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RSSIt's Not Rocket Science
by The Rev. Barbara Cawthorne Crafton
Pentecost 6, Proper 9, Year C
2 Kings 5:1-14 or Isaiah 66:10-14
Psalm 30 or Psalm 66:1-8
Galatians 6:(1-6), 7-16
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, `Wash, and be clean'? -- 2 Kings 5:13
Malaria kills so many children worldwide. A problem so immense must have a very complex solution, no?
No. A mosquito net treated with insect repellent, costing a dollar or two, will prevent the transmission of the disease and save the life of a child. It is such a simple solution that an entire nations can be protected from the wholesale loss of their children in a single season.
A major killer of children is poor countries is diarrhea: their small bodies become dehydrated quickly, and they die before medical help can arrive. Think of the complexity and expense of having a clinic with clean IV equipment and people who know how to use it in every village!
But poor villages don't need to wait for that. Just training parents to train their children in the simple technique of thorough handwashing, and training village leaders to locate wells upstream from village latrines will reduce the incidence of lethal infections many fold.
There are countries in which 40% of young people are infected with HIV/AIDS. Millions of dollars have been spent on effective drugs for AIDS sufferers, and millions are being spent to get these medicines to those who need them far away from our own prosperous shores. But the prevention of HIV/AIDS infection costs little or no money at all: the education of women and girls, the promotion of marital fidelity and the use of condoms will change everything about the pandemic.
Medical care is complex -- here in America, we can run up a hospital bill of thousands of dollars just for a short stay and some tests. so many expensive machines, sophisticated specialists. But some of the largest public health problems have simple solutions.
Episcopal Relief and Development is committed to assisting local church leaders in poor countries in the task of educating their people about these and other simple ways of protecting their health and the health of their families. Such simple training, in such simple things.
It's not rocket science, and it doesn't need to be. Saving lives can be much, much simpler.
