Never have fewer children died before their fifth birthday than today: nevertheless, there is still a long way to go to put an end to the preventable deaths of children and young people worldwide. In addition to the 4.9 million deaths before the age of five - around half of which were newborns - a further 2.1 million children and young people between the ages of five and 24 lost their lives, according to the children's relief organization UNICEF.
These tragic deaths were primarily due to preventable causes or treatable diseases, such as premature births, complications during childbirth, pneumonia, diarrheal diseases and malaria. "Many lives could have been saved through better access to quality primary health care, including key low-cost interventions such as immunization, availability of skilled health workers at birth, support for early and continuous breastfeeding, and diagnosis and treatment of childhood illnesses."
Central theme in the FAIRMED projects
For FAIRMED, the health of mother and child is an important pillar in our commitment to the health of the poorest. Well-equipped delivery rooms, medication and trained staff are needed so that women can give birth to their children without complications. Together with local governments, we therefore train local health professionals on this topic in our projects and ensure that expectant mothers have access to well-equipped maternity clinics and health facilities.
We also build basic health knowledge among the population and strengthen women's trust in health facilities and local health workers. We achieve this through large-scale awareness-raising campaigns and mothers' groups led by FAIRMED-trained health workers. In these groups, women learn everything they need to know about childbirth, such as the necessary prenatal examinations, the benefits of a medically assisted birth and infant care.
*This is according to recently published estimates on child mortality by the United Nations (UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation, UN IGME). However, the report also identifies major data gaps, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where mortality rates are high.