Almost every family in Sierra Leone has lost a child to a treatable illness. This small West African country has the highest infant mortality rate in the world. A study by the government and UNICEF revealed that 1 out of 4 children die before their fifth birthday.
Avoidable Tragedies
Vaccine preventable diseases are the main cause of death among children in Sierra Leone. But with the majority of the population living on less than $1 USD a day, life saving methods of prevention are out of reach. The country's weak infrastructure makes access to information very limited and with adult literacy dismally dipping beneath 30%, many parents are simply unaware of the risks that are claiming the lives of their childrens.
Preventable Diseases
The landscape of child health care in Sierra Leone would be a very different story if parents had better information and resources. Children are dying from easily treatable illnesses like diarrhea, measles, malaria, and malnutrition. 48% percent of children who die under the age of five are losing their lives to measles while 33% die from malaria.
Simple measures would save countless lives. If parents were given the opportunity to learn how to improve nutrition and hygiene for their children, the incidents of these illnesses would greatly decrease.
Socio-economic Causes
The health and education programs that were in place in Sierra Leone as late as the 1960's were dismantled by former President Siaka Stevens who ruled Sierra Leone for 17 years. According to the New York Times, he left Sierra Leone in a state of "severe economic crisis at the time of his retirement. There were shortages of fuel, food and foreign exchange and the coastal nation of 5 million people had a reputation as a paradise for smugglers."
The social and economic decline continued with Stevens handpicked successor and the trend of kleptocracy in Sierra Leone eventually resulted in a gruesome decade long civil war that caused the literacy rate to drop and infant mortality rate to skyrocket.
What Needs to be Done
Sierra Leone's shockingly high infant mortality rate is yet another blow to a nation already plagued with misfortune but there is hope. Because the deaths are caused by preventable diseases there is an end in sight. Access to clean water, innoculation programs, education and job creation would radically diminish the number of children who die unneccessarily each year. A concerted effort must be made to inform parents of the dangers their children are facing and knowledge of the easy measures they can use to save their children's lives.
References:
- UNICEF - At a Glance: Sierra Leone
- Whitman Peace Corps Volunteers Tackle Infant Mortality in Sierra Leone
- Sierra Leone: Beckham on Child Survival
- Prevention of Malaria
- "Siaka Stevens", Encyclopaedia Brittanica
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