Written by Vina Dina, Content Writer Intern Project Child Indonesia
World Health Day is held every year on 7 April with different themes. It’s aimed to create awareness of a specific health theme to highlight a priority area of concern for the World Health Organization (WHO). This year, to celebrate World Health Day, WHO started a campaign to build a fairer, healthier world.
Referring to what WHO mentions on their website, this campaign started because nowadays, our world is an unequal one. As Covid-19 has highlighted, some people might have easy access to health services. On the other hand, some groups find it difficult to get access to health services due to their little income, have little or no access to safe environments, facing gender inequality, etc. Moreover, the difficulty to access the health services can lead to unnecessary suffering, illness, and premature death.
Isn’t it ironic? While some people have good health facilities with easy access, eat their favorite foods, and sleep comfortably in their house, other people are suffering from hunger, safety and illness.
Health is a right, not a privilege
Even though health services is something necessary, unfortunately it is not easily accessible by everyone. In Indonesia itself, health facilities and human resources in health services are not evenly distributed. For instance in East Indonesia, the number of health facilities and human resources in health services are more limited than the west. Research shows that the number of medical specialists and advanced health facilities such as hospitals or clinics are unequally distributed (Misnaniarti et al., 2017).
These problems are unfair, but preventable. That’s why WHO has started this campaign and called on leaders to ensure that everyone lives and works in conducive conditions to good health and able to access health services anytime and anywhere they need them.
Fairer health services consist of so many aspects. Nowadays, as the distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine begins, we can start sharing more information and awareness about the vaccine. It’s our job to oversee the Covid-19 vaccine is evenly distributed and accessible to all people. Besides, we need to educate people about the importance of Covid-19 vaccine because 42,2% of people in this country do not believe in Covid-19 vaccine (Indonesian Survey Institute, 2021).
Health is a right, not a privilege. Hence, everyone should be able to get access to health services whenever and wherever they need it. We can maximize the use of social media to share awareness and informations about fairer health service and end the discrimination and exclusion. Furthermore, we can influence others to join WHO’s campaign and expand the information. With courage and willingness to build a fairer and healthier world for everyone around us, we can start a small step to make this happen. Small steps will lead to bigger action, isn’t it?
Another thing we can do if we have free time and “willingness” is volunteering. We can volunteer in various organizations either government organizations or non-government organizations in the health sector to help people get their right of health. You can find the organizations on indorelawan.org or join the nearest organizations in your region. Besides helping others, you can also get useful experiences that will certainly help you in the future.
We also can contribute to build a fairer and healthier world for everyone by donating to fundraising that focuses on the health sector. In most cases, the donation will be distributed to help people personally or to improve health services in areas that are rarely reached by the government. Or maybe, you want to start your own organizations and fundraising? It would be great!
We believe everyone can do good, including you. No matter what way you choose, or how big the steps that you take, it still gives an impact to our world. The future is in your hands.
Source:
Misnaniarti et al. 2017. Ketersediaan Fasilitas dan Tenaga Kesehatan Dalam Mendukung Cakupan Semesta Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional. Jurnal Penelitian dan Pengembangan Pelayanan Kesehatan. 1(1)
