Nno, Welcome, Ola,

I visited Nigeria in 2006 and was bitten by a bug called High Infant Mortality Rate. I read about the issue in a local news paper in Abuja. This information was buttressed while on holidays in my father's village (Nnewi); an elderly woman informed my cousin and I of 2 infant deaths that Christmas week from childhood preventable illnesses. I was aghast. I sat down, dumfounded, then a flashback of I (as a child), at the end of civil war, women carrying their dying babies of kwashiorkor to my father's compound seeking relief; food, water, medicine anything to help their infants. In 2007 I returned to finish my graduate school in Public Health and my community health class provided a platform to research infant mortality rate. Hence, I wrote a paper on it, and proposed a three year strategic pyramid solution.

This blog is about being part of the solution:
(a) bringing the issue to bear
(b) envisioning seamless integrated strategies
(c) visualizing adapting innovative, sustainable solutions to mitigate variables that give rise to high infant deaths.

At issue is the continent of Africa. Some may say I gave money to Africa, yes you did but in reality you gave money for a project in Mali, or Sierra Leone or Liberia. That is 3 countries out of 50. From my research, high infant morality rate in SSA is attracting international, national and individual researchers seeking effective methods in implementing sustainable measures or solutions towards reversing the numbers. I am suggesting that more man power is needed to combat the problem at least in Nigeria.

http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/MDG_FS_4_EN.pdf



Tuesday, November 9, 2010

A Prayer Line for Reversing High Infant Mortality Rate in Nigeria-SSA

Yes, a prayer line for my cause celebre.  Prayer line is big these days among christians (Born Again).  It is not good enough to have a few people praying on the line, now it has to be thousands of people, yes as in the letter "T" praying on the telephone.  So, I woke up this morning thinking about securing a pastor who would believe in my cause not "his", not his ego, not his big house, not his GQ dressing, but a believe in the cause of mitigating a severe problem of infant deaths. Imagine that!, where by six thousand core individuals would pray twice a day, with the pastor leading the prayer.  At the end of each session, the pastor would remind the virtual congregation to pay their tithes, support the ministry-which is the cause, and donate any offering they wish.  According to the pastor we need to build a sacred place for children as in children's hospital, followed with women's hospital, then recruiting of personnel, less I forget, build roads to access these institutions, fund transportation for the villagers to get to these institutions or better yet, bring the institutions to them.  Oh! what an enterprise. The only thing stopping this idealist ambition of mine is a willing pastor. I have yet to find one.  Stay tuned.
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousNovember 10, 2010 at 1:59 PM

    Great idea! Every time you get a prayer line call or call to donate to the prayer line - submit your suggestion!! Although, I'm not sure what the pastor would want to do with their tights/undergarments instead of their tithes/donations. Unless of course the pastor has a way to convert the undergarments to funds?!

    :-)
    if

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