Back to IDPwD Home

• MDG 1: Poverty
• MDG 2: Universal Primary Education
• MDG 3: Gender Equality
• MDG 4: Child Mortality
• MDG 5: Maternal Health
• MDG 6: Combat HIV. Malaria and Disease
• MDG 7: Environmental Sustainability
• MDG 8: Develop Global Partnerships

Goal 5: Improve maternal health

More than 10 million women a year develop disability and long term complications as a result of pregnancy and childbirth.
Obstetric fistula is especially stigmatising yet preventable. Women with disability are more likely to be victims of sexual abuse, putting them at greater risk of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. Better maternal health and nutrition can reduce the numbers of children born with preventable impairments.

Ill health is both a leading cause and consequence of poverty.

International Support Aid Australia (ISAA) is currently in the process of establishing a medical centre on the grounds of our children’s home in Jinja. This project is directly related to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In particular, the establishment of a medical centre is directly linked to the following goals:

MDG Goal 4 – Reduce child mortality;
MDG Goal 5 – Improve maternal health;
MDG Goal 6 – Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

The ability of countries to meet these three health-related goals is interlinked with their ability to meet the other MDGs relating to poverty reduction and literacy, as one MDG impacts the others. In fact, the three health-related MDGs are particularly important to achieve, as healthy communities are dependent upon healthy children and adults, who are able to lead productive, active lives.

Ill health is both a leading cause and consequence of poverty.

Ill health increases household expenditure due to medical expenses, results in loss of productivity and income through inability to work, and sees children miss out on schooling through both ill health and needing to look after sick family members. These costs of ill health are crippling to those already living in poverty, and can also rapidly see others fall into the trap of poverty. It is for these and many other reasons that tackling the health-related MDGs are so important and even more so for those with disabilities and impediments.

Despite the fact that the health care infrastructure in Uganda remains fractured and hollow, with many facilities reporting shortages of staff, drugs and other supplies, and with access to health care by those most vulnerable members of the community, such as orphans, vulnerable children, disabled persons, widows remain limited, it is encouraging to know that the health-related MDGs are still achievable in Uganda by 2015.

ISAA assists the communities in which we work in to meet these MDGs on a local level, and is actively supporting the establishment of a medical centre in the community in which we operate.

Voula Zacharias
International Support Aid

Post your own response!

Answer these two questions about MDG01 Poverty:

1. How do you believe the MDG’s are relevant to/impact on people with disabilities? AND
2. How does what you do contribute to making the MDG’s a reality?

.