More must be done to prevent childhood deaths
Sometimes, the perception is that we’ve been going nowhere for the past 100 years. Well, that’s not true.
The number of children who don’t live to see their fifth birthday each year has dropped from 12 million to 7.6 million since 1990 and dozens of developing countries have agreed to concrete actions to tackle malnutrition.
But there’s something else that has to be said on World Health Day — there’s still a long way to go.
On my recent trip to Mali — which now, unfortunately, is adding civil conflict to a persistent drought, and already one of the worst places for child mor- tality rates — I met with families who know that one out of every five children will not see their fifth birthday. One pregnant mother, expressing frustration at the lack of food for her family, looked down at the unborn child she was carrying and said, “The baby in my belly cannot cry out.” It’s in these moments of awkward silence that the moral imperative to show compassion cuts through all the rhetoric.
On the other side of the world, we have Afghanistan. Just like in Mali, malnutrition is rampant. It’s been like this for a long time in both countries. Many of these children will never reach their full physical or intellectual development, which spells another disaster for future generations and the growth and prosperity of a country.
And if you really want to be pushed to the wall, ask some of our female staff in Afghanistan to describe the plight of women. This country has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world. Pick eight women in your life. Now consider that one of them would not have survived childbirth if they lived in Afghanistan. Childbirth should not be a life-and-death gamble.
Our first reaction might be “well what can you expect when there’s so much conflict?” And yes, conflict hampers access to hospitals and trained health-care workers. But we don’t have to wait. In our experience, in spite of all the difficulties with war and violence, communities can significantly decrease their levels of maternal and child mortality with simple life-saving interventions. We’ve seen this in Sudan, Pakistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In Afghanistan, an encouraging example is our work training local young women in midwifery skills. This has meant that more women in these communities are accessing medical support during pregnancy and childbirth, which is saving the lives of mothers and their babies.
While most of us profess a strong desire for children to be cared for properly, children rarely have a voice at the table. In the midst of the upcoming G8 meeting next month, it’s important to make sure that health and nutrition, especially for children, fit somewhere in the priorities. When the G8 leaders are meeting and mingling at Camp David, Prime Minister Stephen Harper must continue to show that Canada is a champion for the world’s poor by demanding that promises around food security and child and maternal health are kept. The 7,500 children under age five who will die today cannot hold world leaders to account for these promises, so we must speak out for them.
Even in hard economic times, we still have so much, compared to so many places in our world. Showing some generosity to people who are in much greater need than we are may be old fashioned — and touches on the idea of altruism — but deep down, how can any country claim to be great if it fails to respond to children and families caught in the worst imaginable situations?