Global data on child mortality shows that East and Southern Africa is making the fastest progress on reducing child deaths. Eight of the region’s countries – Ethiopia, Eritrea, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania have reached the Millennium Development Goal on reducing deaths of children under five years by two-thirds or more.
In countries like Uganda, saving lives of new borns is sometimes as easy and yet as vital as helping the baby breathe immediately after he is delivered. Attanius Mulindwa and his wife hold onto their twin babies a few months to their second birthday. One twin, Kato Mulindwa is to them a miracle baby of sorts.
“One of the twins would not have survived if it wasn’t for the nurse. She nurse tried and tried; because the mother said when he was born he was green in colour, no oxygen,” says the father.
Kato Mulindwa owes his life to a help baby breath program introduced by children’s Charity Save the Children in Nakaseke District Hospital in Uganda. “We have the resuscitate baby corner where we take the baby before we take them to the nursery,” says midwife Eva Nangalo.
Nangalo remembers how until international children’s charity Save the Children introduced the programme six years ago, nurses and mid wives gambled with the lives of new born babies. “People could even wrap babies who have not died and take them to the mortuary, not knowing that if you help these babies, they can pick up.” Between January and August this year, Sister Eva and her colleagues have saved at least 150 new born babies. She insists that the golden minute, that first minute after the baby is delivered matters. “It should be observed in order to help the baby’s brain, to help the baby breath, for the baby not to get damaged on the brain.”
This week, the world bids farewell to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and welcomes the Sustainable Development Goals.
Uganda is one of the countries that have made strides in reducing the number of children who die before they reach the age of five. “Getting resources onto the countryside, midwives to the countryside where the poorest people live, ensuring that they have access to primary healthcare and vaccinations, cause that is what we think will save lives,” says Save the Children’s David Wright.
United Nations Children’s Agency, The United Nations Children’s Fund is a United Nations Program (Unicef) and Save the Children say political commitment and community involvement could go a long way in saving lives.
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