Needs of dying mothers and children visible to 5 million Malians

As world Vision Mali prepares for the Global Week of Action, the organization has secured a well-meaning partnership with Orange foundation. This charity branch of the giant mobile phone operator sent out this year campaign’s message “Stop at nothing to get to zero preventable death’’ to its 5 million clients in Mali.

According to Rachel Mikanagu, WV Mali Advocacy Manager: ‘‘we have succeeded to prompt questions in the minds of Malians around maternal and child health which hopefully will cause them to realise that this matter concerns all of us. Through sms, we are making the needs of thousands of dying mothers and children visible to all.’’

The involvement of population in calling on governments to play their part to ensure children access to nutritious food, clean water, and life-saving health services is key. ‘‘The collaboration between World Vision and Orange foundation is leveraging the public consciousness of this matter. We are proud to be associated to the fight for children survival as the foundation strives for child well-being through education and health especially’’, said Hawa Diallo, Deputy Head of Orange foundation.

As part of this citizen engagement and education process, World Vision Mali has equally realized a community-based radio programme whereby, rural population shared their views on the causes of maternal and child death, the role of the citizens in reducing the mortality rate and how they can enforce local authority accountability.

The National Citizen’s Hearing scheduled for May 4th will provide an incredible platform to more than 100 actors from the civil society, government and private sector to track progress against Mali’s government with regards to the health budget and the best way to feed in the new national accountability mechanism for maternal and child health in the Post-2015 framework.

World Vision Mali will go a step farther with a Community Citizen’s Hearing on May 8th.  This come across will dig into the root causes (geographic location, discrimination, ethnic, handicap) of marginalized and vulnerable families that are excluded from the health system. The debate will make recommendations on efforts to better identify those families and allocate resources where they are mostly needed.

Through the global week of action, World Vision is asking the Malian government to a) Continue to extend reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health services toward universal coverage of quality healthcare, fully addressing gaps in the implementation of essential interventions, especially emergency obstetric and newborn care, management of malnutrition, and the Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses; b) Work progressively to reach the most vulnerable children, mothers, and households through the expansion of universal health insurance coverage, training and retaining of midwives, and salaried Community Health Agents, including through improved inter-ministerial dialogue, coordination, and sectoral budget prioritization c)Implement a national strategic plan to improve the reproductive health of adolescents, including clear measures to address issues of early marriage, early pregnancies, and Female Genital Mutilation.