WUNRN
Kenya - Turkana
District
Kenya
- Turkana District - Tradition Is A Challenge for Maternal Health
By Isaiah Esipisu
|
Kenya - Turkana District, July 1, 2010 (IPS) - Their
kangas and heavy bead necklaces are the only colour in an arid landscape. The
weary women waiting outside the Kangatotha dispensary have walked up to 50
kilometres to receive food aid; now they will walk home carrying their share.
"When food aid is
available, we come for it," says Regina Ekwar, a 34-year-old mother of
five. "But usually we live on wild fruits, roots, camel milk, goat meat,
or even donkey meat - whatever is available."
Government statistics show that fully half of pregnant or
breastfeeding women in Turkana are malnourished; a majority of children also
lack adequate food, many to the point of needing specialised medical care.
"The tough living conditions have led to a very high
infant mortality rate which stands at 66 per 100,000 live births," says Dr
Gilchrist Lokoel is the head of Lodwar District Hospital in Turkana Central.
Despite recent floods, which drowned plenty of livestock,
the only evident vegetation is the dark green of mathenge, an aggressive alien
species - thorny and inedible for people and cattle alike. Erratic rainfall
threatening livestock and native plants, long-held patterns of life are being
challenged, including customs surrounding the role of men in supporting their
wives after childbirth.
"A man is supposed to stay away from his wife for about
two years after she has delivered in order to give her time to bring up the
child," says Francis Ekatapan, from Napucho village near Lake Turkana.
"If
she is the first wife, it is customary for him to go grazing several kilometres
away, where he can marry another woman. And if he already has another wife, it
is usually good to relocate (to stay with her)."
Ekwar is her husband's second wife - her youngest child is
two years old and she is expecting another one. Most of her husband's herd
succumbed to drought in 2009, she told IPS. He rarely comes home and Ekwar has
little to feed her family. She depends on relief food distributed by
humanitarian organisations.
Brian
Ekai, a primary school teacher, worries that the practice of a husband moving
away has not adapted to new circumstances. "This worked well in the past,
when the rains came frequently and pastures were plenty. Even when women were
left alone at home, they had camels to milk. But this is no longer the case,"
he says.
"The current living conditions call for manageable
families, support from both parents, and frequent medical check-ups because of
the emerging diseases that never used to be found here."
Humanitarian
organisations are attempting to both address the urgent needs of malnourished
women and children and to promote family planning.
"Correcting everything
at once is not possible," says Nick Wasunna, senior advisor for World
Vision Kenya. "At the moment, we are concentrating on the most vulnerable,
who are children under the age of five, lactating mothers and pregnant women
who are malnourished.
"
World
Vision is running several programmes addressing both urgent and long-term needs
of severely malnourished women and children.
"We prescribe special
diets for the moderately malnourished, while the rest of the family members are
given a different one under the General Food Distribution programme. Acutely
malnourished children, pregnant women and lactating mothers are referred to
advanced health facilities for specialised care," says Wasunna.
Alongside the distribution of
food, women are taught about family planning, says nurse Julius Ekure, the
officer in charge at the Kangatotha dispensary.
"But due to illiteracy,
most of them believe that the methods we are encouraging them to use including
pills and injectables will eventually render them impotent, while use of
condoms is associated
with
immorality," Ekure says.
Government figures show contraceptive use here is just three
percent, far below the national average of 46 percent. There are six children
in the average household in Turkana; the government's target nationwide is four
per household.
The additional support for public health from groups like
World Vision, Oxfam, Medical Emergency Relief International, the Red Cross, and
others is a vital first step, but more is needed.
Lokoel says an image-based awareness campaign is needed to
convince people in Turkana to take family planning and medical care seriously.
"The image-based strategy could mean use of posters,
drawings, or even drama done in the local language, but tied to their
lifestyle. In some cases, we invite village elders whom we have trained to talk
to them about the importance of medication because they are the most trusted
individuals in the society," he said.
It will be an uphill struggle to overcome deeply-held
beliefs and suspicions.
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