A community is a group of people who share common values, religion, norms, and customs. There are various ways through which sociologists have thought about the community from different perspectives, community varies depending on their geographical location or their cultural practices. Just like a living creature, a community has different comprising parts that represent different activities each working with given guidelines to meet desired community goals. Communities that are considered healthy have well-coordinated parts that share the responsibility to enhance their well being in society.
The social perspective norm outlines the community as the social and political network that links individuals, leaders and community organizations. Through these links access to community and finding out various characteristics that are associated with a given community can be achieved. Through social or political activities, the community can showcase various practices and myths that define their identity within a given set up. This can be used as a tool to measure community engagement and access.
Individual perspective states that every person has their sense of membership in a community however one can have a sense of ownership for more than two communities. This is subject to change with time as an individual will move or relocate to a new place which will have an impact on community activities (Minkler et al., 2004). The multiple communities today that is relevant for any individual including religion, workplace or families indicate that individual tend to think more of themselves in a complex way compared to previous years.
With technological advancement globally, individuals today rely on technology to access information, meet people and also making a decision based on the findings (Kozinets, 2002). Groups that interact in an organized manner and pose similar traits using the various platforms of the internet are considered to be virtual communities.
The environment is an important factor as it holds up to every activity globally and it’s the home to many habitats. The environment in which every living creature leaves is the determinant of our healthy living, we depend on the environment for energy from the sun and food that grow naturally in the environment as well as medicine.
Environmental health is vital to the community as it ensures the provision of clean air, this is achieved through the reduction of carbon emission within the society by the local industry. The local industry has further stepped up in forestation activities with the involvement of community members. The provision of safe drinking water has been safely guided by protecting water catchment areas through afforestation programs. The community has ensured proper waste management to safe guide water contamination and the pollution of air by decomposing agricultural waste produce.
Environmental health is key to the community as it ensures the provision of a safe place to live. These places are characterized by the availability of security, social amenities, and infrastructures. The topography of the place in which community member lives is free from geological activities thus provision of safety homes. With these in place, natural habitat around the community provides land for the growth of natural food that provides a balanced diet that makes the community healthy and productive.
Air pollution is a major effect on the environment. While water contamination is brought about by oil slicks, acid rain, and urban sprawl; air pollution is created by different gasses and poisons discharged by manufacturing plants and burning of fossil fills; soil contamination is majorly created by mechanical waste that takes supplements out of the soil. Increased population has lead to the extinction of some endangered species which took some years to come into existence.
Climate change is yet a key factor in the environment as it has different impacts, this may cause great destruction of the environment and human beings within the affected area. Global warming affects the environment as well as natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, tsunami. Cyclones and volcanic eruption that cause permanent or semi-permanent damages. Mining is also a problem to the environment, some minerals when extracted bring to the surface harmful and toxic gas that ends up polluting air. The remains from the extraction of these minerals make the environment barren, in this case, there is no vegetation to cover up the surface bringing about soil erosion and pollution.
Littering and landfills can be of threat to the environment as the people living can contract various diseases depending on the nature of the waste. Medical waste is as well of great impact. Loss of biodiversity is caused by human encroachment and settlement t. habitat loss is caused by overpopulation and pollution of the environment. Most of our air is produced from the woodland which also regulates the temperatures and the rate of precipitation. Approximately 35% of our land is covered by trees though human activities and in search of homes have to lead to deforestation which is also a great problem for the environment.
The environmental problem affects the community nationally in the damage caused in a given part leads to an adverse effect on the entire country. This can be for instance when an earthquake is felt on a scale of great magnitude and cause several deaths within the country. Health issues such as the covid-19 virus have affected the environment globally as there seem to be no activities taking place due to the pandemic. People tend to suffer collectively when a natural disaster occurs, many people are rendered homeless due to displacement caused by floods and other natural calamities. Individuals end up being affected by being rendered disabled by a given calamity.
Issues In The Community
Problems are part of life and just like human beings, the community to has problems affecting its existence. Adolescent pregnancy is one of the major problems facing the community. Different communities have different cultural practices that expose the adolescent girls to premarital life. Girls of certain communities at a tender age are forced to get married to men who are older than them. Female genital mutilation is a great problem for the community. These practices were done years back but to date, some community members are still practicing it despite the directives from various stakeholders on the campaign against it.
Child abuse and neglect, most of the casual jobs are done by the children in society making them work with no pay. Parents have chosen not to work but ensure their children get employed at the expense of the parents, some have been neglected and have been left on their own by their parents. The hunger strike has greatly affected several communities causing death to some members of the community and lack of food and pasture for their animals.
Domestic violence and drug abuse have left many communities in a very bad state. Alcohol has drained productive men in society and has further lead to marriage break ups due to alcoholism. HIV/AIDS is one of the diseases that has wiped community members living behind empty homes and orphans.
