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Highlights Of NDTV-UNICEF #Reimagine Telethon: An Initiative To Protect Most Vulnerable Children Affected By COVID-19
Children are the forgotten victims of the pandemic. COVID has severely affected not just children's health but has caused many of them to drop out of school. Family incomes are badly hit and so is children's nutrition and health including timely immunisation. With lockdowns being relaxed, things will improve but will not get back to normal for a very long time – during which time lives, educations and futures will be lost. Help us protect our most vulnerable children. The pandemic has shown that every child is at risk. Let's reimagine our children's future. Join NDTV and UNICEF's special campaign, 'Reimagine Our Children's Future.'
The campaign aims to help protect the most vulnerable children affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Without immediate funding and key lifesaving interventions like health care, nutrition, and immunization, an additional 1,600 children could die in India everyday over the next six months as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to weaken health systems and disrupt routine services. Without our interventions and investments – of ideas, resources and heart - these children will have no future. It is in our hands to ensure that these forgotten victims of a catastrophic global crisis are given a future.
Here are the Highlights of the #Reimagine Telethon:
Vikas Srivastava, Managing Director, Johnson & Johnson India on #Reimagine telethon
Since 2008, we have partnered with Indian Academy of Pediatrics who address a critical concern in India, reducing infant mortality. And one of the leading causes of infant mortality is birth asphyxia, a condition where the newborn is deprived of oxygen at birth. Together we have developed this program called Neo-Natal Resuscitation, through which over 200,000 healthcare professionals have been trained. And it has led to ensuring that at every delivery, the attempt is to have one, at least one, healthcare worker trained in newborn care, and then resucitation so lives can be saved.
And together with this program and the other initiatives of the government, you've seen the reduction in infant mortality from 2008 to 2019, to half the levels that were there before. The other area program we've been doing since 2014, partnering with a leading NGO, is how do we provide health & education support to low income, pregnant women and new mothers. And we do this through their mobile phones, through free voice calls and free voice messages, which helps them to learn on topics of interest to them, which is feeding, hygiene, nutrition, and also keeping the appointments for the immunization and clinical appointments.