#Air-Clinic Contest: Poverty, The Elder Cousin Of Diseases

Sometimes in year 2006, in the city of Ankh, there exist an unprecedented level of famine caused neither by drought nor natural disaster, but man-made. The economy had a big blow from corruption and it went to comatose.

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As a social worker on mission to give medical support to unvaccinated children, I heard the unthinkable.

The news broke me down, I lost the vigour to carry on.

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The Croesus dickered with human lives.

There came a time, when a widow's financial power got grounded, no food and nobody to look up to. Not many families could afford 2 square meals, except the cabal who were sitting on state treasure.

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Mrs Nuom is an uneducated woman with so much dignity and moral standard, she could neither open her legs to get money nor beg to feed her family, comprising of 3 kids. The oldest among them was 10 years old.

On a faithful night, the hunger was unbearable for the kids, they were crying, asking mum for food. Mrs Nuom has nothing with her except 5 Chrum, she went out as if she has gone to get food, despite the fact that this amount could not buy a plate of rice. On her way, she thought about ways to stop the children from crying. "If they could live through the night, I will sell other clothes tomorrow so we can eat." Said the poor woman.

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Lo and behold, she returned with sleeping tablets, perhaps the cheapest one. The children were persuaded to take it before eating, they trusted her enough and obeyed. Some minutes after, they fell asleep on empty stomach.

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It was about 6:30am when the family often wake up for morning devotion, she woke up the kids, but only the eldest responded. The other two were dead! Her ignorance was triggered by poverty, and she killed her joy. Soon, after double burial, the oldest developed acute abdominal pain caused by overdose of sleeping tablets. No doubt, poverty is the elder cousin of diseases.

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