No child should die from starvation and easily preventable diseases! Yet each day, more than 22,000 children under the age of 5 do. Parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles mourn over these little ones. Today, you can give young children in the developing world a healthy life by supporting ADRA’s child survival programs. Using simple interventions, we help children lead healthy lives.
An ADRA aid worker recently spent time in Mali, and shared this from her experience.
"In many places around the world, ADRA works with the local village chief or elder and the village counsel. These are the individuals who provide information, guidance, and feedback regarding our programs in their villages."
"Recently, I spent three days visiting five different villages in Mali. In every village, I asked to speak with small groups of women. I asked them about their lives, their average day, and what difference ADRA has made in their lives."
"My heart broke time and again, as each group opened up and answered my questions with frank directness. Every woman had lost at least one child, some as many as 11. Over and over, tears were wiped away as they described how measles, malaria, tetanus, meningitis, and diarrhea had taken their small children from them."
“ADRA brought health classes to our village,” says Kaditou. “They taught us to keep our water covered and to use mosquito nets, explaining that these things help keep my children safe from malaria.”
“I think the most important thing that ADRA has taught me is how to control diarrhea. I have lost six children; three died from severe diarrhea,” Mpene shares. “Now I know how to prepare ORS [oral rehydration salts], and I have seen it save the children of others.”
“ADRA has trained me as a health volunteer. Since I started sharing the health lessons, our village has been cleaner. We all wash our plates and pots each day and keep our food covered. No one knew that not doing these things made our children sick.” Dropping her voice to a whisper, Diaba says, “I have had seven children die. It is very hard for me to know that my children might still be alive if I had known these things earlier.”
“My name is Salimata, and I am considered one of the elders of this village. I am 55 years old. In my life, I gave birth to 13 children, and 11 of them died. I lost the majority of them to malaria and a few to measles. Now I watch the young mothers following the advice of ADRA and getting their small children immunized and covering them with mosquito nets. I wish ADRA had come to this village sooner.”
ADRA’s aid worker notes that, “While the official infant mortality rate for Mali is 10 percent, we were shocked to find that in the villages where ADRA is working, the infant mortality rate has actually been 49 percent. Nearly every woman we spoke with had lost half her children. And too many had lost 80 percent! It was only the mothers in their 20s who had not already lost half their children. This speaks to the power of ADRA’s programs now active in their villages.”
