“When you carry a life and it’s there, and then gone, a part of your soul dies. Forever.”
As per Wikipedia, Infant Mortality is the death of young children under the age of One
Also, as per Wikipedia, there are other types of Infant Mortality which are:
Neonatal: a death that occurs in the 1st 28 days of life and Stillbirth Mortality: when a baby dies in the womb.
BUT, WHAT DOES INFANT MORTALITY MEAN TO NELLY who lost her baby in her six-month pregnancy?
What does it mean to her to lose her baby after waiting for months for his birth?
How Infant Mortality will affect her Emotionally, Physiologically and Psychologically?
As per Nelly, Infant Mortality is the death of her soul translated through a wide range of psychological and physiological problems including depression, anxiety, cognitive and physical symptoms linked to stress, marital problems, physical pain, sadness, frustration, anger, solitude, guilt…
As a Global Overview, the majority of the deaths are referred to Infant, Neonatal and Stillbirth Mortalities. We further investigated the areas in which high Infant Mortalities are occurring and we noticed that poor countries witness higher mortality rates compared to the developed countries.
Globally, as a way to enhance health of pregnant women and to reduce reduce infant mortality, Governments with the help of Humanitarian Organizations were establishing Prenatal and Postnatal Care Programs. We can notice a negative correlation between these care programs compared to infant mortality rates over the period from 1991 and 2019. Numerous studies showed their power to create more successful infant health.
While in African regions, pregnant women tend to have low adherence to Prenatal and Postnatal care regimens as shown in the graph due to the fact that Prenatal care programs were administered 6 times only over a period of 20 years and Postanatal care was administered 1 time in 2016.
Noting that in 2008, when 97% of pregnant women were administered Prenatal care resulting in a significant decrease of Infant Mortality rate.
UNICEF made efforts towards decreasing infant mortality rates which resulted in remarkable progress in child survival in the past three decades, and millions of children have better survival chances in the 1990-2019 period.
Also, UNICEF attempted to reduce infectious diseases that have high risks on infant survival. The Organization procured Antiretroviral Medicines against HIV diseases, which are represented by the red circles. The larger the circle indicates a higher percentage of pregnant women who received these medicines to Reduce the Risk of Mother-to-Child Transmission, thus reducing risks of infant mortality. The darker the grey shading indicates a higher share of women above 15 years old infected with HIV, and as we can see they are highly located in Africa.
The efforts made by Governments and Humanitarian Organizations were beneficial resulting in a decrease in infant deaths by approximately 50% over 30 years. However, infant mortality rates still represent 79% of total mortalities in 2019.
WHAT should we do GLOBALLY?
A Call to Action and a Request for Continuous Support
Prenatal Care – Developing enhanced prenatal care, including psychosocial support, education and health promotion.
– Expanding and improving home visiting programs. Postnatal Care – Reinforcement and development of the interventions as employing more midwives; empowering mothers, families and communities on Maternal and Neonatal Health issues by providing ease of access especially in African regions. Sustainable Development – Tackling infectious diseases such as HIV, Anemia, Malaria specially in African regions to reduce mother-to-child transmission and increasing infant survival rates.
– Promoting healthy lifestyle.
Work jointly with community leaders, government, trade unions and employers to understand health challenges and to offer pregnant women sufficient comfort.
WHAT should we additionally do to African regions?
We were very concerned about the infectious diseases that highly affect Infant Mortality Rates.
We noticed in the following graph that as health expenditures increased, infant mortality decreased. So we decided to seek additional funds to support the health system. Then, we analyzed the types of expenditures spent on health, we found that External funding is too low representing only 11% of total Health Expenditures.
Seeking for additional funds from External Sources would be a good idea for increasing health expenditures hence decreasing infectious diseases and increasing survival rates in Africa.
It was 11:00 am on a Monday when I saw a nine-year-old boy, Bilal, lifting heavy rocks in a construction site. How many Bilals, children who toil long hours for a low wage, deprive themselves of education, and endure frequent violence and abuse just to financially support their families, do we meet daily?
Based on a study conducted by the Lebanese ministry of labor in 2013, there are almost 180,000 children working in Lebanon. Today, Lebanon is experiencing a huge decline in its gross domestic income (GDI). GDI is an economical metric that showcases the nation’s social welfare, and its deterioration results in more people living below 50% of the median income, and vice versa.
