**UPDATE: Friday, April 4th, 2014**
International training faculty, SCL program coordinator and our graduates.
Our very first Saving Children’s Lives Instructor training took place in Botswana from 3/31 – 4/1 and was a resounding success. Over the course of two days, we graduated seven novice instructors. They have since implemented their new instructor skills for a new provider class of 17 participants.
**Original Post: March 20th, 2014**
I am pleased to share with you that the American Heart Association has been awarded our first international grant of $290,300 from the Asmund S. Laerdal Foundation, in support of our new international program, Saving Children’s Lives.
Today, more than four million children under the age of five die each year in limited resource countries, and we know that many of these children’s lives can be saved by increasing basic knowledge and skills of front-line healthcare workers. Our world-recognized expertise in both emergency cardiovascular care and systems change, along with our partner, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a leader in pediatric emergency care, make us uniquely qualified to help drastically reduce the current mortality rate and to improve the systems of care.
The purpose of Saving Children’s Lives is to significantly reduce the Under Five Mortality Rate, by providing basic, yet critical, pediatric emergency care training to frontline community health workers and integrating the training into the health care system for sustainable, long-term results.
With a successful demonstration pilot in Botswana completed, and encouragement from the Botswana Ministries of Health, Saving Children’s Lives will continue to deepen work in Botswana and will expand into Tanzania during this initial implementation phase. As we further prove and grow the program, we are seeking additional funding to scale the program into other areas of Sub Saharan Africa, as well as other countries across the globe.
On behalf of the AHA, I want to express our gratitude to Laerdal for helping to fund this initiative and potentially save millions of children’s lives. I also want to thank AHA Volunteer Dr. Peter Meaney, for his work serving as the Medical Director for the program.
We will continue to keep you abreast of the latest developments of the Saving Children’s Lives program.
Once again AHA proves that by working with others we can do more, reach further, and save more lives. There are so many people to train in different positions that we will always need to partner with others to reach them all. Thanks so much to everyone that works on projects like this one and others. We need and appreciate you!