|
PRESS RELEASE June 8, 2003 Graça Machel, wife of Nelson mandela, visits west coast to support efforts to address persistent health needs in developing countries NW based non-profit’s healthcare project boosts immunization rates in Mozambique VillageReach today announced that its innovative healthcare improvement project has increased voluntary immunization rates by as much as 40 percent in northern Mozambique since activities began in July 2002 according to estimates released by the Mozambique Ministry of Health. VillageReach began operating a pilot project in the Cabo Delgado province of northern Mozambique in July of 2002 and has since expanded that project to reach 42 clinics serving close to 900,000 people in 7 districts. Graça Machel, founder of the Foundation for Community Development (FDC), a key VillageReach partner organization in Mozambique, is visiting Seattle and San Francisco to meet with supporters and explore the expansion of current projects. The former First Lady of Mozambique and wife of Nelson Mandela says that the VillageReach model is about increasing access. “VillageReach is strengthening communities and most importantly saving lives,” said Graça Machel. “We have these amazing life-saving vaccines and medicines, yet they cannot help if they fail to reach the children and families who need them most.” A non-profit organization building sustainable logistics systems, VillageReach is helping to ensure that governments, businesses, and local partners can bring essential health services to children and families in remote communities of the developing world. In northern Mozambique, VillageReach is applying a wide range of solutions including the building and management of distribution networks and cold chains and the introduction of improved injection safety technologies and best practices. To meet local energy needs in the communities it serves, VillageReach established VidaGas, a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distribution company, in partnership with the Foundation for Community Development, to provide a reliable source of clean-burning fuel for use in health facilities without access to electricity. For the past six months, VillageReach has been providing VidaGas fuel to the most remote areas of Cabo Delgado province in northern Mozambique. VillageReach is also installing new, LPG-powered refrigerators, lamps, and sterilizers in many of the clinics. Refrigerators are crucial to the proper storage of temperature-sensitive vaccines which can be rendered useless if not kept at the proper temperature. VidaGas is an example of an income-generating activity that supports essential community services while providing additional resources for the expansion of local programs, a key component of the VillageReach model. “We need to make rapid improvements to secure the health and well-being of families in the most remote regions of the world,” said Blaise Judja-Sato, VillageReach’s founder and president and a native of Cameroon. “With demonstrated success in northern Mozambique, we are confident that the VillageReach model will work in remote settings throughout the developing world to achieve similar results.” Facts: About 2 million children under five - the world's poorest and most vulnerable - die each year from diseases that could be prevented through routine immunization (UNICEF). By 2000, only 53% of children in sub-Saharan Africa had been immunized with DTP, the vaccine that protects against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough). In that same year, about 770,000 children died worldwide from measles, mostly in developing countries (World Health Organization). Hepatitis B vaccine came on the market in 1981, yet by 2001, 72 countries were still not using the vaccine in their routine immunization program. Over 520,000 people a year die from hepatitis B infection worldwide (World Health Organization). ### VillageReach, www.villagereach.org, is a Seattle-based non-profit organization building sustainable logistics systems to ensure governments, businesses, and local partners can bring essential health services to children and families in remote communities of the developing world.
*Please direct all media inquiries to media@villagereach.org |
|
||||||||||
