Health Issues of Vulnerable Population in Bolivia

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Drinking Water and Sanitation in Bolivia
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Lack of access to drinking water and sanitation presents one of the most prominent health issues in poor countries. One of the Sustainable Development Goals outlined by the United Nations focuses on sustainable water management and the availability of sanitation for the global population. According to the latest report on SDG from the UN (2021a), 2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water resources, and 2.3 billion people do not have access to handwashing at home. Bolivia presents one of the countries where lack of access to water causes various health issues, especially for the vulnerable population of women and children.

Drinking Water and Sanitation in Bolivia

Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in Latin America, which means that the country’s population faces significant inequalities and disparity. Poverty causes populations to take extreme measures in gaining resources for living, such as the use of child labor. Children in Bolivia can start working at ten years old; nearly 20% of all children ages 7 to 14 in the country work (Jijon, 2019). The extreme measure is encouraged by the region’s influential indigenous traditions, where children usually start helping their parents from 5 years of age (Jijon, 2019). Furthermore, as most of the work focuses on exporting natural resources such as silver from Bolivia to the United States, children are paid less to preserve the low cost of resources. Therefore, children face inequality in payment for work, which limits their financial resources and fulfillment of nutritional needs. Lastly, indigenous children face trouble accessing quality education in rural areas, which limits their opportunities for better living conditions in the future.

Furthermore, indigenous children and women in Bolivia face a lack of access to healthcare. According to Singh et al. (2022), maternal mortality rate in Bolivia is one of the highest in Latin America, with approximately 155 maternal deaths per 100,000 births. According to Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) (2019), the most common cause of maternal death is obstetric hemorrhage, occurring in nearly a third of the total cases. The treatment requires prompt intervention and preventive measures, but indigenous women from rural areas face limited access to healthcare facilities in cities due to language barriers and cultural differences. According to Küng et al. (2021), in some health facilities, women face denial of abortion based on conscientious objection. The interference of politics eliminates the opportunities for legal reforms in abortion policies (Remez et al., 2020). The limited access to clean water resources and sanitation in rural areas and insufficient management of the population’s reproductive health led to an increased number of unsafe abortions (UN, 2021b). Programs such as the Mi Salud initiative in El Alto and maternal and child nutrition support from the Bolivian Red Cross target the elimination of inequality in vulnerable populations

The region’s cultural values, beliefs, and attitudes negatively influence the health issues of vulnerable groups in Bolivia. As mentioned earlier, cultural traditions require children to start working early, increasing the load on the immature organism already affected by malnutrition. Furthermore, as local social norms support a conservative approach to the discussion of sexuality, young people avoid using contraceptives due to embarrassment, leading to increased teenage pregnancies (World Bank, 2020). According to Neal et al. (2018), a lack of sexual education among adolescents puts adolescent girls at high risk of giving birth before the age of 20 years. In addition, women are afraid of judgment from health staff and male doctors who provide gynecological examinations (World Bank, 2020). On the contrary, local society’s communication in negative stigmatism towards teenage pregnancy pushes pregnant teenagers to resort to health centers for help (World Bank, 2020). Therefore, even though the local values and belief system negatively influence the health issue, in some cases, it leads to positive outcomes with pregnant women receiving help in health centers and ensuring the infant’s safety.

Maternal mortality presents one of the significant issues in global health. The primary policy associated with maternal mortality is the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 3 of healthy living and well-being for people of all ages. The policy specifically points to the aspects of reproductive, maternal, and child health. However, in separating the sustainable development goals, the UN belittles the connection between the lack of water resources availability issue and its impact on vulnerable populations’ health. Furthermore, the SDG policy of healthy living for people of all ages does not consider the influence of cultural differences in presenting barriers to healthcare services.

In order to overcome the limitations in this situation, I would start by acknowledging the population’s relevant needs and working towards the gradual achievement of goals. For example, the current measures targeted at managing the reproductive and sexual health of the population in Bolivia present no significant help due to cultural barriers. Furthermore, the mix of socioeconomic factors and cultural traditions negatively influences child health in combination with malnutrition. In defining the socioeconomic factors of health issues, the paper also identified that a significant portion of the economy in Bolivia focuses on exporting natural resources. I would encourage foreign organizations to cooperate with local enterprises to exchange cultural values and promote local health services.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this paper defined the influence of socioeconomic determinants on health issues in a vulnerable population of children and women in Bolivia. The paper explored how different perceptions, values, and cultural traditions impact global health by defining the reasons for the high maternity mortality rate and explaining the reasons why indigenous women in Bolivia avoid health services. Lastly, the paper emphasized the connection of health issues with the global problem of water resource shortage and limited access to sanitation.

References

Jijon, I. (2020). The priceless child talks back: How working children respond to global norms against child labor.Childhood, 27(1), 63–77. Web.

Küng, S.A., Wilkins, J.D., de León, F.D., Huaraz, F., & Pearson, E. (2021). ‘We don’t want problems’: Reasons for denial of legal abortion based on conscientious objection in Mexico and Bolivia.Reproductive Health, 18, 1-11. Web.

Neal, S., Harvey, C., Chandra-Mouli, V., Caffe, S., & Camacho, A. (2018). Trends in adolescent first births in five countries in Latin America and the Caribbean: Disaggregated data from demographic and health surveys. Reproductive Health, 15, 1-10. Web.

PAHO. (2019). Carla’s story: Putting the brakes on maternal mortality in Bolivia. Web.

Remez, L., Mayall, K., & Singh, S. (2020). Global developments in laws on induced abortion: 2008–2019. International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 46(1), 53–65. Web.

Singh, K., Li, Q., Ahsan, K. Z., Curtis, S., & Weiss, W. (2022). A comparison of approaches to measuring maternal mortality in Bangladesh, Mozambique, and Bolivia.Population Health Metrics, 20, 1-14. Web.

United Nations. (2021a). The Sustainable Development Goals report 2021. Web.

United Nations. (2021b). In dialogue with Bolivia, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights asks about the labour market, and about women in the economy. Web.

World Bank. (2020). Why rural women use—or avoid—maternal health services: Insights from a qualitative study in Bolivia. Web.

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Health Issues of Vulnerable Population in Bolivia

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