Children and Youth

A meal a day is all it takes

May 12th, 2011 10:00 PM UTC
By Emily Alpert

Driving down a bumpy and barely navigable road in Malawi, we arrived at the Mawango School, greeted by tons of school children with beaming smiles.

“Look at those round cheeks, beautiful smiles,” remarked Florence from the Ministry of Education who joined ONE’s site visit. “The children are happy because they have taken their porridge.” At this school feeding program, run by the World Food Programme, the 777 students at Mawango are guaranteed a bowl of porridge made from a corn-soya blend, sweetened with sugar and fortified with essential nutrients.

Girls and orphaned boys also get a monthly take-home ration conditioned on 80% attendance. Some of this food is grown by Malawian farmers and delivered by the WFP through their Purchase for Progress program. So the WFP is helping to feed the undernourished, helping to keep kids -– especially girls -– in school, and improve the livelihoods of Malawian small-scale maize farmers.

Photos by Morgana Wingard

How do you prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV?

Sep 17th, 2010 5:01 PM UTC
By Erin Hohlfelder

From online petitions to angry baby protests, it’s hard to miss ONE’s focus on the Global Fund and our goal to ensure that virtually no child is born with HIV by 2015. But throughout this campaign, many of you have rightfully asked, “How does this exactly work?”

It’s a miracle of modern medical technology that we’re able to prevent the mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT).

An HIV-positive mother can pass HIV on to her baby any time during pregnancy, labor, delivery and breastfeeding, so the transmission of the virus must be blocked at each stage. The 2010 World Health Organization guidelines recommend that HIV-positive pregnant mothers should go on a regimen of three antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) as soon as possible — and stay on these drugs until their infant is born and breastfeeding has concluded.

As soon as the infant is born, the baby should take nevirapine — a very inexpensive drug — daily for six weeks. The infant should be formula-fed rather than breastfed if possible, but it’s recognized that formula feeding is both expensive and difficult to do safely in resource-limited settings, so the mother is recommended to breastfeed her child exclusively for six months while continuing to take ARVs. In a recent study conducted by Harvard University in Botswana, mothers who adhered to this regimen reduced transmission of HIV to their babies by an amazing 99 percent.

These prevention guidelines have evolved over the years as scientists have learned more about how to most effectively reduce the risk of transmission while also working to minimize drug resistance for our most effective treatment tools. Many policymakers stress that access to effective contraception to prevent unintended pregnancies is also important for women who are HIV-positive.

For more details on the PMTCT process, including a chart that maps which drugs are used when and in what settings, visit AVERT’s handy guide. Also, be sure to check out WHO’s global strategic vision for 2015.

No one should give birth alone

Jun 14th, 2010 4:35 PM UTC
By Brie O'Keefe

Last week a couple of ONE staffers attended the Women Deliver conference in Washington D.C. In what was arguably the world’s largest conference on maternal health and empowerment in more than a decade. The 3 day event was essentially a global gathering to share stories, best practice and calls to action on the prevention of maternal deaths around the world.

It was at Women Deliver that Melinda Gates stressed the importance of maternal and child health as a global health priority.

At the conference we met Awatif Altayib Mohamad Hussein, a midwife from Sudan who was kind enough to share her story with us.

If you would like to sign ONE’s petition to the G8 asking for more midwives and health workers to be provided in countries that need it most, sign the petition here:

http://www.one.org/international/actnow/g8healthworkers

Zimbabwean Children Flee to South Africa

Jan 28th, 2009 1:49 PM UTC
By Virginia Simmons

I read this story in Sunday’s New York Times on children fleeing Zimbabwe “for lives just as desolate” in South Africa, and wanted to share it here on the ONE Blog.

Below are some excerpts but you can read the full piece on their site.

With their nation in a prolonged sequence of crises, more unaccompanied children and women than ever are joining the rush of desperate Zimbabweans illegally crossing the frontier at the Limpopo River, according to the police, local officials and aid workers.

What they are escaping is a broken country where half the people are going hungry, most schools and hospitals are closed or dysfunctional and a cholera epidemic has taken a toll in the thousands. Yet they are arriving in a place where they are unwelcome and are resented as rivals for jobs. Last year, Zimbabweans were part of the quarry in a spate of mob attacks against foreigners….

South Africa’s national police force is exasperated by the crimes… most victims do not file complaints. After all, they are here illegally, unless remaining in the Showgrounds. “Last week, I had 1,500 ready for deportation,” he said.

The captain stood up, walking over to a computer screen. “We keep photos of the refugees killed near the border.”…

Mention of the children seemed to feed his exasperation. “Street kids, more all the time,” he said. “They come in as if they are playing in a game.”

He asked, “What do we do about these kids?”

-Virginia Simmons