Save the Children and the Ad Council are working together to mobilize citizen action in the U.S. to help local health workers help save more children worldwide.
Eye on the Future by Felix Aguilar Ramírez (local health worker in Xachmochán Village, Guatemala): This week I visited several children with diarrhea. Among them, a few already had dehydration issues from persistent diarrhea. Without oral rehydration treatment, children can get very sick from diarrhea, and in some cases, they can die. I immediately got busy showing the parents and other members of the community how to mix and use oral rehydration solution. By the end of the week, the children were running around and playing again.
I feel confident that in the future, the families will know what to do if this type of illness happens again. My job is not just about helping children immediately, but it is also teaching families and communities how to help the children of their villages when they become sick in the future. I would love to see all the children have the opportunity to grow up and become anything they want…
Save the Children’s programs in Guatemala are focused on developing programs for rural, poor, and indigenous populations in three departments of the western highlands of Guatemala – Quiché, Huehuetenango, and Sololá. Save the Children’s health and nutrition programs are making strides each day towards increasing the access of rural households to quality health and nutrition services and information. With the Ministry of Health, they have worked to help manage childhood illnesses such as malaria, diarrhea, and pneumonia – all a considerable danger to Guatemala’s vulnerable toddlers and newborns. They have health workers who visit women during pregnancy to maintain their health and who also visit all the newborns in the area to make sure they are healthy and breastfeeding well. Now that more children are surviving those risky first years, they are also helping them thrive through preschool classes that aid their transition from local, indigenous languages to Spanish in order to ready them for formal education.
If you want to learn more about Save the Children’s newborn and child survival campaign, please visit their website. To read more about Felix, and other local health workers, please click here.
Comments are closed.