Health and Socio-cultural Problems of Women in Rural Butajira

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Date

1998-12

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Addis Ababa University

Abstract

Studies on the social and cultural problems affecting the health of women is rare in Ethiopia. This study illustrates the common socio-cultural problems influencing the health of women and the women's perception towards health and illness in rural Butajira. Qualitative and quantitative methods were employed to develop the data collection instrument and actual collection of data, respectively. A total of 675 randomly selected rural women participated in the study. Over 94 percent of women are illiterate and only 8.7 percent of girls are sent to school. The mean working hour for rural women in Butajira is 15 hours. Very high proportion (96.6%) women are victims ofFGM. The decision making power of women at a house hold level is low. Women have almost no access to information, about 88 percent of them never listened to the radio for the last six months. About 97 percent of women reported that they are suffering from some kind of infectious, obstetrics or mental illness at the time of the survey. Punishment from God, lack of nutritious food, exposure to cold, evil eye and evil spirit possession were the major perceived causes of illness. The participants mostly use herbal medication during sickness or buy drugs with out consulting health workers in response to illnesses. They give high regard to traditional healers, witchcraft and religious leaders to solve health problems. The women by large have no idea on how to promote health except that they resume individual or group prayer. Therefore, it is concluded that women in rural Butajira are surrounded by traditional taboos and social problems affecting health. In order to improve the situation of women the health service strategy needs to be devised after considering what women believe, what they actually do and need. Such strategies should be based on local problems and the involvement of locally accepted healers.

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Health and Socio-cultural problems

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