A mother breastfeeding. Photo/youtube
The elimination of mother-to-child transmission (eMTCT) of HIV and Aids will be a key message when Beyond Zero celebrates its four year journey tomorrow.
The graduation of the 250 children will be a major plank of the initiative’s success story of strategic and innovative drive to reduce maternal deaths , ensure child survival, reduce the transmission of HIV/Aids among mothers and adolescents and eradicate stigma.
All the children have been born of HIV positive mothers on treatment over the disease and who gave birth in health facilities, especially since the Beyond Zero initiative started creating awareness and sensitizing mothers that it was possible to have HIV-free children.
Although not all pregnant positive mothers can access the vital medicines to prevent their unborn babies, Beyond Zero partners will be celebrating the fact that the drive continues to build momentum to save all mothers and their babies besides reducing stigma towards infected Kenyans.
Besides the 250 Children, the Beyond Zero signature event at Moi International Sports Centre will also celebrate another success story of 75 children from 15 counties in northern Kenya , all born in health facilities in a region associated with very high child deaths.
The birth and survival of these children from the high burden counties was partly made possible by Beyond Zero especially after the initiative distributed 47 fully kitted mobile clinics which became key advocacy platforms for save motherhood.
The one day Beyond Zero Summit will be hosted by the First Lady Margaret Kenyatta, who will also unveil an updated eMTCT framework as she officially inaugurates the second phase of the initiative. She is the patron of the campaign.
The First Lady will also confer award to different categories of people and groups from all the counties for their innovation and exemplary contribution to Maternal Health, Neonatal, children and adolescents.
This will include recognizing partners from the private sector and thanking them for their continued support for the highly innovative initiative.
She will also launch the Lancet Early Childhood Development series on Advancing ECD from science to scale over the care of children where a leading Canadian ECD author and scientist will speak over the new series.
The participants at tomorrow’s summit include diplomats, the private sector, health partners, officials from the Beyond Zero secretariat and the 47 governors’ spouses who have been the key drivers of the campaign at the counties.
The overall objective of the summit is to serve as a platform for leaders to reflect on the achievements and missed opportunities on maternal, neonatal, child and adolescents health targets over the last four years.
The Participants will be required to re-assess their obligations and re-affirm their commitment to support the country in attaining relevant health targets.
The Beyond Zero campaign is an initiative by the First Lady to aid in the health problems of mothers, neo-nates, children and adolescents from across the country.
BZ Foundation was launched in January 2014 to partner with the government in reducing maternal and child mortality.
The four key pillars of Beyond zero are the eMTCT, child survival, maternal health and the promotion of leadership and accountability.