Health

Health is a major concern in developing countries. The life expectancy of someone born in Laos in 2005 is 54.5 years. Around 12% of all children born in Zimbabwe will die before the age of five. Oxfam Australia supports many projects focusing on improving the health of communities in poorer countries around the world.

We are working with communities in South East and Southern Asia to help ensure they have access to clean water, sanitation and basic medicines. These projects focus on reducing the incidences of common illnesses like cholera and diarrhoea, and helping to treat those who become ill.

In general, people in Timor-Leste (East Timor) suffer from high levels of malnutrition, and food is often scarce, with many facing four month food shortages every year in what is referred to as the ’hungry season’.

Recent studies found that 43% of Timor-Leste children are malnourished. At the community level, Oxfam Australia aims to rehabilitate malnourished children by providing families with the skills and knowledge they need to prepare nutritious meals for their children. This may include things like cooking healthy meals, discussions about mixed diets and breast feeding practices and providing seeds, tools and training to help communities grow vegetable gardens. However, we also need to address the food shortage issue in the short-term. We will be providing food rations and for women and children in areas where there are food shortages, especially during the hungry season. Oxfam is also aiming to increase access to basic health services through the support of mobile clinics.

Some of the items which will help fund these types of projects include:

Healthy food for a child

In emergency situations, health becomes even more critical; there are many cases where people survive natural disasters only to become faced with an epidemic of typhoid or dengue. In emergency situations. Oxfam provides hygiene bucket kits, cooking sets, and water and sanitation supplies, as well as information about public health and disease prevention, aiming to stop the spread of diseases before they can take hold of a community.

Some of the items which will help fund our emergency work include:

See also HIV and AIDS