Together, we can make the world a better place.

I wonder what you think about zoos? They are a little like Marmite, you either like them or not, or maybe they simply don’t feature in your life at all. Some folk absolutely can’t accept keeping wild animals in captivity, however realistic and spacious their enclosures and surroundings are. I have to say I like zoos and we are fortunate to live very near a good one. If the wind’s blowing in the right direction, we can even hear the lions roar in the evening. Both J and I are zoo members which means we can visit whenever we like. This can be a real bonus during school holidays so as to avoid the noise and bustle of families with little children.

My favourite animals to visit at the zoo are the giraffes. They are elegant, beautiful and they fill me with wonder. They are remarkable in many ways. They average only about two hours sleep each day, usually taking no longer than 10 minute naps at a time. They are vegetarians. They have big hearts, so as to be able to pump blood up their long necks to the brain. Those long necks have the same number of bones as human ones do. 

To my mind they are truly wonderful creatures. In their enclosure at the zoo, you can stand on a walkway that is level with their heads, which means you get a very unique view of each animal. You also realise that they are very powerful animals and can do a lot of damage to each other when fighting. Fortunately, this isn’t very often and giraffes like nothing more than to be surrounded by other giraffes. But this isn’t really a blog about giraffes, although in a way it is.

Last week I saw a picture that stunned, shocked and saddened me in equal measure. It was an aerial photo of six dead giraffes lying in a spiral shape. They had died of starvation and a lack of water. Giraffes drink remarkably little water, getting most of the fluid they need from the plants they eat. The picture was taken in the Saluli wildlife conservation park in North Eastern Kenya. The country, like many others in Africa, has been in the grip of one of the severest droughts in decades. It is estimated that 2.1 million Kenyans are facing starvation due to the severity of the drought. Last Tuesday, the United Nations said that nearly 3 million people were in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

It makes our supply chain and food distribution worries here in the UK seem rather trivial. However, that said, whilst our food security issues are completely different to those in Kenya, we should also remember that over 2.5 million people in the UK are regular users of food banks. It’s a situation that is likely to only get worse. The Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) recently reported that the Covid19 pandemic has forced tens of thousands of people to start using food banks for the first time. As we start the second Winter of the pandemic, with a new, even more infectious variant to boot, things are set to get much worse for more people. The loss of the £20 Universal Credit uplift, the ending of the furlough scheme and increases in fuel and food cost will just add many more folk to the numbers of people facing very difficult choices over what to spend their money on. IFAN coordinator, Sabine Goodwin, set out these stark choices in an article in the British Medical Journal last August – see here. It does not make for easy reading.

It’s clear that the pandemic has and continues to have an impact on all our lives. The UK population is 67 million people. Kenya has just under 57 million people. There have been 260,000 cases and 5,353 deaths from Covid in Kenya; here in the UK there have been 11 million cases and 147,000 deaths. The UK and Kenya are 4476.5 miles apart, but we share similar challenges albeit for different reasons. It is an example that reminds us that, whether it’s a threat brought about by natural causes or disease, no one country is likely to be able to deal with the consequences for their people alone. As a global community, we must find ways of using our creativity, inventiveness, money and other resources to make a better world for everyone.

I can’t leave this blog without sharing a story of some happy times I spent out in Kenya. I have been several times to work with Kenyan nurses wishing to increase their academic qualifications. It was part of a programme run by the University of Dundee. One trip coincided with my birthday. I decided I would buy the students a small gift, and I chose to give them bags of Uncle Joe’s mint balls. I can’t remember why, other than there was a story to tell about the sweets, and it was easy to pack dozens of packets in my suitcase. Unbeknown to me, one of the local students went home and baked a birthday cake, which at the end of the day they arranged for the local chief nurse to present to me. It was a moment I would never forget. Here was a community that had very little, but still found a way to give so much. It was a humbling but happiness filled occasion.

Finally, as much as I like going to our zoo and getting up close and personal with the animals, it is not as good as going out on a safari, in an open-sided Landrover, complete with a rifle toting guide and seeing the same animals in their natural habitat. Now that was a real privilege, added to by having the opportunity to do so with my nursing colleagues in Kenya, and yes, I did get to see giraffes there too.