Ann M. Veneman, Executive Director, United Nations Children’s Fund, writes in “The State of The World’s Children 2008“, a UNICEF report…
In 2006, for the first time in recent history, the total number of annual deaths among children under the age of five fell below 10 million, to 9.7 million. This represents a 60 per cent drop in the rate of child mortality since 1960. However, there is no room for complacency. The loss of 9.7 million young lives each year is unacceptable, especially when many of these deaths are preventable. And despite progress, the world is not yet on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goal target of a two-thirds reduction in the rate of child mortality by 2015.
Widespread adoption of basic health interventions, including early and exclusive breastfeeding, immunization, vitamin A supplementation and the use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets to prevent malaria, are essential to scaling up progress, in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere. More needs to be done to increase access to treatment and means of prevention, to address the devastating impact of pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria, severe acute malnutrition and HIV.
We know that lives can be saved when children have access to community-based health services, backed by a strong referral system. The focus must be on delivering key interventions at the community level, as part of integrated efforts to support the establishment of stronger national health systems. And particular attention must be paid to the special needs of women, of mothers and of newborn children.
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Suubi Trust is working in Lira, where one child in 10 dies before its fifth birthday – that’s more than ten times the rate of children dying every year in the UK. Our work is aimed at helping to achieve the 4th MDG. We do this, as recommended above, by providing access to good quality community based health services, backed by a referral process into other available resources within the medical group, e.g. International Hospital Kampala.
Help by giving your support to our work in Lira; read more here
