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Kenya is a Breastfeeding Success Story But Still Has Its Challenges
By Elizabeth Kimani-Murage, Brown University Breastfeeding has both short-term and long-term nutritional benefits for children. Nutrition is central to sustainable development. Good nutrition in the first 1000 days of a child’s life is critical for child growth, well being and survival, and future productivity. The World Health Organisation recommends exclusive breastfeeding for children until they are six…
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New Bill is Committed to Reducing Maternal, Newborn, and Child Mortality
Today a new bipartisan bill, The Reach Every Mother and Child Act, was introduced to the Senate by Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Chris Coons (D-Del). The Reach Every Mother and Child Act will build upon decades-old work of the United States being a leader on drastically reducing maternal, newborn, and child mortality. In fact, this new bill…
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Multibillion-Dollar Fund Launches to Prevent Global Maternal, Newborn, and Child Deaths
This week at the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a new multibillion-dollar global fund was launched. Called the Global Financing Facility, the fund will pump international, domestic, public, and private financing into high-burden, low-income countries that desperately need the funds to save more of its mothers, newborns, and children. The Global Financing Facility will…
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Register: Free Online Course Examines Women, Child, and Adolescent Health #FLImprovingHealth
The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is launching a free online course about women, child, and adolescent health. The course called Improving the Health of Women, Children and Adolescents: from Evidence to Action will last for six weeks starting on Monday, September 28, 2015. Registrations are now open. While the course is primarily targeted to…
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Humanitarian Designs Innovative Diaper for Developing Countries
Michael Wahl didn’t purposely set out to create an innovative cloth diaper for babies who live in the developing world as well as a humanitarian organization, Dri Butts, that distributes diapers to families in need. Rather, he saw it as a necessity to prevent diseases caused by the spread of fecal matter. Many children in low-and middle-income…
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48 Corporations Step Up to Curb Newborn Deaths
A new, first-of-its-kind report, The Ultimate Investment in the Future Profiles of Corporate Engagement in the Health and Development of Newborns [PDF] was recently released that catalogs 48 corporations and their financial commitments to saving the lives of more newborns globally. Currently there are 2.6 million stillbirths every year and 2.8 million newborns do not…
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Maternal and Newborn Health News from the 68th World Health Assembly
The 68th World Health Assembly features the launch of two important reports – The WHO report on Strategies Toward Ending Preventable Maternal Mortality [PDF] and the Every Newborn Action Plan Progress Report [PDF]. Maternal health remains one of the most elusive Millennium Development Goal to achieve. While maternal deaths worldwide have been nearly halved since…
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Prize Provides $250K to Fund Programs That Save Children’s Lives
Across the world, over 17,000 children under age five continue to die every day, mostly from preventable causes and treatable diseases. This translates to approximately 12 children every minute and over 6.3 million total in 2013. More than half of these child deaths can be attributed to malnutrition (approximately 45% of all child deaths), pneumonia,…
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Newborn and Child Health Education Through Haitian Art
Inside the child malnutrition unit at Hôpital Albert Schweitzer, the largest regional hospital in Haiti’s Artibonite region, colorful murals have been painted over the beds. They were specifically designed to teach parents, especially mothers, how to keep their newborns and children healthy and well-fed. In Haiti one in five children suffers from chronic malnutrition and…
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Infographic: 2015 Mothers’ Index Rankings
As in years past, the Nordic countries lead the world in being the best countries to be a mother and to raise children. Save the Children’s Mothers’ Index ranked countries based on maternal health, children’s well-being, educational status, and economic and political status. Sub-Saharan African countries and Haiti rounded out the worst places to be…
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Save the Children Sounds Alarm on Plight of the World’s Urban Poor
When you think about very low- and middle-income countries you might assume that the poor in deep rural pockets in these countries have the highest chance for maternal and infant mortality. That isn’t the case according to Save the Children’s latest State of the World’s Mothers report released today. The report says that it is…
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FEATURED VIDEO: Tanzanians with albinism targeted for witchcraft
UNICEF recently highlighted Under the Same Sun, an organization that fights discrimination of albinism and protects albinos especially in Tanzania where they are subject to violence and death.
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The Priceless Reaction of a Baby Being Vaccinated #Haiti
As I watched baby after baby receive the pentavalent (5-in-1) vaccine at a mobile health post put on by Hôpital Albert Schweitzer (HAS) in Haiti this week, their reactions were all the same. First, they were oblivious to what was going on. Then, they all felt a momentary prick of pain and the waterworks began.…
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Reporting From Haiti This Week
This week I am traveling around Haiti reporting on global health issues that affect women and children. In fact, I am writing this post in the back of a SUV with my fixer and translator headed south of Port-au-Prince to visit Social Good Moms’ partner, Midwives for Haiti. In the poorest country in the Western…
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Photo Essay: Vaccines in Deschappelles, Haiti
Yesterday I was in Deschappelles, Haiti about three hours north of Port-au-Prince. Deschappelles is where the largest regional hospital, Hôpital Albert Schweitzer, is and has been for nearly 60 years. It serves a population of 350,000 and routinely takes in patients from outside of the region. In addition to hospital services Hôpital Albert Schweitzer also arranges and…
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Justin Forsyth, Save the Children CEO, on Child Migrant Deaths in the Mediterranean
“Whoever makes up the next Government has a moral obligation to work with the EU to restart the rescue. Every migrant child’s death is a stain on Europe’s conscience. How many thousands must die this summer before Europe acts?” – Justin Forsyth, Save the Children CEO. Read more at Save the Children Calls on the EU to…
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Save the Children calls on the EU to Halt Child Deaths in the Mediterranean
On Sunday, the harrowing news reverberated around the world that hundreds of migrants drowned off the coast of Libya en route to Europe when their boat – not suitable for transport across the vast Mediterranean – capsized. As many as 700 people are feared dead, but the death toll could escalate as more information is…
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Kicking Off World Health Worker Week Through Photos and Stories #WHWWeek
To kick off World Health Worker Week (April 5 – 11) we are sharing photos and stories of some of the health workers we’ve met around the world over the years who work tirelessly to keep women, children, and families healthy and most importantly alive. In the sub-Saharan and Asian countries where we have met these health workers,…
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Upcoming Events Discuss Ebola in Liberia, Raise Money for Children in Crisis
This week we will collaborate with Save the Children and Children Inspire Design on two important awareness raising and fundraising events. #EndEbola Twitter Chat Join us this Wednesday when we join Save the Children and their Liberia Country Director, Greg Duly. We will discuss the state of the Ebola crisis in Liberia and how it…
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Help Children in Crisis With a Simple Social Share #Relay4Kids
As hard as it may sound, children are living in crisis as I write this post and it honestly breaks my heart. There are Syrian children who are living under harsh conditions in refugee camps who just want to go home to a world they once knew and there are also children who are running…