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- Gustafsson, Cecilia, 1977-
(författare)
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"For a better life..." : a study on migration and health in Nicaragua
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis explores and analyses the manifold relations between migration and health, what I call the migration-health nexus, in the contemporary Nicaraguan context. The study is based on fieldwork in León and Cuatro Santos and a mixed-methods approach combining qualitative in-depth interviews and quantitative survey data. In the thesis health is “traced” within the migration process; i.e. in places of origin, during travel, at the destination and after return, including the situation and consequences for both migrants and family members to migrants (“left-behinds”). The study shows that migration-health relations in Nicaragua are connected to broader economic, social and political factors and to the country’s historical experiences of colonization, neo-colonization and structural adjustments. Contemporary Nicaraguan migrations are primarily related to the strategies of making a living and the struggle for a better life (i.e. a practice of mobile livelihoods). In the study setting health concerns were both indirectly embedded in people’s mobile livelihoods, as well as directly influencing decisions to move or to stay, and migration involved both advantages and disadvantages for health. Through migration, women could see an end to physical violence and sexual abuse. Internal migrants could improve their access to health care and medicine. Vulnerabilities related to the unpredictable nature conditions could be avoided through moving. And, through the money made from migrant work people’s everyday lives and health could be improved, in terms of better nutrition, housing, and access to education, health care and medicine. However, remittances do not necessarily lead to development, as they are used to compensate for the lacking public sector in Nicaragua. Under these circumstances, I argue that the Nicaraguan population is not guaranteed their social rights of citizenship. I also argue that the negative aspects surrounding migration must be taken into account when discussing the development potentials of migration and remittances. Both internal and international migrants in this study experienced stress while moving to a new place. International migrants had difficulties accessing health care in the destination, particularly those lacking documentation. The separation within families due to migration often caused emotional pain. Family members left behind did not rate their physical health as good as often as non-migrant families. The vulnerability, stress experiences and sufferings of migrants and left-behinds varied, however. I therefore conclude that social differences (in terms of e.g. gender, class, skin colour, and legal immigration status) are key for the enactment of the migration-health nexus, and that an interplay of individual, social and structural factors influence the outcome.
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| 2. |
- Dahlblom, Kjerstin, 1950-
(författare)
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Home alone : sibling caretakers in León, Nicaragua
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Sibling caretaking, although common across time and cultures, has not been well researched from the carer’s point of view. In Nicaragua, ranked as one of the poorest countries in the Americas, sibling caretaking is common. The country’s historical background and its state of chronic poverty, widespread unemployment, loose family structures, and migration and mobility makes of the old practise of shared management child care a necessity. Households headed by sing¬le mothers constitute a particular Nica¬raguan charact¬eristic. Many children are expected to help in their own families and care for their siblings and other children living in their households. In its broadest sense sibling caretaking is a public health concern, and we conducted this study to widen the understanding of the phenomenon as it is represented in a setting undergoing a rapid social transition. The main objectives were to identify, describe and analyse the life situation of sibling caretakers in poor areas in León, Nicaragua, with focus on how they perceived it themselves. A combined qualitative and quantitative methodological design was used, mainly applying an ethnographic approach. A further ambition was to explore involvement of children in a participatory research process in accordance with the ‘Convention on the Rights of the Child’. The overall emotion expressed among the caretakers was pride, even if their situation often was characterized by stress and coping problems. They perceived their work as important for their families and they appreciated to fend for their siblings. Household work and nurturing of siblings were shaping the future lives of the caretakers and constituted part of their socialization. Even if many of these children achieve essential life skills as caretakers, they are at risk of falling behind as they grow older. Their long-term personal development is likely to be hampered by the obligations they have as caretakers. The carers' awareness of missing out on education was the most problematic issue for them. From a societal point of view, caretaking has negative consequences. The individual child is marginalised with limited access to basic education, contributing to overall low educational levels in Nicaragua. While the structuring conditions leading to sibling caretaking may be difficult to change, awareness of how these can affect children might make way for improvements in terms of access to school education and support from the society. The knowledge gained from this study should be further utilised to plan for interventions that take children’s perspectives into consideration.
