UNICEF Launches Every Child Alive Campaign

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By; TINA PHINEAS, Yola
It has been disclosed that every year, 2.6 million newborns around the world do not survive their first month of life, while one million of them die the day they are born.
The United Nation’s Children Fund (UNICEF), made the disclosure on Tuesday, in a new report on child mortality, during the launch of the “ Every Child Alive “ campaign.
Acccording to the report, global deaths of newborn babies remain alarmingly high, particularly among the world’s poorest countries.
“Globally, in low-income countries, the average newborn mortality rate is 27 deaths per 1,000 births, the report says in high-income countries, that rate is 3 deaths per 1,000”, it stated.
Henrietta Fore, UNICEF’s Executive Director stated that they have more than halved the number of deaths among children under the age of five in the last quarter century, but have not made similar progress in ending deaths among children less than one month old.
In the report, the global estimates rank Nigeria as the 11th highest on newborn deaths.
Mohamed  Fall, UNICEF Nigeria’s Representative noted that a fair chance in life begins with a strong, healthy start unfortunately, many children in Nigeria are still deprived of this.
“MICS data tells us that the trend is improving but urgent action needs to be taken for Nigeria to reach the Sustainable Development Goals, it cannot afford to fail its newborns today”, He stated.
 
More than 80 per cent of newborn deaths are due to prematurity, asphyxia, complications during birth or infections such as pneumonia and sepsis. These deaths can be prevented with access to well-trained midwives during antenatal and postnatal visits as well as delivery at a health facility.
Every Child Alive, is a global campaign to demand and deliver solutions on behalf of the world’s newborns.
Through the campaign, UNICEF is issuing an urgent appeal to governments, health care providers, donors, the private sector, families and businesses to keep every child alive.
 
New Nigerian reports that government and concerned individual can keep every child alive  by recruiting, training, retaining and managing sufficient numbers of doctors, nurses and midwives with expertise in maternal and newborn care.
 
Making it a priority to provide every mother and baby with the life-saving drugs and equipment needed for a healthy start in life

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