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THE ISSUES
WHY WE EXIST
The child mortality rate recorded in year 2007 in Sierra Leone is one of the worse in the world, 192 deaths per 1000 births. Poverty is the underlining reason for the large numbers of death each year. This societal issue is the reason so many other problems exist including poor working conditions for health workers which impacts the quality, availability of access to health services, lack of education and a high illiteracy rate. So many large development agencies strive to support mothers and children at the national and the political level. However, Babyphoria will focus on the same issue but at the grassroots level for those who are the most marginalized and hardest to reach.
Reasons for not seeking medical care include:
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No money
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No transportation
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Not wanting to go alone
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Cultural beliefs
WHERE WE ARE NOW
Although positive strides have been made to reduce the infant and child mortality in Sierra Leone, reaching the goal of reducing the rate by twothirds will take a collective effort of the government, civil society and non-governmental organizations such as Babyphoria. According to the 2010 Milennium Development Goals progress report for Sierra Leone, there was improvement in the infant and under-five mortality rate between 2005 and 2008 which dropped from 267 to 140 and 158 to 89 per 100 live births respectively. Despite gains with reaching the goal, much work remains to be done. Babyphoria started to address the needs of this vulnerable population. In 2010, we held successful parenting workshops for mothers led by doctors and nurses addressing the needs of mothers concerning family planning, childhood diseases, immunization and nutrition. The objective is to educate mothers to make better choices and decisions that can prevent the onset of injury, disease and acute illness.
Source: UNFPA State of the World's Midwifery 2014 Report
WHERE WE WOULD LIKE TO BE
The name Babyphoria came from the vision that children entering into the world have the right to be born and a chance at health and happiness. The name represents a feeling; an internal happiness that comes from good physical condition, mental fitness and a spiritual connection. It is symbolic of what is hoped for and the confidence that true happiness exists. We know that health is wealth and while we serve the impoverished we want to fill the gap by the work Babyphoria does in the community, one project at a time. We focus on mothers because we know that mothers are care takers over all things and through them the family will be maintained, protected and given the ability to thrive.
Government, civil society and non-governmental organizations such as Babyphoria all work toward improving the health outcomes of maternal and child mortality. According to the 2010 Millennium Development Goals progress report for Sierra Leone, there was improvement in the infant and under-five mortality rate between 2005 and 2008 which dropped from 267 to 140 and 158 to 89 per 1000 live births respectively. Despite gains with reaching the goal, much work remains to be done.
Babyphoria started to address the needs of this vulnerable population. In 2010, we held our first successful parenting workshop for mothers led by doctors and nurses addressing the needs of mothers concerning family planning, childhood diseases, immunization and nutrition.The objective is to educate mothers to make better choices and decisions that can prevent the onset of injury, disease and acute illnesses.
The name Babyphoria came from the vision that children entering into the world have the right to be born and a chance at health and happiness. The name represents a feeling; an internal happiness that comes from good physical condition, mental fitness and a spiritual connection. It is symbolic of what is hoped for and the confidence that true happiness exists. We know that health is wealth and while we serve the impoverished we want to fill the gap by the work Babyphoria does in the community, one project at a time. We focus on mothers because we know that mothers are care takers over all things and through them the family will be maintained, protected and given the ability to thrive.
Government, civil society and non-governmental organizations such as Babyphoria all work toward improving the health outcomes of maternal and child mortality. According to the 2010 Millennium Development Goals progress report for Sierra Leone, there was improvement in the infant and under-five mortality rate between 2005 and 2008 which dropped from 267 to 140 and 158 to 89 per 1000 live births respectively. Despite gains with reaching the goal, much work remains to be done.
Babyphoria started to address the needs of this vulnerable population. In 2010, we held our first successful parenting workshop for mothers led by doctors and nurses addressing the needs of mothers concerning family planning, childhood diseases, immunization and nutrition.The objective is to educate mothers to make better choices and decisions that can prevent the onset of injury, disease and acute illnesses.
Path – The model we implemented to achieve our goals and objectives
Needs Assessment
Education Programmes
Behavioral Change
Reinforcement
We have adopted a holistic approach to the problem requires scaling up of child and infant health and new born care interventions, including integrated management of new born and childhood illnesses. We have launched Babyphoria to address these issues. We are a small organization that is trying to be a change agent at the grass root level in communities that are most affected by lack of resources and access to adequate health services. We focus on education by providing mothers techniques to make simple changes to living conditions such as improving hygiene in order to increase the health of their children. Mothers who are educated will also have increased confidence in the ability to take care of their children, therefore providing a healthier relationship and environment for them. Education will be complimented with strategies for behavorial change. The cultural attitudes are deep rooted and sometimes conflict with science, research and best practices for caring for children. Our aim is to penetrate the cultural beliefs to undo the generational layers that make changing behaviors very challenging. We also plan to strengthen the services we provide by including social services and follow up visitation in the home to ensure the information in reinforced.