Children hand over 100,000 letters to parliamentarians to help children survive to five.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

People in more than 13 districts of Nepal signed 100,000 letters pledging “My Voice for Children’s Lives” which calls upon policy makers for sufficient resources to ensure all children live beyond their fifth birthday. The letters focus on raising awareness for the simple solutions that can dramatically reduce preventable child deaths. These were jointly handed over to parliamentarians from different political parties in a national event on 5 May during the Global Week of Action.

The campaign to sign the letters commenced on 8 March with public events across Nepal to mark International Women’s Day and ended on 1 May, International Labour Day was led by the National Maternal and Child Health Alliance with the support of World Vision.

In the event where letters were handed over, Badri Prasad Pande, a parliamentarian committed to child health said, “We will direct the Health and Women, Children and Social Welfare ministries through the parliamentary committee to allocate sufficient resources for children’s health.” 

Kamala BK, another parliamentarian said, “The government allocates 6.6% of its budget in health yet there are no monitoring mechanisms which leads to poor health of children. We will highlight the need to make child health a priority through our efforts as lawmakers.” 

The letter was drafted through several national and community level consultations with decision makers and community stakeholders including children. Nepali Congress Parliament member Bir Bahadur Balayar has committed to allocate the resources from the parliamentarian’s development fund to improve the situation of mothers and children in the Doti District.

Nepal Communist Party United Marxist and Leninist Parliament member Prem Bahadur Aley also committed to lobby the health minister to raise the number of health workers and the quality of life-saving equipment in local healthcare facilities. The success of the letter campaign comes as the world gears up for the final push to the deadline of the Millennium Development Goals in December 2015.

Pushkar Khati, Campaign Specialist for World Vision International Nepal said, “The campaign has reached more than 1,000 policy makers, including members of parliament, government officials, civil society organisations and other stakeholders at the local level and many politicians have agreed to invest more in health as a result. It’s a call to relevant stakeholders to join hands to improve the maternal and child health scenario in Nepal.”

“Under-five mortality has declined from 61 to 54 deaths per 1000 in the last fifteen years in Nepal. Considerable progress has been made but more investment and an increased focus on the most vulnerable children is needed if survival is to be the reality for all children.  As individuals we can push for more action like this. We know it is possible and we need to see action by leaders.”  he added.

The National Maternal and Child Health Alliance formed in 2013 works to build capacity and networks among civil society organisations working on maternal and child health sector for strengthened advocacy on increased access to health services for mother and children. 13 non government organisations (from 13 districts of Nepal) working for maternal and child health are members including World Vision.