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Maternal & Child Health

  Global Health TV: JHPIEGO Delivers
Since 2002 and with USAID funding, JHPIEGO has partnered with the Afghanistan government to develop policies and strategies to include maternal health and infant mortality. Featuring Gary Cook, USAID Senior Health Advisor, this video showcases midwifery as being an essential change agent and empowering tool for Afghanistan's reconstruction efforts and for the future of Afghan women and families.
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Photo: The newly formed Afghan Midwives Association meets at Kabul's Rabia Balkhi Hospital.
USAID is working to triple the number of nurse-midwives in Afghanistan and at the same time, establish trained midwifery as a profession worthy of support and respect. Read more Source: Judith Schiffbauer, REACH

Building a Brighter Future

USAID is committed to improving the health and well-being of children and families in the developing world.

For 40 years, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has helped children throughout the world grow into healthy, productive adults. Progress in child survival and disease control has long been, and remains, among the Agency’s major accomplishments. USAID-funded interventions – oral rehydration therapy (ORT) and zinc supplementation to treat diarrhea; basic immunizations for common ailments; micronutrient supplementation to treat malnutrition; and more – save the lives of approximately 6 million children under 5 each year. USAID assistance is also instrumental in other areas of child and maternal health, such as the fight against HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.

A mother’s health profoundly affects the health and well-being of her children. While maternal mortality remains unacceptably high throughout the developing world, a number of USAID-assisted countries have achieved significant reductions in maternal deaths from pregnancy-related causes. USAID’s approach to improving maternal health and the health of newborn children includes community involvement, evidence-based interventions (interventions that, after rigorous testing, have documented proof of their effectiveness), and compassionate high-quality services. Key interventions such as iron supplementation, malaria treatment, safe and clean delivery, and treatment of obstetric and newborn complications are improving the health outcomes for mothers and infants around the world.


USAID's Maternal & Child Health Programs


Photo of a mother holding her child, taken in Senegal.
Source: USAID/Senegal
Health Research Program (HaRP)

Through collaborating partners, USAID's Health Research Program (HaRP) identifies the challenges for maternal and child health in developing countries and countries in transition, and designs the most effective approach to overcome them. These challenges range from infectious diseases to malnutrition to health services delivery by community health workers.

Visit the HaRP Web site at http://www.harpnet.org

 





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Wed, 19 Dec 2007 12:23:52 -0500
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