Thus, poverty is increasing in Lebanon, and more children as Bilal are being robbed of their childhood. The Lebanese government and supporting international organizations can take many initiatives to save Bilal and his friends; however, not all might have a fast and radical impact on the children labor phenomena. While observing international cases, through World Development Indicators dataset, I noticed that countries, which most of their population have access to electricity, have a lower percentage of poverty; thus, a lower number of employed children, and vice versa.
When power resources are available to the nation, people will have access to technologies, especially the internet. There are numerous internet usages that can create life opportunities for the individuals; for example, Bilal can access the internet to enroll in educational programs.
Considering the above, I appeal to the government and concerned institutions to utilize all their endeavors in providing a sustainable electrical solution for our children to live a “normal” life and have the chance to prosper.
Many children in the Middle East and North Africa are deprived of education. Throughout the years, almost 18 % of adolescents and children were out of school on average in the region, which is the highest across East Asia, Europe, and Latin America. This is especially true for females who recorded higher average of dropout rates than males by 2.2% in the region over the years. The increase in dropout rates is due to several reasons and poverty plays a major role in increasing the rates of children out of school. It is evident that rates of people who make $1.90 per day has been increasing since 2013 in the Middle East, making it hard for parents to afford education expenditures for their children such as tuition fees and school supplies. This leads families to pull their children out of school in order to work and help the family during financial hardship. As there is a positive linear relationship between children who are out of primary school and children employment, when the average rate of children out of school increases, the rate of children’s employment increases.
Furthermore, the norm that females are not supposed to work is enhancing the idea that females do not need to learn as they will not be able to participate in employment. This is encouraged by the average ratio of female to male participation in the labor force which is 33.09 below the average rate across all indicated regions. Therefore, it is important to bridge the gap of poverty to ensure that people can have sufficient funds to be able to send their children to school. This can be done by providing financial aid dedicated to school fees and supplies. That is because lower poverty rates indicate lower dropout rates among children since there is a positive relationship between the two.
Moreover, it is important to raise awareness of the effects of dropping out of school on the future of children. Because the higher the average of adolescents out of school the more likely they will be considered as vulnerable employees in the future, which in turn lead them to be used and manipulated by employers.
Additionally, the higher the average rate of people completing at least a Bachelor degree, the higher the rate of salaries and wages. This means that if children where to stay in schools, they will be able to get higher salaries, which will provide them with a more stable future.
All the above factors are important in guaranteeing a better future for children. However, it is recommended that they be accompanied by the right laws that prevent child employment and provide equal opportunities for females to participate in the workplace.
What does life look like for a child in the 21st Century?
For someone like you and I, life is pretty normal, we have friends and family, we go to school, we’re healthy. But for someone like Czano, life is very different. At just 7 years old, he does not go to school. Instead, he works at a balloon factory in Bangladesh in order to provide for his family.
This is the sad reality of millions of children around the world who are forced to work in order to help their families due to severe poverty.
Not only are government at fault, but also businesses who employ these young children and even people like you and me who purchase products that were produced by children.
Take a look at these insights below in order to learn more about child labor and together, we can raise awareness about this issue and hopefully make a change.
Don’t forget to always educate yourself about where your products are coming from and purchase ethically!
The Arab world is considered one of the most youthful regions in the world. More than half (54%) of the total population are aged below 25 compared to 48% for the rest of the world. Given the important contribution adolescents and children will have in securing their countries’ future, it is necessary to monitor their social, mental and health situation. For that purpose, this study will be considering two indicators: adolescent’s fertility rate and the percentage of children out of school. The first reflects the overall situation of young females concerning child marriage and the second reflects the access to education for the countries belonging to the Arab League.
By monitoring adolescent’s fertility rate for the past 60 years, it is noticed that the overall situation improved significantly and approached the average world trend going from 134 to 46 birth per 1000 for women aged 15 to 19 in the last 60 years. The situation is nevertheless not the same for all Arab states as countries like Somalia and Mauritania still present critically high rates.
On the other hand, despite the decrease in the percentage of children out of school from 43% until 14% in the last 60 years, the figures remain higher than the world average (8% in 2020) which marks a critical condition for the access to education. Looking at each individual state, we notice a significant discrepancy between countries like Sudan at 42% children out of school and Oman at nearly 1%.
Throughout our work, we found that the situation is not the same for all children and adolescents in the Arab world as their situation is still vulnerable in countries like Sudan and Mauritania due to limited access to education and high percentages of child marriage (adolescent’s fertility). It is therefore essential for associations like Himaya or Kafa to intervene in such countries to improve children’s and adolescents social and physical wellbeing.
