Model Location (Jaimaica) Versus Target Location (Cambodia) - Research Paper Example

This research paper is therefore a correlative study that is seeking to examine the impact that a replication of the Jamaican diarrhea campaign done by the Bill and Medlinda Gates Foundation would have in Cambodia. Background The current issue under discussion is diarrheal diseases. Diarrheal diseases may come in varying forms including cholera and diarrhea (Guerrant, 2006). Characteristically, diarrheal diseases are associated with the passage of loose stool in about three to four times a day (Ribeiro, 2010) worse forms leads to the passage of more loose stools; several times a day.

As frequently as a patient passes liquid stool, the higher the patient’s chances of losing a lot of body water and therefore becoming dehydrated. This means that diarrheal diseases do not come alone but come with their own attendant problems. It is not for nothing that the World Health Organization (2009) notes that diarrheal diseases account for the second largest killer disease in children less than five years of age. Further statistics on the diseases from the World Health Organization shows that malnourished children and children with weaker immune systems are the worse affected when it comes to deaths associated with diarrheal diseases.

Sadly, these diseases, which are preventable and treatable, kill 1.5 million children every year. This means that children are the worse affected when it comes to diarrheal diseases. As part of the causes of diarrheal diseases, diarrheal diseases actually act as the symptoms of other infections caused by bacteria, virus and other pathogens. The disease causing agents are commonly transmitted through contaminated water (Lo and Walker, 2003). Malnutrition has also been found as a major cause of diarrheal and also increases the risk of an infected person dying (Martin and Blaser, 2006).

Funding Foundation (Bill and Medlinda Gates Foundation) The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have been in the forefront in the fight against diarrheal diseases in Jamaica for a very long time. The foundation has over the years adapted a two-tier approach in fighting the diseases. These approaches are public advocacy and public action (Santhanakrishnan and Umadevi, 2006). Under the advocacy, the foundation takes conscious steps in educating the populace and masses of people on the causes, treatment and importantly, the prevention of diarrheal diseases.

These advocacy programs have been introduced in schools, churches, vocational centers and other public places of interest. The advocacy program has been done for groups in order to help in the easy propagation of the message on the need to keep a clean environment and observe basic healthy eating practices (Woldemicael, 2011). The public action model has also taken the form of realistic clean up exercises among various groups in Jamaica. Funding for the clean up exercises has been done exclusively by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Some of the public fund also goes to the purchase of drugs for infected people. Ultimately, Jamaica was selected because of its past history on diarrheal diseases. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have actually operated in Jamaica for the past eight years and have successfully completed over seven different schemes on diarrheal dise