4 Ways USAID Helps Save Women & Children Around the World
Every year, nearly 6 million children and more than 300,000 mothers die. But these deaths are preventable.
At USAID, we partner with country governments to apply simple, cost-effective health programs to save the lives of women and children — efforts that are helping foster prosperity and stability in nations across the globe.
Last year, USAID helped 82 million women and children access essential health services. Read on to hear a few of their stories.
Building Trust in Vaccinations in Nigeria
Adamu Mamman, an imam in Nigeria’s Bauchi state, never trusted vaccinations. USAID wanted to help the local health officials immunize all the kids in the area, and Mamman and community influencers like him were the key to their strategy.
USAID helped create a series of trainings to convince Mamman and others that vaccinations are important for a community to thrive. The trainings drove home the grave consequences of neglecting to vaccinate children in the community by pointing out how a child with polio or measles could cause lifelong financial burden and emotional hardship to his or her parents.
It worked. Mamman not only changed his mind, he encouraged his entire constituency in the scholastic community to do the same, and nearly all the kids were vaccinated that year. Read the full story here.
Saving Premature Babies in DRC Hospitals
Seven months into her pregnancy with her son Mardochée, Mama Sophie of the Democratic Republic of Congo began to feel pain. When she visited the hospital, she learned that her body was preparing for early labor. At the Dipeta Health Center where Mama Sophie checked in, Dr. Auguy Okese explained that incubators, conventionally used to keep premature and low birthweight babies warm and stable, encounter the obstacle of unreliable electricity in many health centers across the country.
Fortunately, staff at the health center had received USAID training in proven practices, such as Kangaroo Mother Care, to improve the health of premature babies. The technique incorporates continuous skin-to-skin contact to keep the baby warm and to stabilize his or her heart rate and breathing. Today, baby Mardochée is healthy, and the deaths of more than 109,000 children like him have been averted in the country thanks to the use of the technique. Read the full story here.
Building Toilets to Improve Sanitation in Indonesia
Today, 2.4 billion people — a third of the world’s population — lack access to adequate sanitation. Forty percent of the world’s population uses unsafe toilets or practices open defecation, increasing the risk of infection, diseases and, in the case of women and girls, rape and abuse.
Nurita, a grandmother of two from Indonesia’s Banten province, used to worry about the safety of her grandchildren, who lacked regular access to a toilet and often had to defecate in open fields. She knew the dangers of open defecation, and feared for her own safety as well, especially at night.
Through an innovative microfinance program, supported by USAID, Nurita received a loan to construct a new toilet for her family. With the support of USAID and others, access to adequate water, sanitation and hygiene services are improving throughout Indonesia. Over the past 25 years, the rate of access to sanitation facilities has nearly doubled across the country, increasing from 35 percent in 1990 to 61 percent in 2015. Click here for more.
Training Women to Become Midwives in Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, trained nurse-midwives, or kabilaha, play an instrumental role in preventing maternal and child deaths — yet in 2002, shortly after the fall of the Taliban regime, only 467 trained nurse-midwives served the entire country.
Friba Hashimi was among the first women trained by USAID to provide labor and delivery services in Afghanistan. When Hashimi heard that a Community Midwifery Education program was coming to her province, she immediately applied to take part in the intensive 18-month course. She became the only female caregiver at the local clinic, often providing her patients with modern health care for the first time.
“I provided prenatal care and tried to raise awareness among families about pregnancy-related emergencies,” she said. In Afghanistan, USAID support of midwives has seen dramatic results already: In 2002, only 25 percent of health facilities employed a female health worker; as of 2015, 80 percent of facilities did. Read more of this story here.
