AfricaBlog

Feel Good Story of the Day

If the health, social, and cultural problems facing the nations of Africa were to be seen as an ocean, then this story is simply about one of the millions of drops that are needed to fill that ocean.

Good is to be celebrated where you find it, though.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) on Tuesday announced a new five-year $34 million Health Transformation Programme to improve health in southern Sudan.

The programme would enhance health by improving maternal and child health through routine immunisations, polio eradication, growth monitoring, and diarrhoea and pneumonia care, said a press release. Core activities would include the rehabilitation of health worker training institutes, training of county medical officers and community based health workers, the provision of high quality drugs and other medical interventions, the expansion of routine immunisation, and access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation.

The money that goes toward clean water, better sanitation, and training for health care profesionals will be especially well spent. Hopefully it truly does make a real change for the people living in squalor and poverty. Sadly, while $34 million sounds like a huge amount of money, it's really just scratching the surface.

Read the story.

Posted by zombyboy at May 13, 2004 01:49 PM