MDG 4 - Reduce Child Mortality
MDG 4 worksheet
Dehcontee Rachel Barlee is the students' guide through this study. Ms. Barlee ’s life has been deeply impacted by issues surrounding Millennium Development Goal 4.
December: Youth are introduced to a real life, personal story related to their focus MDG. This first episode provides background information on the featured story-teller and his/her community.
December teacher & student guide
January: Youth learn about the ‘climax’ incident in the featured personal story.
January teacher & student guide
February: Youth connect the issues discussed in the personal story to a larger context.
February teacher & student guide Concept Map 1 Concept Map 2
March: Youth hear from the featured story-teller on solutions and to their focus MDG an they learn why the story-teller has hope for the future.
March teacher & student guide
Student Work
Villa Verde School of Gracias, Honduras
FEBRUARY-
Cause and effect relationships are sometimes difficult for my students to understand at first. They are good English speakers and I am a poor Spanish speaker, so we are destined for some difficult times.
For this assignment we focused not necessarily on our city, Gracias, but we decided to look at the surrounding region and Honduras as a whole. I mentioned in the last assignment that Gracias is a small town with most of the health care services that one would need. There is a hopital and a clinic. It services the areas around.
Twice a year a group of doctors and volunteers come from Michigan (the medical brigade). They work for a week in the surrounding campesinos treating various illnesses and are working on a project to build an up to date clinic facility. Two of our students worked with them as translators and helpers. Unfortunately, they did not get a chance to talk to them about their insight in to child mortality rates in the areas where they work. But, at the same time, my students know of or have some personal experience with relatives and acquaintances who have had to deal with this problem. It’s common for families to have many children. Possibly to help in rural areas and possibly to battle the likelihood of the child dieing at an early age.
Possible causes that we discussed were very similar to causes that they read about in the sections by Mrs. Barlee. They were: bad nutrition, mosquito borne diseases (malaria, denghe), poorly trained birth attendants (they told me about midwives here who are midwives because their mothers were midwives, and many, if not most, have no formal training), diarrhea (one of the students even said that he had diarrhea as a baby), malnutrition, poverty, not going to hospitals, and unclean water.
Effects and secondary effects of child mortality were a little more abstract.
Child Mortality causes:
sad families,
more poverty which causes child mortality,
deaths which decrease the population (some even said the extinction of humans),
less future for Honduras which will cause Honduras to continue to have less future,
dying mothers making fathers alone and kids with no mothers,
poorness which will cause less people to help the family.
I think that my students are excited about moving into the solutions part of the curriculum.
JANUARY -
The students looked at not only their city of Gracias, but also the department (Lempira – similar to a state) and Honduras as a whole. Access to health care providers including skilled birth attendants… In Gracias most of the answers were yes to having access to health care providers. There is a hospital in town, but not well respected. For better health care my students will go to Santa Rosa (about 45 minutes away), San Pedro Sula or even Tegucigalpa. In Lempira there is not much access. Many people have to travel to larger cities, like Gracias, for health care. The same is true for much of Honduras.
There are midwives, but my students do not have much faith in them. They say that the trade is passed down, but there is no guarantee.
Access to adequate nutrition… Again, the cities seem to have good access. People do not necessarily take advantage of this. The poorer people who live out in the campesinos (farming communities) have less access and therefore tend to not eat as healthily.
Access to vitamin supplements… Gracias has vitamin and nutritional supplement stores. They are small but they exist. In the more rural areas of Lempira, there is no access to vitamins.
Access to clean water and sanitation… Gracias and the surrounding areas mostly have access to sanitation and clean water. The water in all of Honduras from the taps is pretty much undrinkable. They must buy purified water. The water system is decent in the cities. The water in Gracias goes out usually after a good rain or sometimes just goes out for a few hours for no reason that we know of. In the very rural areas there are people walking to rivers with jugs in order to collect water for the day. Poorer people drink the “dirty” tap water because they are unable to buy clean water.
Access to insecticide treated bed nets in malaria prone areas… Gracias is not an area that has to worry about malaria. The coastal areas and the Mosqitia region are more prone to mosquitoes carrying malaria. And the students weren’t sure about their access to bed nets.
Educational materials for parents regarding child health care issues… In some cities, like Gracias, this kind of material is available. There is a pretty large peace corps group in Honduras (about 200 volunteers) and some of them work on getting that information out. There are other groups here who try to do that as well in the more rural areas.
As a side note: Just this week we are being visited by the Medical Brigade. A group of doctors from the states, who come down 2 or 3 times a year to provide services to the campesinos. They are working on building a clinic. 2 of my students are volunteering with them by helping to translate for the doctors and patients. It’s a great experience. I am having them get information about specific services
Sherwood High School of Sandy Spring, Maryland, USA
Have you known or hear of someone who has died before their fifth birthday? Was their death due to disease or environmental/health impacts?
Three students said no. Others who knew someone said the causes included: Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, Car Crash, or other accidents. No one knew of people who died before the age of five unless miscarriages were included.
On estimate, how many children a year in your community die before their fifth birthday? You may be able to access this information from your town government or other sources of census information. Is the number low or high? If it is high, what do you think is causing this problem?
Students guessed anywhere from 2-15 in 1000 died. We looked up the national average and found that 6/1000 is the actual statistic. We think the number is low and probably even lower in our community because we live in such a prosperous area. This is probably due to access to good health care.
Look at the answers to your questions above. Based on your responses do you feel child mortality is a great concern in your community? Why or Why not?
One student said, "I do not feel child mortality is a great concern in my community since it is very rare, but for the entire world, it is a large concern because so many children die."
Another said, "It is not a great concern in my immediate community, however, it is in nearby Washington D.C."
How could you help achieve UN Millennium Development Goal 4? If child mortality is a problem within your community, what could you do to help? Or, what could you do to help reduce child mortality globally?
"Public Relations, get peoples' attention and raise awareness"
"Fund-raiser: We could sell shirts or wrist-bands"
Can you think of a project you and your peers might be able to design and implement in order to help reach Goal 4?
"Create signs and post them in our schools hallway that call to peoples attention the issue of child mortality." "Raise awareness through an article in the school newspaper" "Raise money or volunteer for health clinics in DC or contact the D.C. Department of Health"
Perfect Youth Group of Arusha, Tanzania
Have you known or heard of someone who has died before their fifth birthday? Was their death due to disease or environmental/health impacts?
-I heard a lot of child die before that age and most of them their death was due to disease or environmental/health impacts. Others die because of missing sufficient clinical services, while other dies due to lack of balanced diet food/Nutrition’s.
On estimate, how many children a year in your community die before their fifth birthday? You may be able to access this information from your town government or other sources of census information. Is the number low or high? What do you think is causing this problem?
In Tanzania Every year, almost 10.5 million children die before their fifth birthday. The number is very high. The problem is caused by diseases and environmental/Health Impacts.
REFLECT
Yes Child Mortality is a great concern in our community due to the because it reduce the number of people in our society.
ACT
Child Mortality will be reduced as long as we will be concentrated on working to both goals as creating proper environment for children’s life.
“CARE FOR OUR CHILDREN” That will be a great project where by will deal with creating proper environment for children’s life.
CLICK HERE for student thoughts on MDG 4
