Media and health professionals pledge to join hands to reduce child mortality [Archives:2008/1133/Local News]
ADEN, 23 Feb. ) Media representatives and health professionals reaffirmed their commitment to popularize simple and cost-effective community and family based strategies to save children at a UNICEF workshop held on Saturday.
The UNICEF workshop brought in over 120 participants representing media, government departments, local non-governmental organisations, and development partners. The participants came from the southern governorates of Dhale, Lahej and Aden.
The workshop, sparked by the launch of the UNICEF flagship report – The State of the World's Children (SOWC) 2008, aimed to facilitate media interaction with health professionals about child-related issues.
Aboudou Karimou Adjibade, UNICEF Country Representative in Yemen, said that factors contributing to child mortality are too entrenched to be countered by government interventions alone and needs action at all levels with communication leading the way.
He lamented that despite the technological breakthrough, a staggering number of 26,000 children under five are dying each day worldwide due to preventable diseases. In Yemen, 84,000 children under 5 years old die every year.
Adjibade presented the highlights of SOWC report to prove that even poor countries can make great strides in saving the lives of children if they follow integrated health strategies.
He urged the media to continue their efforts to highlight the issue of child survival, as it is not only a development imperative but also human rights imperative.
Dr. Ali Al-Mudwahi, general director of the Ministry of Public Health's Primary Health Care, said the latest SOWC report is most relevant for Yemen, as his ministry is researching similar studies and can benefit from the simple and cost effective strategies outlined in the report. He commended UNICEF for increasing attention to strengthen routine immunizations, the nutrition program, the integrated Mother & Child Illness program and the control of communicable diseases.
Adding a refreshing touch of face to face communication, Yemeni Artists' Forum for Children staged an educational play preformed by child artists about the abuse, neglect and exploitation of children. Using humour, the play brought home convincing messages about children's rights in a simple and comprehensive manner that drew great applause from the audience.
The workshop brought together rural journalists and broadcasters to encourage interest in reporting on child survival issues. A set of tailor-made power-point presentations for media were delivered by health professionals and the UNICEF team to strengthen the reporting ability of journalists and to bridge the communication gap between media and health sector.
The participants also debated about the approach to child survival that the report advocates. The report suggests disease-specific initiatives combined with investment in a strong national health system to create a continuum of care for mothers, newborns and young children that extends from household to the local clinic to the district hospitals and beyond.
The following lecture focused on child welfare advocacy with the participation of decision makers, eminent persons, parliamentarians, religious leaders and development partners. This was followed by a media focus group discussion on the key factors of immunization, water and sanitation, nutrition and poverty that set off a lively question-and-answer session.
As part of its efforts to improve media coverage of children's health, UNICEF plans to hold dialogue with media representatives through similar workshops in Hodeida, Taiz and Ibb Governorates in the month of March.
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