Urbanization & Poverty in Peru

Health Effects

More dangers....

The Problem of Slums

• Air pollution
• Safety hazards
• Prone to flooding, fires, and landslides
• Malnutrition
• Oppression & exploitation

• Substandard housing
• Limited/no access to clean water
• Poor sanitation
• Crowded
• Land occupied without owner's consent
• Limited/no access to health care

Social Effects: Children

The main causes of poor health are:

• Inadequate water supply
• Unsanitary waste disposable
• Inadequate washing/bathing facilities
• Poor food production
• Unsafe food preparation
• Air pollution
• Unplastered walls and lack of screens

Social & Psychological Wounds

What it looks like....

Social Effects of Urbanization & Poverty

• Children play barefoot in contaminated soil and water
• Outbreaks of infectious diseases thrive in the crowded conditions of poverty

• Lack of security - live in fear
• Loss of identity - people of different backgrounds thrown together
• Lack of stability - never knowing if they'll be forced to move tomorrow

• Infrastructure fails! --> poor sanitation, contaminated water, bad roads, etc.
• Results in overcrowded, neglected urban slums

• Not attend school
• Work part or full time
• Children care for each other

• Live apart from family
• Often exploited
• Put in danger

Why urbanization?

Diseases such as:

• TB
• Hepatitis
• Pneumonia
• Cholera
• Diarrheal diseases

• Families migrate into cities in search of a better future

--> More jobs, better healthcare & education

• High fertility rate. This accounts for 40%-60% of the increase.

• More people means less resources to go around.

--> Prices of housing and sanitation increase

Urbanization & Poverty

Naranjal

a developing community in Arequipa, Peru

Percentage in Peru

In Peru the risk of infection is very high

the most common diseases are:

• Hepatitis A
• Typhoid fever
• Malaria
• Yellow Fever

Urbanization: Statistics

• Over 50% of the world's population lives in cities around the world. In Latin America the number jumps to 80% of the population living in urban areas

• According to the WHO 50% of people living in urbanized areas live in extreme poverty

• This means that 40% of the Latin American population lives in extreme poverty!

What is Urbanization?

• The social process whereby cities grow and societies become more urban

• The physical growth of urban areas as a result of rural migration and even suburban concentration into cities, also called the urban drift.

• Families migrate to the cities in search of OPPORTUNITY and HOPE for the future.

Health effects: Children

Poor nutrition

Other health effects are

• Environmental

-->air pollution and safety hazards

such as traffic

• Violence

-->associated with increased drug abuse

and mental stress

• Injury

• More prone to illness
• Don't eat regularly or adequately
• Less likely to be breastfed

"He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God." Proverbs 14:31

Diarrhea

• Contaminated water
• Lack of water
• Bottle feeding causes diarrhea