----- Original Message -----
From: Brigitte Thimiakis
To: adult_children_of_child_abuse@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2008 3:00 PM
Subject: [AdultChildrenOfChildAbuse] Nigeria rated the world's worst country for
child survival


Nigeria rated the world's worst country for child survival
http://childwitches.blogspot.com/2008/07/nigeria-rated-worlds-worst-country-for.\
html
...As UNICEF launches 2008 Reports
AT first sight, she represented purity and innocence. Moments later, she became
restless, her gentle skin became hot. She wailed like a wild animal. Within
seconds, she began stooling and vomiting uncontrollably. Her mother held her in
a fruitless effort to calm her. The little angel of about 10 months was rushed
to a nearby health center where Evelyn, the worried mother, was shocked to
discover that there was no health worker in attendance.

Before she could overcome her shock, two other women arrived with their babies
strapped to their backs. Unfortunately, before they could be attended to, their
innocent babies had passed on. Try as much as Evelyn and the two women could,
they could find no answers to the calamity that has befallen them. Why are
children still dying as a result of childhood preventable diseases in a country
with enough resources? The answer was blowing in the wind for all they cared.
This scenario describes the situation in Nigeria and some other African
countries.

Each day, 30,000 children aged under-five die. Nearly 99 per cent of these
deaths occur in countries like Nigeria and most are preventable. Globally,
children die at the rate of 18 per minute.

Regrettably, many in the developing world, and especially the poor, still lack
access to basic services, which result in this tragic and needless loss of life.
Another sad fact is that most of these developing countries know why children
die and what could be done to reduce the incidence but unfortunately, little or
nothing is being done to check these deaths.
The fourth Millennium Development Goal (MDGs) aims to reduce by two thirds the
mortality rate among children under- five. For Nigeria to achieve this, the
country has to reduce its under-five mortality rate to 67 deaths for every 1,000
live births by 2015.

Today, the under -five mortality rates is estimated at 192 per 1,000 live births
reflecting the urgent need to accelerate progress in the remaining years to
reach the MDGs target.
Understanding the need for a child survival revolution UNICEF is supporting the
Nigeria government in implementing the Accelerated Child Survival and
development (ACSD) strategy.

Despite this impressive efforts, the 2008 State of the World's Children Report
ranks Nigeria among the 12 countries in the world reporting the highest under-
five mortality rates.

At the official presentation this report tagged, "Child Survival" by UNICEF in
Abuja last week, UNICEF Representative, Dr. Robert Limlim declared that child
survival is central to Africa meeting the millennium development goals.
According to him, child survival is the key to Africa meeting all the millennium
development goals because six of the goals have targets that relate directly to
children's health.

Quoting from the state of Africa's children report, he said Sub- Sahara Africa
faces the greatest crisis of child mortality as about 50 per cent of child
deaths in the world happen in the region and nearly 50 per cent of children
dying in West Africa are in Nigeria.

"Fortunately, most of these lives could be saved by low - cost and high impact
interventions like vitamin A supplements and breastfeeding for infants up to six
months of age, sleeping under nets treated with insecticide, safe drinking water
and basic sanitation and immunization."

The two reports, State of the World Children's report and State of African
Children's report with 54 pages also show that more than one million children
under -five years of age die annually in Nigeria.

LimLim further noted that nearly a third of the children under five are
underweight and half of the population does not have access to improved drinking
water sources. He opined that upsurge of children crippled by polio has reached
such proportion that urgent and drastic measures have to be taken if Nigeria
must interrupt transmission by next year.
He urged Nigerian government to demonstrate increased attention and investment
for the survival and development of children.

Tasking Nigeria Government on the children, he said "It must be our top priority
for the coming years. It must be a strong bench mark for judging progress of
states in the federation, it must become an indicator for leadership
accountability and child survival must become a product of dividends of
democratic rule."

Declaring that the report is not so bleak in Africa, he said five African
countries, Algeria, Egypt Libya, Morocco and Tunisia reduced their child
mortality rates by at least 45 per cent between 1990 and 2006 putting them on
track to meet the child survival target.

He further challenged the Nigerian government that if these countries can do it,
Nigeria has the potential and resources to achieve greater feats towards the
attainment of the MDGs.

Also speaking, the UN Representative, Dr. Alberic Kacou who was represented by
WHO representative in Nigeria, Dr. Peter Eriki called on government of Nigeria
and Africa at large to increase investment in health and nutrition at Federal,
state and local government levels so that effective intervention with high
impact on child survival can be implemented.
Kacou also called for a renewed effort in polio eradication and the presidential
directive to situate the polio eradication in the context of child survival.

He explained that the interventions are part of a comprehensive package to
ensure the rights of children to life, survival and development can be achieved
in s sustainable way.

Vanguard Online Edition

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