The region of the world that I chose
was East Asia and Pacific. This area struck my interest because it is the
part of the world from which my nephew was adopted. If you were to dig
through the archives of my blog, you would find multiple posts featuring this
sweet boy J. As I looked through the UNICEF website, there seemed to be a
common thread – lack of safe drinking water. From sewer outages cause by
typhoons, to contaminated water from shared water systems with waste, clean
drinking water is a major issue. The unsafe drinking water can cause
serious illness and even death. In young children, diarrhea can not only
cause dehydration, but can actually cause stunting – where a child fails to
develop physically and cognitively. Not only do conditions like this effect a
person’s physical state, they can affect their emotional well-being. These
conditions put stress on families, and stress can be toxic – especially at this
magnitude.
I cannot imagine being without
water. Several months ago, a water main near our center broke and left us
without water. It was the strangest feeling – I felt so helpless.
Clean water is something that I take for granted every day.
Rene,
ReplyDeleteHow lucky your nephew is to be adopted into such a loving family. Water is something I think we all take for granted. Thanks for sharing this story. I will try to be more thankful.
Amy
Rene,
ReplyDeleteThat is awesome that your family has adopted a child that was living in area that could potentially have been life threatening. I know that in Guatemala we provided some of the feeding centers in the villages there with bucket that serves as a water purifier for the children. It is so easy to take things like water for granted and so hard to hear and read stories form countries that are so much less fortunate than we are. Thanks for sharing!
Amy McCoig
HI Rene,
ReplyDeleteIn responding to your post, it was very nice to see that we both chose the same region but what was more appalling was that you have a nephew from that region. I was totally touched by the things that I found out and I know that the people there under went some emotional and developmental problems. However, I am happy that UNICEF stepped in and did there best in assisting them. Great post.
I agree, I take the fact that clean water for us is so easily attainable that we often take it for granted. I know that in my apartment, I do not have any spare space to store water in case of an emergency. I never knew that the lack of water could lead to such cognitive issues. Thank you for the information!
ReplyDeleteIn many of the regions it seems like safe drinking water is a problem. We do take clean water for granted in the U.S. I always buy water because I do not like the taste of tap water. After reading your post I am ashame of myself. The children in East Asia and many other regions would love to have the water that I say has a smell to it. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete