The documentary entitled Invisible Lives examines how Nepal and Malawi are making progress in saving newborn lives and explores how these countries are among the few on track to meet the United Nation´s Millennium Development Goal of reducing deaths of children under five years by 2/3 by 2015 despite a myriad of obstacles. Repeat telecast of the documentary will be aired every day until 29 January. [break]
Invisible Lives documents the journey of Dr Joy Lawn, a health expert at Save the Children, as she travels to Malawi and Nepal. Lawn visits hospitals, mothers, and community health workers and discovers how these very different countries are investing in simple and cost-effective approaches to save lives.
The documentary highlights Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHV) Bhagwati, who is one of around 48,000 FCHVs who have played an important role in helping Nepal reduce the number of child deaths by 61 percent over the past decade.
Volunteers like Bhagwati are not medically qualified, but they have been trained to recognize dangerous signs such as infection, which is the leading cause of newborn deaths in Nepal, said a press statement issued by Save the Children, Nepal. The volunteers also advise mothers to go to the nearest health post if the baby gets ill.
The risk of newborn death in Nepal is 33 per 1,000 births, whereas the same risk in Europe and North America is around 3 per 1,000 births.
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