by Nadia Ramoutar  MMM Communications Coordinator      Ireland     28.08.2024

Sometimes a problem seems so massive, that apathy become our only avenue of response. Recently, it was revealed that there is finally a vaccine that will be administered in Sub-Saharan Africa to protect small children from dying of malaria. Such news is major because the number of small children dying this way is horrific.

According to UNICEF, nearly every minute, a child under five dies of malaria. Many of these deaths are preventable and treatable. In 2022, there were 249 million malaria cases globally that led to 608,000 deaths in total. Of these deaths, 76 per cent were children under 5 years of age.

I cannot help but feel a little outraged when I read this as I know that there is no way that many children in the western world would die every minute before enormous efforts were made to stop it. I say it over and over that injustice looks like our geography being our destiny. If you are four in New York or in London, your future looks very different that Sub-Saharan Africa.

There is of course, dispute amongst the NGOs and the governments about the new vaccines and if the current plan is the best one. Some don’t think this is the way to go and investments should be made in other ways like sleeping nets or other solutions. It is amazing to watch the banter while another minute passes, and there goes another child and then another and then another.

And then another…

How do we hold the real injustice of global health and not let it make us bitter or angry? How do we keep going when it seems as if the issues are just too big to do anything about? Evil lives in compromise. When we turn our backs and say, ‘oh, it’s too hard. We don’t have the resources. We don’t have the time. ‘

But every time we do that, more minutes pass and more children fall helpless while the adults supposed to protect and nurture them are rendered motionless.

In our work, the MMMs are constantly facing challenging experiences but we have to do what we can. As a team of us work on eradicating and preventing complex medical and social issues like Obstetric fistula we are faced with many questions and few answers. Yet, we know the world can be better for the girls and women impacted by this horrendous injury caused by obstructed births and lack of antenatal care.

So, instead of turning away, we have to turn into the challenge. The Buffalo are an incredible animal because unlike most animals, when there is a storm, they turn towards it so the storm is over sooner.

Perhaps we humans need to learn a thing or two from these brave creatures.