Health

Eight-month-old Jenny with her mother at the Suehn Clinic, Liberia. She was diagnosed with malaria, a big killer of children under the age of five in Africa. We are supporting clinics such as this one to help reduce maternal and child mortality rates.

In 2010, 7.6 million children died under the age of five. In sub-Saharan Africa one child in eight dies before their fifth birthday. In South Asia it's one child in 15. 

Most of these deaths occur in the first year, and more than a third are within the first month of life. Most are preventable.

A global injustice we have to change

Children die when poverty, poor living conditions, hunger and lack of basic services conspire to destroy lives. They die of:

• basic illnesses, such as pneumonia, when they’re weakened by malnutrition
• diarrhoea, when they can’t get clean water or sanitation
• preventable diseases, when the health system can’t give them vaccinations.

A lack of education for girls means that, when they become mothers, their children are more likely to die. Conflicts and disasters also lead to poor health and high rates of child deaths. We know that influencing these factors will help keep children alive and healthy.

Good health is both an indicator of and a requirement for a country’s development. Communities need their children to survive into adulthood and contribute to its growth.

Children’s right to health

Ensuring children grow up healthy is one of our highest priorities. We’re fighting child deaths, reaching 3 million children in 25 countries in 2010 with support to help them access better healthcare and nutrition.

Every day, 1,400 children die from an AIDS-related illness, and another 1,800 are newly infected with HIV. We work to ensure such children are cared for in their communities rather than institutions. We provide advice and social support, and work to increase their access to basic health and education services.

Building better health systems

Basic healthcare should be a right for all, with access to the means to prevent illness and death, and to treatments to reduce the seriousness of conditions. This universal right should be available to everyone, whether rich or poor, whether living in remote rural areas or in urban areas. If basic healthcare were available for all children and mothers, millions of lives could be saved.

The only means to achieve this in most countries is through comprehensive, government-led healthcare systems with adequate financing and the staff to deliver it. This is why we focus on strengthening the health systems in the developing countries where we work.

Healthcare in emergencies

In some countries health services have collapsed because of war or civil disruption. Save the Children provides emergency health services and helps rebuild health infrastructures in war-torn countries like Angola and Liberia.

For example, in Liberia in 2010, we built and refurbished 14 clinics, which helped nearly 200,000 children. Working with the government, and with funding from the European Commission, we managed 19 health clinics.

But to end child deaths, we need to do more than just provide services. We need to ensure people’s demands are heard, and acted upon.