Child Health

The first five years of life are crucial to the survival of a child. According to recent reports from the world Health Organization (WHO), every minute eight children under the age of five die in sub-Saharan Africa. The death of a child is a tragedy that destabilizes families and affects society as a whole since human potential is wasted. In 2012, 6.6 million children under the age of five died. Most of these children could survive and strive with access to simple, affordable interventions. Studies indicate that approximately 50% of the under-five deaths occur in the African region and two thirds of these deaths are due to preventable causes such as preterm birth, pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, measles and HIV/AIDS.

These health conditions can be complicated and challenging to treat in the presence of malnutrition that accounts for one third of all deaths in children under five. Food insecurity threatens the lives of millions of vulnerable people all over the world especially those living with chronic conditions such as HIV/AIDS, in low to middle income countries. Annually approximately 600,000 children under the age of five are infected with HIV, mainly mother- to- child transmission of HIV and 315 000 die from AIDS. Over 3.5 million children die every year as a result of under-nutrition. Sub-Saharan Africa has one of the highest prevalence of low birth weight. For unknown reasons, in recent years breast feeding rate has been low and complementary nutrition are inadequate and inappropriate in the region. 
Our Goal for CHP: To eliminate preventable child mortality.

CAGISC‘s approach to improving child health focuses on high impact, low-cost, evidenced based interventions that address the leading causes of mortality. Some of these interventions include: