The following information is given to the Group to read for five minutes. It is then taken away from them and they will be asked questions to see how much they can remember. Split the Group into teams and create a scoreboard. The team that can remember and answer the most questions wins.

A poor environment is directly responsible for around 25 per cent of all preventable ill health in the world today. Two-thirds of those suffering are children. There are two main reasons why people in developing countries fall sick:

• Lack of essential environmental resources - clean water, food, shelter, fuel and air.

• Exposure to hazards in the environment. Many diseases are linked to environmental problems. For example, polluted drinking water, poor waste disposal, poor air quality, and exposure to mosquitoes and other carriers of disease.

Pollutants such as pesticides, traffic emissions and industrial solvents are created by human activity. They can cause diseases such as bronchitis, asthma, contribute to cancer or birth defects, and damage the body.s immune system making people more susceptible to a variety of other health risks.

Poverty also influences health because it determines environmental risks, as well as access to resources to deal with those risks. There are more then one billion people in developing countries that live without adequate housing. More than 1 billion people lack access to clean water and 2.4 billion people have no access to adequate sanitation.

The largest number of kilocalories a person needs varies between 1,710 and 1960 per day. Many of the chronically hungry people in the world are short of more than 400 kilocalories a day. The United Nations Development Programme.s Human Development Report 1996 states that the poor are generally worse of now than 15 years ago. The growing integration of economics and societies around the world (Globalisation) has not helped.

There are charities that have been set up to help those in developing countries. For example, Oxfam has set up a health programme that addresses four broad themes:

• Access to basic health services

• Access to essential medicines

• Access to water and sanitation

• Responding to HIV/AIDS

• Question 1
  
  What is directly responsible for around 25 percent of all preventable ill health in the world today?

  Answer
  
  Poor environment

• Question 2
  
  How many of those affected are children?

  Answer
  
  Two-thirds

• Question 3
  
  Name three reasons listed in the information as to why people fall sick.

  Answer
  
  

  • Lack of essential environmental resources, clean water, food, shelter, fuel and air.
  • Exposure to hazards in the environment, polluted drinking water, poor waste disposal, quality of air and exposure to mosquitoes and other carriers of disease.
  • Also pesticides, traffic emission and industrial solvents.

• Question 4
  
  Name two diseases listed in the information.

  Answer
  
  Bronchitis, asthma or cancer

• Question 5
  
  How many people in the developing world live without adequate shelter or unacceptable housing?

  Answer
  
  One billion

• Question 6
  
  How many people have no access to adequate sanitation?

  Answer
  
  2.4 billion

• Question 7
  
  What part of the world contains the largest number of chronically hungry people?

  Answer
  
  Asia

• Question 8
  
  Does the United Nations Development Programme of 1996 say that the poor are generally better off or worse off than 15 years ago?

  Answer
  
  Worse off

• Question 9
  
  Name a charity that has been set up to help those in developing countries and name two issues they are trying to address.

  Answer
  
  Oxfam

  • Access to basic health services
  • Access to essential medicines
  • Access to water and sanitation
  • Responding to HIV/AIDS