Our “mother and child” healthcare programmes
Friday, 17 December 2004
Our “mother and child” healthcare programmes
Eight million children under five die every single year – mostly from disease that can be prevented very easily. As with so many of the problems faced by people in poor communities, it’s always young children who suffer most.
The risk of disease is worsened by a lack of understanding about how it is transmitted, so education also plays a major role in our work. Concern trains volunteers from local communities in basic healthcare. Simple advice such as the importance of washing hands before preparing food, when passed on to families at home, helps prevent illness.
This is the work that Concern is committed to. Our “mother and child” healthcare programmes help mothers find real solutions to the health threats facing their children.
A young mother called Josette came to a Concern centre in Port–au–Prince, Haiti. Josette’s first baby died of pneumonia aged three months. She now has a four month old baby daughter called Nathanielle. Josette visited a Concern health centre to have Nathanielle vaccinated for polio, diphtheria and tuberculosis. The vaccinations are free of charge, which is an enormous help for Josette. There is no way Josette could afford to have Nathanielle immunised if it were not for this.
Josette was very attentive to the advice given by the ante-natal staff at the centre to safeguard Nathanielle from illness and disease.
With Concern’s help, Josette is able to give her baby the gift of health.
Your support can help educate more women like Josette, allowing mothers to give their children the best possible start.
A gift from you this Christmas could help fund healthcare programmes to protect vulnerable children.
- £ / € 30 could help provide highly effective medicine to treat children with malaria.
- £ / € 250 could help pay for children to be immunised against potentially deadly diseases such as polio, tuberculosis or diphtheria.
