Consequences of stress

The tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri was a horrible disaster to hit that town.  I know many people that were living there when that happened.  I was on the phone with one of my friends trying to tell her that she needed to take cover because there was a tornado coming.  When it hit I didn't know if she managed to protect herself.  Several hours later she called me and told me that she was ok.  Many of the people down there didn't know what to do.  Complete houses were gone, including my friends house.  The wonderful thing about this was the entire town got together to clean up and start rebuilding.  People from other towns and cities, and even states gathered resources and materials and came out to Joplin to help this town in a moment of crisis.  My job allowed me to take off so I could go down and help my friend gather what she could and find a place to stay.  I can remember asking my friend how she was doing and she said "all you can do is take it one day at a time and know that things happen for a reason".  She even told me that clearly it was meant for her to get a new home, and she laughed.  That was the best part about this sad devastation.

One area that I learned about is in Africa.  There is so much poverty and hunger in that country.  They have missionaries that come in with supplies for those that they can get to.  However, there are people that the missionaries can not reach with the supplies.  Some are in very unsafe areas.  One major problem is diseases.  There are some plans in place to help with providing food and other supplies to people.  The one thing that will still be a problem is getting clean water.  Without that people will continue to get ill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_Africa

Nutrition and Malnutrition

Nutrition is extremely important to children and adults.  To be healthy, a child requires certain nutrients.  Eating a balanced diet is extremely important to gain those nutrients.  Food provides our bodies with protein, vitamins, minerals, essential fats, and energy in order to live, grow, and function normally.  There are many areas of the world that have a high percentage of malnourished children.  One area that has a high percentage is India.  43.5% of children under the age of 5 are malnourished in India.  There are areas that do not even have clean, sanitized water.  Many children are living out in the streets due to their parents having issues with getting a job.  They are currently working to solve the problem in India.  They are implementing programs that will provide breakfast and lunch, along with immunizations and medical care for those children who are malnourished.  They are hoping to overcome this huge problem they have and to stop 1,500 children from dying daily from being malnourished. 

If a child is hungry they can not concentrate on their school work.  That hunger will overcome their lives.  No child should be hungry ever.  One of the things that I help do in my community is to make sure every child has something to eat through the week.  We do this by collecting food and delivering it to those in need.  We also do community meals twice a month.  Offering a free meal to the entire town.  The school provides buddy packs on Fridays filled with all kinds of nutritious food.  This is the schools way of making sure the kids have something to eat through the weekend.  Good nutrition is extremely important in my community.  Programs such as buddy packs and community meals should be something that is done all over the world.  Even a little bit of help will make a difference.

I am going to continue to help those in my community.  Making sure every child has something to eat is one thing that I will always try to help with.   

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/child-malnutrition-in-india/   

Birthing

The experience that I have with birthing is with my sister when my niece was born.  I was 21 yrs old and I had never witnessed a birth before.  My niece was born in January and it was a long and rough birth.  My sister went into labor at 3pm on the 3rd and my niece was born at 4:30am on the 5th.  This was after 5 hours in delivery.  My niece was stuck in the birthing canal and they were having trouble getting my sister to push because she was so exhausted.  One of the nurses had to climb onto the bed to push on the outside of my sisters stomach to help get the baby out.  They thought she was going to have to go through an emergency c-section.  Thank goodness that didn't have to take place.  It was a very stressful situation for everyone that was involved, and I was just glad that everything worked out alright.

Births in Africa
They are extremely dangerous for the woman involved.  1 in 22 women die during delivery due to the lack of access to healthcare or a trained midwife.  Many women have no choice but to give birth at home with family members beside them.  If something were to go wrong it would be several hours before help could get to them.  As there is a huge lack of transportation, many women would have to walk during labor to get help.

http://www.theguardian.com/journalismcompetition/giving-birth-the-most-dangerous-thing-an-african-woman-can-do