Run & Act is a project of the Sunhak Peace Prize created to help global citizens learn and act on world peace! It provides a package of global citizenship education materials so that secondary school students and above can be educated on world peace issues. One-hour lessons are available for each package.
Statistical data of international organizations are included, and teachers teach students in a presentation style by referring to the teacher’s guide. Students can organize the contents of the class on their own through the global citizenship education material activity sheet.
Let’s take a look at the theme of this year, ‘Everyone’s right to receive treatment.
Everyone’s right to receive treatment
Considering sponsorship advertisements through the media, one can observe that there are substantial amounts of people around the world whose basic needs are not met. If one does not receive sufficient nutrition on a regular basis, the immune function will be weakened, making one more susceptible to diverse diseases. In particular, children’s immunity is inherently weaker than that of adults, thus even a small disease may put their lives at risk if nutrition is not sufficient,.
Exposure to disease is not a problem if treated in a timely manner, but people living in poor countries cannot even cure diarrheal disease. Consequently, did you know that 800,000 people lose their lives every year?
Just as everyone has the basic rights of freedom and equality, the right to treatment must also be guaranteed. Yet why are such predicaments occurring?
Part 1-2 examines the definition and severity of health inequality. With the spread of COVID-19 since January of last year, health problems around the world have deteriorated. Of course, countries that were not poor were also adversely affected. Yet, in countries with low socioeconomic status, there have been considerable cases where even basic treatment was not provided albeit the number of confirmed cases inundating. Poverty is not the sole problem, yet there is also a lack of awareness concerning disease prevention and hygiene. Another problem is the poor environment with insufficient medical facilities.
Due to the Infectious Disease Prevention Act, movement between countries was restricted, rendering it difficult to transport international relief supplies. Consequently, more than 4 million people worldwide have passed away and even funerals could not be held properly.
You may have already sensed it by merely hearing the term, yet let’s have a look at what ‘health inequality’ is! ‘Health inequality’ refers to differences in health status according to socioeconomic positions such as occupation, wealth, class, income level, and education level. On average, the level of the condition is higher, resulting in a decrease in mortality and an increase in immunity. However, it is estimated that 3.6 million people die each year because of a lack of basic treatment.
The global average life expectancy has increased significantly over 100 years, increasing to 73.2 as of 2020. Factors contributing to this increase in life expectancy include advances in medical technology and environmental improvements in public health. Some countries predict that life expectancy will increase over time.
In contrast, albeit with such a high average life expectancy, the average life expectancy in underdeveloped countries is only 50 – 60. It has the highest maternal and infant mortality rates, and the most common causes of death are infectious diseases such as malaria, typhoid, and dengue fever. Deaths from diseases such as pneumonia, measles and cholera have also been reported.
Why do health inequalities arise?
In Part 3, you can learn about the causes of health inequalities.
In poor countries, the biggest cause is the lack of national medical infrastructure. The resulting sanitation and disease awareness and lack of educational opportunities exacerbate the problem.
In Part 5-6, you can observe the solutions to the above problems.
One of the biggest reasons is the lack of medical infrastructure. For this reason, prevention of endemic or infectious diseases such as diphtheria, whooping cough, measles, tetanus, and polio through relatively inexpensive vaccinations and vaccines is an effective method.
The Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) is working to develop new vaccines in underdeveloped countries and improve the health of the underprivileged in poor countries. Moreover, hygiene education for people in developing countries must also be conducted in order to alter the perception of the disease.
Then what can we do?
In the section on the right to treatment for all human beings, we started by examining the definition of health inequality and explained the situation and causes of non-treatment in other countries. Furthermore, the material is organized so that we can actively consider what we can do as global citizens to solve this problem while learning the efforts of the international community.
We can further remind ourselves once again of the seriousness of health inequality that has come to them due to COVID-19 through Run and Act.
The above materials have been translated into 7 languages so that diverse children around the world can receive education, and other educational materials on a barrage of topics are provided. Thank you for your interest!
You can download it from the website of the Sunhak Peace Prize below.
http://sunhakpeaceprize.org/en/learn/learn_act.php
