Kangaroo program nurse Lucia Kasawala helps program participant, 28 year-old Patuma Samson wrap her preterm baby on her chest at the Mangochi Hospital. Her child is 8 days old.

The Challenge

Every year, almost 10 million children in the developing world die before they reach the age of 5. That’s almost 27,000 children a day. Many of these deaths are from preventable or treatable illnesses like pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, measles and complications related to childbirth. Four million of these deaths occur to newborns – babies less than one month old.

More than half of these deaths could be prevented through low-cost health solutions. The problem is making these solutions available to families living in poor, remote communities.

Most often families live too far away from health facilities. Sometimes they don’t realize the importance of prevention – such as vaccines and mosquito nets. And sadly, many parents simply don't recognize how sick their child is... until it is too late.

The Solution

This is not a race for the cure – it is a race to provide the cure to children in need. The good news is that many of these deaths are preventable with simple low-cost health measures that already available.

One critical element to reduce child death is the availability of a local community health worker. Save the Children trains community health workers who can deliver life-saving advice and care to women and children in remote areas. They support proven, simple solutions:

• Immunizations for basic childhood illnesses such as tetanus, polio, measles, diphtheria, pertussis and tuberculosis.
• Breastfeeding support and vitamin A to protect newborns from infection and provide improved nutrition.
• Antibiotics to treat infections like childhood pneumonia, the leading killer of young children taking more than 2 million young lives each year.
• Sugar-salt solutions called oral rehydration therapy and zinc to treatdiarrhea.
• Bed nets for prevention of malaria and medicines to treat those already affected.
• Better pregnancy, delivery and post-natal carefor mothers and babies.