At our July meeting we welcomed Mrs Pam Butcher. She presented a lively talk about her involvement with “Save the Children” She had amazingly been involved with fund raising for this organisation for fifty-five years; forty of those being in the Norwich area. What a commitment!
Pam had been given the opportunity during 2012 to visit Tanzania to observe the great work that “Save the Children” were doing with their funding. Tanzania is a country five times as large as the UK with around two thirds of the UK population, twenty five percent of the population live in towns leaving the rest living in far flung villages.
Over the years the plight of poor families has been improved with the support of the organization but much still has to be done. Forty-two percent of children suffer permanent, physical or mental damage because of malnutrition. Tanzania doesn’t have massive food shortage and is not at war but it does have poverty and poverty costs lives nearly a third of children who die lose their lives before they are a month old...
However to combat this and there is great optimism and life is improving thanks to a very forward thinking programme. Pam explained the Kangaroo Mother Care Programme that had been developed by a midwife named Grace. Mothers of small babies are encouraged to breast feed and to have their babies strapped to their bodies at all times, copying the kangaroo pouch style. It has been a great success. Another innovation was a one–stop centre that had been set up in a hospital in Zanzibar training healthcare workers, social workers and police in all elements of child protection. This programme is developing an all round awareness of children’s rights. Both government and donors want to see this programme rolled out nationwide.
Continued funding is paramount. Thank you Pam for enlightening us.
Margaret White