CARD launching mortality campaign

MANILA, Philippines - CARD Mutually Reinforcing Institutions (CARD MRI), the Microcredit Summit Campaign, and Freedom from Hunger has launched a joint program called “Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies: Kalinga kay Inay,” which aims to decrease the high maternal mortality rate in the Philippines.

It likewise addresses the country’s poor performance in meeting the targets set by Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5.

“Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies” will reach more than 600,000 women microfinance clients by the end of 2015 by leveraging the reach of the microfinance sector to deliver vital health education and services to very poor women and their families.

The program starts in Palawan for some 1,000 pregnant and lactating women at a health fair for microfinance clients of ASA Philippines and CARD MRI as well as non-client members of the local community. This health fair is the first of five community-based “Healthy Mother, Healthy Baby” health fairs.

Last Oct. 17 was the World Day for Overcoming Extreme Poverty, and the theme for 2014 is “Leave No One Behind: Think, Decide and Act Together Against Extreme Poverty.”

At the launch event, Larry Reed, director of the Microcredit Summit Campaign, delivered a keynote message explaining that, in order to end extreme poverty, the system must change.

“Part of the system that needs to be changed is the way that different types of social programs work in isolation from one another… as a result, we often miss the inter-relationships between the challenges we face,” Reed said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Jaime Aristotle B. Alip, the founder and managing director of CARD MRI said that the partnership must reach more socially-and-economically challenged Filipinos especially those in their reproductive age.

The MDG report indicates that the Philippine improved in many key targets such as life expectancy, access to education, and infant mortality.

Alip said that delays in accessing medical care is a key bottleneck in achieving MDG5 targets, and with just under 500 days left, the timing for this collaboration to educate about and expand access to health services is critical.