Saving babies one beanie at a time

By LULU MARK
CHILDREN are the future of this country and should be given the protection they need as soon as they are born, Minister for Health and HIV/AIDS Jelta Wong says.
Wong was speaking during the handover of 2,400 crocheted beanies from the “Knit one-warm one-save one” campaign under the “Saving lives-spreading smiles (SLSS)” programme to the Health Department and the Government yesterday. The Government, through the Health Department, and with support from the Australian government and United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), launched the campaign last November aimed at providing 25,000 beanies or baby hats and blankets by November using volunteers.
This was an initiative aimed at addressing hypothermia (low body temperature) in newborn babies which is the underlying cause of 60 to 70 per cent of the deaths among premature/low birth weight babies each year.
Acting Health secretary Dr Paison Dakulala said PNG had the highest maternal and neonatal mortality in the Pacific.
“Out of the 280,000 babies born every year, 25,000 babies are born premature or have low birth weight which is less than 2.5 kilos,” he said.
Dr Dakulala said 70 to 80 per cent of those premature babies often suffered from hypothermia, which led to death. He said this was one of the persistent issues in the health sector that affected vulnerable children.
Wong said such initiatives to save the lives of the newborns should have been pushed 10 years ago.
“We must protect our children to make sure our future goes forward,” he said. He thanked the groups and organisations such as the Seventh-day Adventist women, Unicef staff, The National and Touching the Untouchable for volunteering to knit the first batch of beanies.
The handover was witnessed by the Prime Minister’s wife Rachael Marape, patron of the ““Knit one-warm one-save one” campaign, who had mobilised women to knit and drove the cause forward.