105 kids take part in Race for Survival
Lahore:October 18:Some 105 children from various government schools Friday took part in a race held at Punjab Stadium to mark the Race for Survival.
The Save the Children in collaboration with health department of the Punjab government held the globally celebrated Race for Survival event engaging schoolchildren of Lahore.
The day is marked with various activities in 60 countries by the children body involving respective health departments too. In Pakistan, the organization has related the day with high death ratios among children under 5-year of age. According to an estimate, almost more than 350,000 children do not reach the age of 5 due to different reasons such as lack of primary health services and low coverage of vaccination.
According to a press release, the race was attended by the hundreds of people from health sector, NGOs, schools, private companies and government officials. Some 105 children from various schools participated in the race and expressed their solidarity with the kids under 5-year of age facing acute health problems in their attempt to survive even after 5 years.
Dr. Naveed, provincial manager Save the Children, in his welcome remarks said after every hour some 40 children in Pakistan die before celebrating their fifth birthday, one of the highest rates in the world. He stressed the need of increasing frontline health workers and vaccinators.
Nawab, 2, in his speech requested the chief guest that every child has the right to survive and the provision of primary health care services to every child can be ensured by extending the field force.
Advisor Health to the Punjab Chief Minister, Khawaja Salman Rafiq and Govt of Punjab’s official spokesperson MPA Zaeem Hassan Qadri also attended the event.
Dr Zafar Ikram, Additional Director IMNRCH, Dr. Fazal Karim IMNRCH Multan, Dr. Naveed Jafri, Dr. Khawaja Masood, Dr. Farkhanda Ather and Memoona Arslan Bhatti from Save the Children also attended the race. Guests of honor distributed prizes among the winners of race.
The government of Punjab has already increased the number vaccinators and is working on lines to increase the number of lady health workers in the province so that the coverage is 100 percent here”, Khawaja Salman told reporters on the occasion.
Zaeem said there was a need to look into matters pertaining to mother-child health in order to decrease the mortality rate among under 5-yaer-old children in Pakistan that is about 350,000 children annually.
The children taking part in the race symbolically urge the policymakers, government departments and even health sector experts to do more in order to meet the tough challenge of decreasing mortality rate under five.The news.
