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Investing in children – a course towards a better future

Frieda Taigwata laughs as she talks about her children, and for good reason. She is a mum in the Solomon Islands who has raised four healthy kids in a poor country, rattled for five years by political tensions and a year later by the tsunami.

So pleased is she with her children’s progress, Frieda expresses their ages in the context of age next birthday, rather than last birthday.

“Jason is coming up to 12, Sarah is going up to 11, George up to seven and John is going up to one year old next month,” she exudes.

One of Frieda’s four children, however, is in the danger zone. At under a year, John is highly vulnerable to death. Over Christmas, he suffered an illness that caused his little body’s temperature to rise to 38 degrees Celsius and his chest to swell. Sarah was also very ill when she was in this danger period. At eight months, she had a week-long serious respiratory illness. The children have had malaria, of course. Frieda almost forgets that Jason, Sarah and George have endured the disease, it is so common, so usual, she says.

They are a happy family. The boys are boys and can be a handful but Sarah is good around the house. The two older ones last year got school awards for good performance and responsibility, Frieda says proudly.

Although the Solomon Islands under-five mortality rate (the probability of dying between birth and five, expressed per 1000 live births) is in the moderate range (73 per 1000 live births), there is progress since 1990 where statistics showed 121 deaths per 1000 live births.

UNICEF launched the first Progress for Children report in 2007 that gives hope and shows that more of the worlds’ most vulnerable, like Frieda’s children, will survive to five – and beyond. The report showed that internationally, the number of children under five dying is at a record low.
 
This bitter-sweet milestone was reached in 2006 when deaths of under-fives around the world fell below 10 million for the first time, to 9.7m. Not since 1960, when child deaths were first recorded, has the figure been so low. If babies and young children were still dying at 1960s rates, an estimated 25m would die this year. Measles vaccinations, mosquito nets, vitamin A supplements and increased breastfeeding – all heavily promoted by UNICEF- have been the main contributors to the fall.

Still, each year, a number of children nearly equal to the population of New Zealand die in the first 28 days of life. They account for 37% of under-five deaths.

Frieda largely credits her children’s good health to vaccines, which her children get from a UNICEF-supported government health clinic. She is clear about the need for the jab. “Our kids must have the immunisation to ward off diseases like measles and polio.”

Of all its health initiatives and programmes with governments and other agencies, UNICEF does particularly well in widespread child immunisation. Under the Vaccine Independence Initiative (VII), UNICEF places vaccine orders for the 14 Pacific Island Countries covered and ensures there is an uninterrupted supply of high quality, low cost, WHO-standard vaccines.

UNICEF’s Chief of Health and Sanitation, Dr Eliab Some informs “immunisation has saved millions and has enabled others to lead longer, healthier lives.” The programme he continues“ is defined as the delivery of vaccines and other cost-effective interventions that have the greatest impact on reducing child and maternal mortality and morbidity.”

Frieda charts her own children’s development in a little “baby book”. Four out of five mums in her hometown use the booklets to keep check of vaccinations and to measure their children against ideal weight and growth schedules.

Parents in Solomon Islands who do not immunize their children or get medical care when they fall ill, usually don’t because they can’t. Most either live on scattered islands or are prohibited from getting to clinics by distance or cost. Some parents, distracted by anxiety about lack of income, don’t think to take their sick children to clinics as early as possible, Frieda says.

Across the Pacific there are some serious health problems – 20% of Pacific Islanders have poor drinking water, 30% do not have sanitation facilities, 20% of children are not immunized against measles, 60% of children are anaemic. Vitamin A, iodine and other micronutrient deficiencies are prevalent. Rates of exclusive breastfeeding are low. Poor child feeding practices combine with childhood infections (diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections and malaria) and parasitic worm infestations to raise mortality. Access to emergency obstetrics is a major challenge for rural and outer-island communities.

In 2000, most of the world’s governments, pledged to reduce under-five deaths by two-thirds by 2015. At the mid-way point, it is becoming clearer which countries will and won’t make it.

Most Pacific countries are barely on track to reach the goal. The Cook Islands, Fiji and Palau have rates of fewer than 20 deaths per 1000 live births. Overall Pacific rates have dropped since 1990 but efforts must be intensified in countries such as Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu to reach 2015 targets.

UNICEF’s Progress for Children report highlights that child mortality is a sensitive sign of a country’s development. Dr. Eliab Some of UNICEF shares that investing in children’s health and development is a sound economic decision and one of the surest ways for a country to set its course towards a better future.