World Health Day: Building a Fairer, Healthier World
World Health Day 2021 is campaigning on an issue that is both important and near and dear to our hearts here at H2One. As the last year has shown, there is great deal of inequity in our healthcare system here in the United States, where those who are unemployed, or poor cannot afford healthcare and cannot afford to take time off work if they are sick. Countless studies show that the United States has a level of healthcare inequity seen in few other developed countries, and in some areas, as bad as the healthcare access in developing countries.
There are a lot of factors that are looked at when discussing the quality of healthcare and range of access in any given area, housing, access to general practitioners and specialists, and supply of medical necessities are just a few. The number of people without quality healthcare is growing as premiums skyrocket, and though there are efforts to increase access at a Federal level, until wide-ranging measures are implemented, we will still be facing these problems as a society.
An additional factor to be considered when discussing world health is the rising costs of sanitizing products and health materials. This is an especially salient point during a global pandemic, and one we saw become a huge problem last spring with the pandemic surged. Sanitizing products, masks, and other supplies meant to help keep us all safe and healthy rose in price far beyond the usual rate of inflation. Unfortunately, those with supply can set the price, and this fact of the supply chain ensured that the poorest countries and individuals went without supplies that were urgently needed for the sick and vulnerable.
We here at H2One have attempted to do our part for our country and society by providing affordable, high quality sanitizing products for our communities (such as our Awakening Citrus Sanitizer Gel), but we recognize that we are just one company, and greater change is needed. Some nonprofits, particularly the World Health Organization (WHO), have programs in place intended to mitigate the disparities mentioned above, but without a global movement to increase access to healthcare for everyone (not just the wealthiest countries and individuals), these disparities will continue to persist.
One of the most important disparities is access to clean drinking water. In many third-world countries, this luxury that we take for granted is not guaranteed. Dirty drinking water can cause many illnesses and poor health concerns such as cholera, dysentery, and polio (Source), and as many as 2 billion people worldwide rely on water that is not sanitized or safe. While this may seem to be a big problem, there are things that you personally can do to help solve these issues, including volunteering for organizations such as the WHO as well a donating money to an organization that aligns with your values. As for us, our H2One for One Promise states that we will donate a bottle of sanitizer for each one bought, and in that way, we do our part to help clean up communities and individuals both at home and abroad.
We know that thinking of global health can be overwhelming. There’s a lot of issues to be discussed and considered, but any little bit you can do personally makes a difference towards the advancement of society and the world. We promise to continue doing our work as a company, and on this World Health Day, we hope that you’ll reach out to your local community to do your part in creating a safer, cleaner tomorrow.