Saving a Life

The baby weighed one kilo. He was so very tiny. His cry was so faint, only someone within arms length could hear it. Standing there in the field hospital in Lui in south Sudan, I marveled that the little guy was still alive.

So many babies and small children die in the bush, often of preventable causes.

Field hospital staff told me the local women still believed in rubbing dirt in the umbilical cord stump for good luck, instantly exposing the baby to a huge amount of disease and bacteria. By simply training the mothers and mid-wives not to do this one practice, who knows how many little lives are saved?

Save the Children just released it's report card listing the countries by their ability to provide their children with basic health care.

The good news is that out of 146 developing countries listed, four of the top ten are in Africa: South Africa, Gabon, Lesotho and Congo.

But balance that with the fact that out of the bottom ten countries, eight of them are in sub-Saharan Africa: Niger, Rwanda, Burundi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Chad, Somalia and Ethiopia.

It seems there's still a lot of work to be done.  Click here to read the full report.

What do you think could be done to help all the children in these countries, particularly the ones in the bottom ten?  Drop me an e-mail with your thoughts.