Health

There is medical insurance in Bolivia, but as the families work informally, without contracts, they don't benefit from the system and neither do the working children. They form part of a population that doesn't have access to the health system because of their living conditions.

Causes

• They don't always have access to drinkable water and rarely have a shower at home.
• Five to ten people live together in one room, so they have a high level of parasites (warts, lice) and of course the hygiene conditions are very bad.
• Because of bad nutrition they lack vitamins, minerals and proteins and so are susceptible to illnesses such as tuberculosis, influenza, diarrhoea, contagious diseases, malnutrition, anaemia, etc.
• The fact that they work weakens their life rhythm and causes problems in their biological development.
• Plasterers and carpenters, for example, suffer accidents at work which aren't adequately attended to.

What Ñanta proposes

To help the NATs health, Ñanta offers various alternatives depending on the characteristics of each problem:

• A voluntary nurse attends the children to cure small wounds such as cuts, blisters, burns etc. to prevent subsequent infections. The nurse also follows through the most serious cases. The centre provides access to the basic medicines for headache, creams for contusions, band-aids, etc.
• For the more serious illnesses such as dermatological, ophthalmologic, or orthodontological, the children are attended in a hospital called IPTK which works with the centre with an agreement of medical assistance. The system is similar to a medical insurance, each child who participates in the project has an account and preferential rates in the hospital for consultations, emergencies etc. The centre supports them economically when the medical treatments are expensive and out the realm of their possibilities.
• The nurse together with other educators work on day-to-day preventative medecine, such as teaching the children to wash their hands, personal cleanliness, etc. The NATs know little about their bodies and the illnesses they could suffer because they don’t go to the doctor.
• The centre has showers and dental hygiene which reduces the risks of illness.
• Special attention is paid to sexual health, through workshops and training courses for adolescents who very often have precocious sexual relationships.