This article was originally posted on UN News UNICEF reports that the births of one in four children under-five, or some 166 million children globally, have never been officially recorded. Too many children are “slipping through the cracks,” said Henrietta Fore, the agency’s Executive Director: “A child not registered at birth is invisible – nonexistent … Continued
When two-year old Sienna Wilson suddenly developed a fever in the middle of the night the first thing her parents, Kate and David, suspected was malaria. When the doctor arrived in the morning he agreed. He began treating her accordingly. Hours later, unconscious and in a critical condition, Sienna was airlifted to a private hospital … Continued
In remote western Nepal, where the Himalayas brush the sky, girls spend their childhoods as they have for generations, dreading growing up. Puberty starts a monthly exile. An entrenched, superstitious practice linked to Hinduism, Chaupadi, considers menstruating women impure and bad luck, rendering them untouchables. Menstruating women are banished, often to forests where they sleep … Continued
Relief agencies move out, but the need for maternal and child care is greater than ever in quake-hit areas.
Thousands of newborn babies are at serious risk of illness and neonatal death in Nepal, Save the Children warns, one month on from the earthquake that claimed at least 8,500 lives.
In Nepal, hospital retrofitting, which involves everything from repairing cracks in walls to installing seismic belts and roof bracing, has been a core part of preparedness plans.
Women and girls are among the most vulnerable. UNFPA has rushed the delivery of reproductive health kits, which contain the supplies required to support safe childbirth.
“In times of upheaval or natural disasters, pregnancy-related deaths and gender-based violence soar,” said Priya Marwh, UNFPA ’s humanitarian response coordinator in Asia and the Pacific.
The country of 28 million has only 2.1 physicians and 50 hospital beds for every 10,000 people, according to a 2011 World Health Organization report.
UNICEF is mobilizing staff and emergency supplies to meet the urgent humanitarian needs of children affected by the earthquake, focusing on water and sanitation, nutrition, education and child protection.