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 Dose of Reality

Blogging is no joke if one aspires to do it well. That is to say, I did not know what I got myself into when I started this blog. So, here I am, and we would see how it goes. Some say you need to blog daily, others say it does not matter.  What ever the case may be, I blog daily for those who care, I just happen to blog in my head twice a day, yes in my head. Because (a) I have a life, (b) it is just a bit much for me in terms of of the going-on in my life to do this, that is blog 2x/day, 7 days/week. Although I seem to be consumed with this process of blogging (it may not show), trying to figure out what I am doing, as an outlet I read the paper, ie The New York Times.  Since President Obama is in India this week I read The Times to keep up with his visit. And Amidst all the news, was an article by Arundhati Ray "Kashmir's fruit's of Discord", and below it was a dose of reality article,"The Impossible Dream" by Bob Herbert. - http://  www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/opinion/09herbert.html  This is an example of why I read the times. It tells it like it is. It puts things in prospective. Only the Times would print such a raw, honest, realistic, factual imperative regarding the state of current affairs (economy) in the U.S. today.  Kudos. It is also a reminder to check my daily reality regarding my ambition of trying to bring about some semblance of change via the global village, regarding high infant mortality rate in SSA.
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 10, 2010 at 2:29 PM

    Life is a journey - so is blogging! Bravo for making the effort - many talk but do not act!! Even more bravo for the self-reflection and implementing the Kaizen philosophy!

    cheers,
    -april

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  2. AnonymousNovember 10, 2010 at 2:47 PM

    About Mr. Herbert's article, what do you think of this ending paragraph..... "Mr Great sacrifices will have to be made if the U.S. is to get its act together, and those sacrifices will have to be shared." ....Do you think folks are willing to make sacrifices or would they just rather continue to dream and vote for politicians who will tell them what they want to hear?

    cheers,
    -april

    ReplyDelete

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