Maternal and Child Health
Rachel Maranto of Save the Children shares some good news for maternal health from an unlikely place: Afghanistan.
Sakila. Photo credit: Rachel Maranto/Save the Children
This is Sakila. Fourteen years ago she nearly died giving birth to her son.
“I was giving birth at home, there were complications and I fell unconscious. Eventually my family found a way to get me to a doctor. I was lucky I survived.”
(more…)
Late last week, the US Government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) signed an impressive landmark $600 million compact with the Government of Indonesia to reduce poverty through economic growth. For the first time in an MCC compact, it includes a $131.5 million nutritional component aimed at reducing and preventing low birth weight, stunting and malnourishment of children in selected provinces.
Photo credit: Compassion International
Research shows more than one-third of children under five in Indonesia are stunted, which can lead to higher infant and child mortality, increased susceptibility to infection and illness, reduced adult physical stature and impaired cognitive abilities — all of which result in long-term economic losses for individuals and the society at large. You may be surprised to learn that after two years of age, the effects of stunting are practically irreversible and have a life-long impact on an individual’s productivity. The community-based health and nutrition project will work to prevent stunting and mitigate its impact by strengthening community engagement, nutrition and sanitation services delivery and national awareness and advocacy.
At the signing ceremony in Bali, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “The scientific research is overwhelmingly clear: If you want a healthier, better educated workforce, it starts in those very early months of life. And ultimately, an early focus on nutrition can reduce poverty, promote broader prosperity, and improve the security and stability of communities and nations.”
The community-based health and nutrition project, which is being designed by Indonesia and is a country priority, is projected to benefit up to 2.9 million children and their families in up to 7,000 villages by developing the human capital necessary to increase worker productivity, reduce poverty and stimulate the economy. The preliminary estimate for the economic rate of return for this project is 13 percent.
As Secretary Clinton noted, the evidence base on the benefits of supporting early-life nutritional interventions is clear. The MCC has already been hugely successful in working with countries to support economic growth and improve the lives of millions of people through innovative and results-oriented programs. We are pleased to see through the latest compact, the MCC has demonstrated not only is investing in nutrition for pregnant women, infants and young children the right thing to do, but it is also the economically smart thing to do.
Lucy Sullivan, director of 1,000 Days, explains how we can break the cycle of undernutrition: by preventing it from happening at birth.
If we’re serious about ending poverty, then we have to get serious about improving nutrition. Nutrition is like the DNA of health and development. At an individual level, nutrition affects virtually every aspect of a human being’s physical and intellectual development. At a global level, how well (or poorly) people are nourished affects the overall health, prosperity and stability of communities and societies.
Yet ironically, poor nutrition, specifically undernutrition, is one of the world’s most insidious, yet least addressed, health and development challenges. It is responsible for more than one-third of all deaths of children under the age of 5 and keeps families, communities and countries locked in a cycle of poverty.
(more…)
Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the Ministers of Health Millennium Development Goal 5 Forum, hosted by the Princess of Africa Foundation, Women Deliver, Strategies for International Development and Vestergaard Frandsen. The forum convened to discuss ways to advance issues surrounding women and girls in the world’s poorest places, specifically on the fifth Millennium Development Goal (MDG), which focuses on improving maternal health for women around the world.
Maternal health has made the least amount of progress out of any other MDG, with record numbers of women dying in childbirth, 90 percent of which can be prevented. A country’s entire health system can be judged based on the number of women who die in childbirth.
Health ministers from Angola, Uganda and Cote d’ Ivore discussed ways their countries are improving maternal health and access to health care for women.
(more…)
Rachel Maranto of Save the Children describes an incredible event that brought supporters together to raise awareness for health workers around UN Week.
How do you get a message across in the crazy buzz of the city that never sleeps? Take over Times Square, of course.
Hundreds of moms and supporters came together in New York’s iconic Times Square yesterday to create a giant human mosaic with one simple message: Health Workers Save Lives. The huge image certainly caught the attention of passers-by, but the image was even more impressive from the sky. Brian, an employee working in one of the overlooking skyscrapers, thought the mosaic looked so impressive he invited all the press photographers to his office!
(more…)
It’s not every day that you get to meet a doctor who truly works without borders, but last week, I had a chance to meet a trio of them from Duke University Medical Center. Drs. Tony Roche, Yemi Olufolabi and Holly Muir not only teach medical students in the field of maternal and child health at Duke, but strive to share their expertise with low-income countries and correct international health care disparities.
Dr. Tony Roche with other doctors at the Mulago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda
(more…)
This week, ONE is joining 10 bloggers who are making their way through Kenya to see what life is really like for moms in the developing world. Follow along and check their progress at http://one.org/us/actnow/moms
I began the day dancing. Literally. Head bobbing, hands in the air, face beaming. And I wasn’t alone.
This morning we ONE Moms bumped along dirt roads in our bus, emerged into a clearing and then were swallowed up in a swarm of colorful women. Yelping into song and dance, they swept us forward into their rhythm mosh pit-style, and I felt joy. I hadn’t expected joy.
(more…)
