On statistics, the following are some reasons I'm going to Liberia, and MSF is already there:
- Infant mortality rate is 134/1000 live births
- Child Under-Five mortality rate is _235_/1000 live births (think about that...almost 25% of children die before 5 years old...In the united states, this number is 8/1k )
Those two put Liberia at number 5 in the WORLD for death rates of infants/u-5s.
- Less than 10% of the population has access to health care
- Maternal mortality is estimated at 580/100,000 births (US: 8.9/100k)
- Less than 20% of the country has access to safe drinking water
- Less than 30% have access to latrines (!)
- HIV/AIDS is currently estimated to be at 12-15%
All of this in a country of 3 Million people, where there are only THIRTY Liberian doctors.
...I'm glad I'm going. I'm elated that I can contribute changing something to this. I'm excited, terrified, anxious, happy all at once.
It's really starting to sink in that this is going to be unlike anything I've ever done before...I knew that, intellectually, when I signed up, but...hrmmm...yep. And not just because of the mongooses. (mongeese?)
No comments:
Post a Comment