Importance of Health Education
"Low levels of education, particularly among women and girls, represent a major obstacle to child and maternal survival.
The consequences of female illiteracy can be devastating. Compared to women with relatively high levels of education, uneducated women are less likely to have a skilled attendant present during pregnancy and childbirth. Women who have acquired some formal education are more likely to delay marriage and childbirth, to ensure that their children are immunized, to be better informed about their own and their children’s nutritional requirements, and to adopt improved birth-spacing practices.
As a result, their children have higher survival rates and tend to be healthier and better nourished."
- Africa's OVC Affected by AIDS Report, 2007
Give Today
- One mosquito net (4 USD)
- One day of power to pump clean water for Hananasif Academy students (5 USD)
- One new water tank (300 USD)
- Two-room health clinic to provide preventative care and treatment for children and their surrounding community (15,000 USD)
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Health
Investing in the health of children is both a human rights imperative and a sound economic decision. Strategic health interventions are one of the most effective ways for a community to set its course toward a better future. In 2006, UNICEF reported that there were 2.7 million child deaths and that 99% of these deaths took place in developing countries.
There are many simple, reliable, and affordable interventions that have the potential to save millions of lives; IBECOME believes that it is a global imperative that these remedies reach the millions of children at risk in our world today.
Problems
- Pneumonia, atreatable lung illness, stands as the leading killer of children in Africa.
- Malaria deaths in Africa are 10% higher than global trend.
- Neonatal diseases are significantly higher in Africa than in global distribution.
Solution
- IBECOME's health initiatives directly correspond to regional statistics that illustrate high need for investments in the following areas:
- Health education (neonatal disease, HIV/AIDS prevalence);
- Access to safe drinking water (diarrhoeal diseases);
- Malaria prevention (malaria prevalence);
- Medical treatment (pneumonia and measles);
- Sports programming.
- IBECOME believes these are each essential elements to a consolidated approach to disease eradication and widespread health improvements. IBECOME efforts begin with local research to assess community resources already available to partner orphanages and their surrounding communities. In some instances, securing access to basic health services is a matter of local networking with pre-existing government or other non-profit health services and programs. In other instances, we determine that the most effective approach is to construct our own health clinics in a community currently lacking access to basic services.
- IBECOME combines efforts to increase access to basic health services with programs aimed at increasing health education among vulnerable youth. Global trends indicate a strong correlation between education and health, particularly among women and girls.
"Global investments in health . . . can transform the lives and livelihoods of the world’s poor. Health is a central input into economic development and poverty reduction."
- Jeffrey Sachs
1 in 10 children in Sub-Saharan Africa die before the age of 5.
1 in 6 children in Tanzania die before the age of 5.
- The State of Africa’s Children, UNICEF, 2008
