Dependence and independence : Female household heads in Mathare Valley, a squatter community in Nairobi, Kenya.

This thesis describes the lives of Kikuyu women heads of households living in the squatter community, Mathare Valley, in Nairobi Kenya. These women support themselves and their children by a combination of petty commodity production (basically beer brewing) and commercial sex. These migrants to the urban area have broken 'dependency relationships' with male relatives and affines in the rural area and have come to the city to support themselves. This can be seen as a process of women establishing themselves in the public domain in the urban area. A developmental model of a low income Mathare independent woman's urban career is constructed. First, women's socio-economic roles in traditional rural Kilmsru society, and the dependency relationships they were part of, are described. The factors which have led to the migration of single females to the city are outlined. Pinally, unmarried women's adaptation to life in Mathare is described in detail. They participate in certain types of urban economic activities. They are reorganizing their relationships with female relatives: mothers, daughters, and sisters. They foster their children with their rural-based mothers. They enter into new kinds of dependency relationships with men, which give women access to resources just as the old rural ones did, but allow the women greater choice and control over the relationships. Within Mathare women form friendship networks that are instrumental in the production of the illegal local beer, and protection from police activity directed towards controlling this industry. As each woman works out her urban strategy for survival in Mathare, there is discernable the emergence of new group values and ideas, particularly those that have to do with the roles of men and women, relationships between the sexes, and the institution of marriage. The role of ideology in explaining, and rationalizing social action is explored and the shifts in traditional Kikuyu ideology occurring among Mathare Kikuyu women are charted. New women's models and models for men are emerging which may operate to lessen cognitive dissonance resulting from the negative social image given Mathare women by the larger society. These ideological shifts may also play a role in the socialization of Mathare's children, and in the future formation of a general model of new possibilities for Kenyan women

Neuropsychological Correlates of Cystic Fibrosis in Patients 5 to 8 Years Old

Intellectual, academic, and neuropsychological tests were administered to 20 children with cystic fibrosis (CF). Results were compared to test results from 20 controls matched for gender, age, and socioeconomic status. No differences between the groups were found. For children with CF, Verbal IQ, sensory-perceptual skills, and incidental learning correlated (rs = .39-.67) with Shwachman criteria of disease severity, with significant positive relations with the Growth and Nutrition measure, an index of the severity of the disease. Processing of tactile-perceptual information may be particularly vulnerable to disease severity. This study provides more information than previously available on the neuropsychological status of young children with CF, and it offers some hypotheses regarding the relation between disease severity and neuropsychological function.published_or_final_versio

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

L'importance de l'eau pour les femmes africaines vivant dans un bidonville : le cas de Mathare Valley, faubourg de Nairobi (Kenya)

Nelson Nici. L'importance de l'eau pour les femmes africaines vivant dans un bidonville : le cas de Mathare Valley, faubourg de Nairobi (Kenya). In: Tiers-Monde, tome 21, n°84, 1980. pp. 863-869

'The Kambu Group: A Successful Women's ROSCA in Mathare Valley (1971-1990)

On most continents - from the USA to Africa and Asia - various forms of rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs) serve men and women of the community, often as their major -- and sometimes their only -- savings institution. ROSCAs are self-help money-pooling associations with participants who agree to make regular contributions to a fund which is given, in whole or in part, to each contributor in rotation. Many ROSCAs have elaborate systems to cope with inflation, default and the distribution of benefits. In providing important social and welfare resources they constitute valuable social capital.This unique volume of case studies by an international group of experts, which examines ROSCAs on a worldwide basis, will be of interest to anyone studying or concerned with anthropology, economics, women's issues, and especially the welfare of the less developed countries and immigrant communities in 'the West'