo from the web)

Malala (Photo from the Web).

Child Development and Public Health

Nutrition/Malnutrition

With so many fast food joints, dense schedule of working, unhealthy food becomes the order of the day in the developing countries. Malnutrition beginning in infancy and continuing through early childhood contributes to the one-third of all child death (UNICEF, 2008, and slows later growth, including growth of the brain). Nowadays we see a lot of obsessed children in developed countries because of their customs of eating a lot of sugary things and their parents just can’t say no to their children over having certain food items, and that causes more harm than good to the children’s health. Studies and researches have shown that an epidemic of heart diseases and diabetes is spreading worldwide as overfed children become overweight adults.

Although high number of children eat more than just enough calories, most of the essential nutrients are left out of their diet for example, iron, zinc and calcium because the now drink less milk and a lot of fizzy drinks. With the generational in life styles in developed country, we see a lot of obsessed children due to lack of exercise compared to the way their parents and grandparents did by feeding animals, walking miles to school and playing outside. With a lot of technological advancement you see a lot of children playing indoors as against what their parents and grandparents did.

This topic is meaningful to me because of the effects of nutrition/malnutrition in the developing child. When we talk about development what come to the mind are the three domains of development which includes, biosocial, cognitive and psychosocial. For a child to be well-rounded, that child’s nutrition should be placed as number one priority before other functions will take place while underweight causes a lot of malfunctions in the human body, overweight causes a lot of social damage to the growing child. Obsessed children are bullied more often even if they possess qualities that can discourage bullies, such as having social skills or doing well in school, this can eventually make them sad and depressed eventually.

Malnutrition is a very big problem in Nigeria, with its constituents of protein-energy malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies continue to be a major health burden in developing countries. It is globally the most important risk factor for illness and death with hundreds of millions of pregnant women and young children particularly affected. Apart from marasmus and kwashiorkor (the 2 forms of protein-energy malnutrition), deficiencies in iron, iodine, vitamin A and zinc are the manifestations of malnutrition in developing countries.

I believe this information may impact my future work in the sense that I now know the implication of both nutrition/malnutrition as regards to the health and wellbeing of young children whether it has to do with underweight or overweight.

My Birthing Experience.

My first birthing experience was 13 years ago. Though it was painful but a very memorable experience. During my pregnancy I did not consider my diet as an important factor during pregnancy because I had no appetite to eat. I was able to attend my ante-natal classes as scheduled. My baby came much earlier than I expected, precisely 3 weeks before my expected delivery date. I labored for more than 15 hours, my amniotic sac was ruptured, and it was not funny at all to have it ruptured. I was not given an epidural, and did not ask for it because as at that time I had an ‘impression’ that epidural has a bad effect on babies, so I decided to go through the more than 15 hours of labor time pains, because to me I felt why should I risk the remaining hours of my pregnancy after carrying the baby for more than 8 months.

I chose this one because it was my first birthing experience and out of ignorance I did not ask for epidural and I believe most African women that have access to it may do the same thing.

My thoughts regarding births and its impact on child development, reminds me of ‘The Nature-Nurture Debate in chapter 1 of the developing Person Childhood 6^th Edition by K.S Berger. Nature refers to the influence of genes that people inherit. Nurture refers to the environmental influences, beginning with the health and diet of the embryo’s mother and continuing lifelong, including family, school, culture, and society. With this I understand that a pregnant woman’s diet is very important during pregnancy and also how you treat the child or the affection you give after birth also matters in the upbringing, the intellectual stimulation of early childhood, bullying or friendship in the middle childhood affects how genetic codes work.

Births in Sub-Saharan Africa.

According to Worldbirthaid.org, giving birth safely in Sub-Saharan Africa remains a privilege of the rich, 1 in 13 women die of causes related to pregnancy and child birth. Infection following delivery remains a leading cause of death among both mothers and new born. This risk can be mitigated. Both maternal and neonatal infection rates have been proven to decrease ‘if’ women are given access to the most basic elements of medical sanitation while birthing : soap a length of clean string to tie the umbilical cord, a clean razor blade to cut the umbilical cord, and 1m2 clean paper on which to deliver.

What I learnt from this birthing process is that lack of sanitation, provision for certain medical materials lead to both maternal and neonatal death.

The difference between this and my birthing experience is that I was well taking care of, and also I was provided with the necessary birthing materials in the hospital I gave birth in.

My Birthing Experience.

My first birthing experience was 13 years ago. Though it was painful but a very memorable experience. During my pregnancy I did not consider my diet as an important factor during pregnancy because I had no appetite to eat. I was able to attend my ante-natal classes as scheduled. My baby came much earlier than I expected, precisely 3 weeks before my expected delivery date. I labored for more than 15 hours, my amniotic sac was ruptured, and it was not funny at all to have it ruptured. I was not given an epidural, and did not ask for it because as at that time I had an ‘impression’ that epidural has a bad effect on babies, so I decided to go through the more than 15 hours of labor time pains, because to me I felt why should I risk the remaining hours of my pregnancy after carrying the baby for more than 8 months.

I chose this one because it was my first birthing experience and out of ignorance I did not ask for epidural and I believe most African women that have access to it may do the same thing.

My thoughts regarding births and its impact on child development, reminds me of ‘The Nature-Nurture Debate in chapter 1 of the developing Person Childhood 6^th Edition by K.S Berger. Nature refers to the influence of genes that people inherit. Nurture refers to the environmental influences, beginning with the health and diet of the embryo’s mother and continuing lifelong, including family, school, culture, and society. With this I understand that a pregnant woman’s diet is very important during pregnancy and also how you treat the child or the affection you give after birth also matters in the upbringing, the intellectual stimulation of early childhood, bullying or friendship in the middle childhood affects how genetic codes work.

Births in Sub-Saharan Africa.

According to Worldbirthaid.org, giving birth safely in Sub-Saharan Africa remains a privilege of the rich, 1 in 13 women die of causes related to pregnancy and child birth. Infection following delivery remains a leading cause of death among both mothers and new born. This risk can be mitigated. Both maternal and neonatal infection rates have been proven to decrease ‘if’ women are given access to the most basic elements of medical sanitation while birthing : soap a length of clean string to tie the umbilical cord, a clean razor blade to cut the umbilical cord, and 1m2 clean paper on which to deliver.

What I learnt from this birthing process is that lack of sanitation, provision for certain medical materials lead to both maternal and neonatal death.

The difference between this and my birthing experience is that I was well taking care of, and also I was provided with the necessary birthing materials in the hospital I gave birth in.