Whilst we were in Kalela, a child arrived on a stretcher constructed using scraps of wood and cloth, having been referred from another health centre.
He was carried by two men, with a third holding an umbrella to shade the sick patient from sunlight and rain. They had walked for many hours. It is because of poverty that this boy was slow to access care.
We can get the movement started, but it’s up to citizens to sustain the momentum around the change. It’s people with a clear point of view, which is rational and emotional and ethical, who can easily make their way through obstacles to forge a better future.
It shouldn’t matter whether you’re born in a country that features large in the UK Government’s national security radar, or you’re born in a country that’s just plain poor. Wherever you’re born, no child is born to die.
The office in Addis is a short drive from the airport, and although it is looking a little tired (could do with a lick of bright paint and some more posters and signs), everyone is incredibly friendly, welcoming, hard-working and passionate. My task here for the next five weeks is to try to get greater visibility of all Save the Children UK’s work here…
The 2nd Global Forum on Human Resources for Health begins tomorrow in Bangkok. Health workers will be at the centre of the debate…
‘No child is born to die’ is the message Save the Children sends across the country today. This is a call to action. While there has been extraordinary progress in reducing child mortality worldwide, about 8.1 million children below five years still died in 2009. A disproportionate number of these children died of preventable and treatable diseases. Many live in ‘healthcare desert’…
‘Tis the season for New Year’s resolutions my friends’ and colleagues’ intentions for 2011 made me realise that I hadn’t even considered mine. Lots of us know we should eat less and do more, but instead we dream of ‘miracle diets’ and ‘celebrity fitness regimes’ when we know they won’t work, and aren’t good for us. Ignoring the problem and hoping for a quick-fix is what we do – and this ostrich-with-head-in-sand approach is favoured the world over, not just by individuals, but governments too…
The smell of yak butter and incense, the rosy red cheeks of the babies’ wind-blown faces and the snow-capped mountains framing the tawny landscape, are all forever etched in my mind.
I have just been to Tibet where the under-5 child mortality rate is at least six times higher than in Shanghai. The poorer Western regions and provinces of China still have a large burden of child deaths primarily due to pneumonia and birth asphyxia.
Whether in the National Health Service in the UK or the remote corners of China, making a positive difference in the health of mums and babies is what counts…
I am deep in the hinterland of South West China, more than 2000 kilometres away from the office in Beijing. This is the part of my job I love the most – a chance to glimpse the daily lives of people so distant from my own world, to talk to families about their realities and hopes for the future.
