Kiwanis is helping UNICEF combat infant and maternal mortality around the world.
By Erin Chandler
Kiwanis International proudly continues to support UNICEF in its work to protect mothers and babies from maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT). In July, the Kiwanis Children’s Fund approved a US$275,000 grant that will help sustain UNICEF’s efforts to eliminate MNT around the world.
MNT is a painful and deadly disease that disproportionately exists in areas where poverty, lack of education and inadequate health infrastructure make unhygienic birth practices more common. In 2010, Kiwanis joined UNICEF’s global initiative to eliminate MNT. Thanks to the combined efforts of UNICEF, the World Health Organization, national Ministries of Health, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Kiwanis and others, neonatal tetanus deaths dropped from 215,000 in 1999 to 24,000 in 2021. Forty-nine out of the 59 countries initially assessed to have more than one infant death from tetanus per 1,000 live births have now achieved MNT elimination.
The latest US$275,000 grant from the Children’s Fund will be used to facilitate and accelerate mass tetanus vaccination campaigns for women of reproductive age in countries such as Angola, Papua New Guinea, Afghanistan and Somalia — the countries most in need, of the 10 that have not yet eliminated MNT. Although an inexpensive vaccine to prevent MNT has existed for nearly 100 years, systemic inequities have prevented it from becoming widely available in the most vulnerable areas of the world. The Children’s Fund grant will help to right this wrong and strengthen health systems to ensure the sustainability of elimination efforts.
This grant comes a little less than a year after a previous US$275,000 grant from the Children’s Fund, which helped fund efforts that led to the elimination of MNT in Mali and Guinea. Mali’s elimination status was confirmed in April 2024, and Guinea’s in May.
Support for UNICEF’s fight against MNT is just one way Kiwanis has furthered the global cause of children’s health. Through The Possibility Project, the Kiwanis Children’s Fund regularly awards grants to clubs around the world — like the Kiwanis Club of Pakistan, which has provided a sustainable water source within a village in Sindh; and the Kiwanis Clubs of Third District, New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S., and Spalding-Christiana, Jamaica, which repaired and replaced essential kitchen equipment in homes for at-risk youth, allowing them to store and prepare nutritious meals. In June, the Children’s Fund awarded pediatric medicine support grants to help four clubs in the U.S. improve the equipment, facilities and supplies at their local medical centers.
If your club is looking for ways to help mothers and babies in your own community, check out our tips and examples. You can also make a gift to the Children’s Fund today to make a healthier world possible for kids everywhere.