November 19, 2009 19:01 PM

International NGO In Global Campaign To Reduce Child Deaths

By Martin Shardow

NAIROBI, Nov 19 (Bernama) -- The war on child mortality has never been this intense, and due to the intensity, the World Vision Intrnational (WVI), an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) is calling on African governments and leaders to fight and reduce child deaths.

World Vision, founded in the United States in 1950, is an international Christian relief and development organization, working with the poor and oppressed to promote human transformation, seek justice and bear witness to the good news of the Kingdom of God.

Quoting a WVI report, China's Xinhua news agency reported Thursday that 9 million children below the age of five die every year from silent killers such as poverty, hunger, easily preventable diseases and illnessess, and other related causes.

"That means, 24,000 kids are dying every day on average, and to prevent such deaths occuring in future, WVI has launched a five-year global campaign dubbed "Child Health Now"," Xinhua cited WVI's president and CEO, Kevin Jenkins, as saying on Thursday.

Together, WVI hoped to end these preventable deaths in 100 countries, and urges governments to reduce the number of under-five child deaths by two-thirds as well as to lower the number of maternal deaths by three-quarters respectively, by 2015, Jenkins said.

"Most children succumb to preventable causes such as diarrhea, pneumonia, childbirth complications and malaria.

"Our experience has demonstrated that effective health care through simple, preventive, cost-effective measures, which is the leading factors in community development," he said.

Jenkins notes that it is politics and not poverty that is killing these children, as the politicians have made many promises, but not making a priority in saving mothers and children from death.

It notes that the epicenter of the child health emergency is, in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, with approximately half of the deaths occurring in just five countries including Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Pakistan and Ethiopia, reported the Chinese news agency.

Citing Nigeria as an example, WVI said that the gap between the poor and rich also translates in the number of children dying before age five.

"Children from the poorest families are three times more likely to die than those from the wealthiest family," it said, noting that reducing these inequalities would in itself have a dramatic impact.

It also pointed out that while countries such as Malawi and Liberia making significant strides in lowering child deaths, nations like Kenya and Burkina Faso have gone backwards in their efforts, an indication that business as usual will not achieve the health MDGs.

The organization in its campaign plans to work with poor communities, millions of supporters, wider public's and any other organization to get governments to take the most effective action so that more children can live healthy lives within their communities.

Consequently, WVI estimates to spend US$1.5 billion over the next five years on its own health programmes.

-- BERNAMA

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