Kenya's Universal Primary Education for Girls not a Saving Grace for Newborn Survival

It is acknowledged the world over that 70 percent of newborn babies die before 7 days of life. In Kenya, according to the 2008-09 KDHS, the proportion is 82 percent. Early neonate deaths, i.e. deaths occurring in born alive babies before they clock 7days. Neonate deaths, on the other hand, are deaths occurring to newborn babies before completion of 28days after birth. Neonate causes account for 60 percent of under five mortality in Kenya compared to 40 percent globally. Neonatal mortality is one of the drivers of high fertility in Kenya.

Kenya has made a lot of progress towards achievement of especially MDG 2: Universal Primary Education (UPE) and is working hard towards the attainment of MDG 4 targets:  Reduce by two-thirds, the under five mortality rate by 2015. However, the UN Global MDG report of 2010 warns that MDG will not be achieved unless great effort is put towards reducing neonatal and essentially, maternal deaths.

Despite great strides toward the achievement of MDG2, a correlation between neonate deaths and mothers’ education using the Kenya Demographic and Health Surveys (KDHS) datasets revealed that women with primary education carried a higher risk of losing a neonate compared to  women with secondary and higher education. According to studies, secondary and higher education helps women to delay onset of reproduction.

To achieve MDG 4, Kenya needs to invest in higher education for girls.

HIV/Reproductive Health Integration

Integrating HIV and Reproductive Health

The Government of Kenya is working towards the integration of HIV and AIDS into the Reproductive Health programming. After realising tremendous success in HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment and care uptake, programmers want to use the opportunity to upscale family planning, cancer screening, maternal and child health and a mirage of other reproductive health services.

The picture below demonstrates how integration starts…….

The How of RH/HIV Integration

An effective integration system will require reorganization and reorientation of health systems to ensure delivery of HIV&AIDS services within the Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) services or delivery of SRH services within HIV&AIDS services. Such services should be offered within a health facility or in a community outreach setting or through a facilitated referral. Health service providers, community health workers and youth peer educators are encouraged to sensitize the community and peers about these services.

Announcement: International Health and Development Communication Conference

Health and Development Communication Conference
June 27-29 2011, Nairobi, Kenya

Most of the challenges facing countries of the Southern hemisphere are rooted in either lack of information or poor utilization of available information. These problems are, in turn, driven by inadequate information, inaccessibility of information and poor skills in communicating the available information. This situation is particularly pronounced in the field of health, where basic information in areas such as public health, disease prevention, health promotion and policies on health care is not in the public domain. Those who generate this information have limited avenues to disseminate it to the public while those in the media with the capacity to communicate the information sometimes lack the necessary skills to access or appropriately communicate the information.

Follow the link below for more details:
http://www.csschange.org/content/international-health-and-development-communication-conference

Trudging under the Yoke of the African Patriachy

A Woman Occupies in Her Man's Heart, the Space She Occupies in His Bed! so goes a Mauritanian proverb.

Just yesterday I read a spine-chilling experience of a young girl (aged 20) who went as far as having a sexual relationship with her father for the sake of being 'Daddy's little girl'! While she stayed in denial yarning for fatherly love, the beastly father continually abused her without remorse. (http://www.genderlinks.org.za/article/i-had-sex-with-my-father-2010-11-25)

As we join the rest of the world in celebrating the 100th International Women’s Day in March this year….

The life experiences shared during the launch of the Kenyan Campaign for the Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa (CARMMA) chapter late last year ring deep – a fresh wound that will probably never heal. Kenya bleeds from high maternal deaths. A recent report by APHRC recorded a maternal mortality ratio of 706 per 100,000 live births in Nairobi’s urban poor settlements. This truly echoes the sentiment, “the poorest women are more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth” – WRA-K, 2010.