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| 3. |
- Åsling Monemi, Kajsa, 1960-
(författare)
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The Impact of Violence Against Women on Child Growth, Morbidity and Survival : Studies in Bangladesh and Nicaragua
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis was to explore the impact of physical, sexual and emotional violence against women of reproductive age and the level of controlling behaviour in marriage on child health and survival in two different cultural settings: Bangladesh and Nicaragua. Data were acquired from four quantitative community-based studies. In two studies, a cohort including a prospective two year follow-up of 3164 mother-infant pairs in rural Bangladesh was investigated. A third study was a case-referent study in Nicaragua including mothers of 110 cases of under-five deaths and 203 referents, and in a forth study an other cohort of 1048 rural Bangladeshi women and their 2691 children was followed until 5 years of age. Maternal exposure to any form of violence, including physical, sexual, emotional, and controlling behaviour was independently associated with lower body size at birth, increased risk of stunting and under-weight at 24 months of age, slower growth velocity during the first two years of life and a higher incidence of diarrhoeal episodes and respiratory tract infections. In the Nicaraguan setting, the children of women who experienced any history of physical violence had a two-fold increase in risk of death before the age of 5 years, and those whose mothers experienced both physical and sexual violence had a six-fold increase in risk of death. In Bangladesh, an association between violence against women and under-five mortality was found among daughters of educated mothers who were exposed to severe physical violence or a high level of controlling behaviour in marriage. In all four studies, lifetime violence experience among participating mothers was high (37-69%), and the timing was less relevant than the exposure to violence per se. In conclusion, this investigation revealed that violence against women severely affects child health and survival. The findings are especially relevant in a context of high level of child under-nutrition, morbidity and under-five mortality. Efforts for protecting women from all forms of violence are needed as part of the interventions for improved child health.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Pérez, Wilton, 1979-
(författare)
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Millennium Development Goals in Nicaragua : Analysing progress, social inequalities, and community actions
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The world has made important efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015. However, it is still insufficient and inequalities prevail in the poorest settings. We tracked selected MDG, barriers for their achievement, and community actions that help to accelerate the pace of their accomplishment in two Nicaraguan communities (León and Cuatro Santos).In the first two studies we track the progress of MDG4 (reduce child mortality) using the under-five mortality rate. Inequalities in mortality were mainly assessed by means of maternal education, but other social stratifications were performed on rural-urban residence and sub-regional comparisons between both communities. The last two studies describe community interventions in Cuatro Santos and their association with progress toward MDG1 (poverty reduction). Participation in interventions and poverty were visualized geographically in this remote rural community between 2004 and 2009. Other selected MDG targets were also tracked.These communities will possibly meet MDG4 even before 2015. In León, MDG progress has been accompanied by a decline in child mortality. Despite social inequalities with regard to mortality persisting in education and places of residence, these have decreased. However, it is crucial to reduce neonatal mortality if MDG4 is to be achieved. For example, in León the percentage of under-five deaths in the neonatal period has doubled from 1970 to 2005. In the remote rural area of Cuatro Santos, progress has been accelerated and no child mortality differences were observed despite the level of a mother’s education.Cuatro Santos has also progressed in the reduction of poverty and extreme poverty. The participation of the population in such community interventions as microcredit, home gardening, technical training, safe drinking water, and latrines has increased. Microcredit was an intervention that was unequally distributed in this rural area, where participation was lower in poor and extremely poor households than in non-poor households. In those households that transitioned from poor to non-poor status, microcredit, home gardening, and technical training were associated with this transition. Furthermore spatial analysis revealed that clusters of low participation in interventions overlapped with clusters of high poverty households.
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| 6. |
- Salazar Torres, Virgilio Mariano, 1976-
(författare)
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Intimate partner violence in Nicaragua : studies on ending abuse, child growth, and contraception
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive, worldwide public health problem and one of the most common violations of human rights. The aim of this thesis were twofold: (i) to study the process and factors related to ending of IPV of Nicaraguan women and (ii) to examine to what extent IPV exposure is associated with the child linear growth and women’s contraceptive use after pregnancy.Methods: Data were collected from a panel study which followed 398 women who were inquired about their IPV exposure during pregnancy and at follow-up a median of 43 months after delivery. Three hundred seventy five of their children were available for anthropometric assessment. Thirteen in-depth interviews were conducted with women exposed to physical/sexual IPV during pregnancy but not at follow-up. For analysis both quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used.Results: Women experienced four patterns of abuse: never abused, ending abuse, continued abuse, and new abuse. Of the women who experienced any IPV before or during pregnancy, 59% (95% CI 52-65%) reported no abuse at follow-up (135/229). Women exposed to a continued abuse pattern and those exposed to any IPV, emotional or physical IPV at follow-up had higher odds of reversible contraceptive use. Further, exposure to any IPV and controlling behavior by a partner during pregnancy impaired the index child linear growth. Girls whose mothers had low social resources during pregnancy were the most affected. Women felt that being inquired about IPV while pregnant contributed to process of ending the abuse.Ending IPV was experienced as a process with three phases: “I came to a turning point,” “I changed,” and the “Relationship ended or changed.” Successful strategies to ending abuse mainly involved utilizing informal networks. Ending IPV did not always mean ending the relationship. IPV awareness, severity of the abuse, and economic independence were individual factors associated with ending of abuse. At the relationship level, diminishing or no exposure to controlling behavior by their partner was a key element. At the community level, a supportive and less tolerant to IPV environment as well as exposure to IPV inquiry during pregnancy facilitated the process of ending abuse.Conclusion: The study found that IPV exposure is associated with the children’s linear growth and women’s reversible contraceptive use. In addition, it is clear that gender norms regarding IPV are not static and that they play an important role in facilitating the process ending the abuse by increasing abused women’s access to emotional and material support. Our results emphasize the relevance of improving public services response to IPV.
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| 7. |
- Wedel, Johan, 1962
(författare)
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Religious Healing in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua
- 2008
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Ingår i: 33th Caribbean Studies Association (CSA) conference, San Andres, Colombia, May 26-30, 2008.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper inquires into the various forms of healing performed today among the Miskitu people of the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. The Miskitu have a long history of relations with outsiders and with people of African origin. Miskitu cosmology and its ideas about illness and healing is today a mixture of indigenous, Afro-Caribbean, and Christian beliefs. Local healers constantly pick up new healing methods and ideas from other religious traditions in Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. The paper discusses how Miskitu healers, known as curanderos, sukias, and profetas, heal by relating sickness and suffering to a world of spirits which also makes reference to the plural cultural antecedences of contemporary Miskitu worldview.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Wedel, Johan, 1962
(författare)
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Sorcery and Violence in Eastern Nicaragua
- 2010
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Ingår i: 35th Caribbean Studies Association Conference, May 24-28, St. Peters, Barbados.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 10. |
- Wedel, Johan, 1962
(författare)
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Spirit possession among the Miskitu of Nicaragua
- 2008
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Ingår i: Paper for the 10th EASA conference, Ljubljana, Slovenia, August 26-29, 2008..
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Miskitu people of Eastern Nicaragua are occasionally troubled by a spectacular illness called grisi siknis or "crazy sickness," said to be caused by spirits. This paper inquires into how Miskitu healers ritually transform the experience of the afflicted through an idiom of the spirit world.
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