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Your review: "Welcome to the World - Is it better to be born poor or die poor?"

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Your review: "Welcome to the World - Is it better to be born poor or die poor?"

Friday, Dec 7
High
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11 years 11 weeks ago

To: The Children and Equity Community within The Drum Beat network

Re: "Welcome to the World - Is it better to be born poor or die poor?"

http://www.comminit.com/whypoverty/content/welcome-world-it-better-be-born-poor-or-die-poor

Hi - Have you had an opportunity to see the "Why Poverty?" documentary on children " Welcome to the World - Is it better to be born poor or die poor?"

Please see the summary of this documentary with links at http://www.comminit.com/whypoverty/content/welcome-world-it-better-be-born-poor-or-die-poor

If you have seen this documentary which has been or will soon be showing on TV in 70 plus countries, then what did you think?

Did you agree with the analysis?

Did it provide pointers for different and perhaps more effective strategies?

Was the "equity" dimension handled effectively?

Who id you rate this documentary as a media/communication strategy?

Any other questions that you have?

To contribute simply reply by email to this message and/or click the Read More link below, log in and comment in the comments block.

We very much look forward to you sharing your insights based on your valuable experience.

Thanks - Warren

Warren Feek

Executive Director

The Communication Initiative

http://www.comminit.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/warrencomminit

Facebook: The Communication Initiative Network

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LinkedIn: Warren Feek

Skype: Warren Feek

Office - 1–250-658-6372

Mobile 1-250-588-8795 Fax 1-250-658-1728

To: The Children, Equity

To: The Children, Equity Community within The Drum Beat network

From: Maryline

Re: Your review: "Welcome to the World - Is it better to be born poor or die poor?"

Hi,

Yes, I've had the opportunity to watch: " Welcome to the World - Is it better to be born poor or die poor?"

I thought the analysis was pretty accurate, although I would have liked the analysis to go deeper into what the risks were in terms of birth-handling. The documentary put a great emphasis on the fact that giving birth in hospital was safer than giving birth elsewhere (at least that's what it implied), but in fact, maybe if traditional birth attendants in Africa (and elsewhere) - and I remember having seen such studies and data - were trained and offered the means to help women effectively, things would not be as bad.

Giving birth in hospital is not necessarily safer than giving birth at home provided the right conditions are there. I would have liked the documentary to explore this dimension as well. It would have been nice also (but maybe outside of the scope of the documentary?) to be given information about breastfeeding, and how much this could also be a factor of inequity in certain countries in particular.

Maryline

Thanks, Maryline, for this

Thanks, Maryline, for this insight on the training of healthcare workers, birth attendants, in particular. A project on newborn care that is taking the approach of using video for training, some available on mobile phones. Take a look at this website if the project is of interest: http://globalhealthmedia.org/newborn/about/

Julie

To: Children, Equity

To: Children, Equity community within The Drum Beat Network

Re: Welcome to the World - Is it better to be born poor or die poor?

http://www.comminit.com/whypoverty/content/welcome-world-it-better-be-born-poor-or-die-poor

From: Dr Sue Goldstein - Soul City

I couldn't download the video, but it is very well documented that assisted birth is a critical health intervention. Training of traditional birth attendants can assist in some areas, however even in the west it is much safer to have a baby in a health facility. One of the best indicators of a functioning health service and one of the world's greatest successes in health is the decrease in maternal (and child) mortality through improved birth assistance (in health facilities). Although most births are "normal" if there are complications then being at a place where you can deal with them fast is critical.

Sue

Dr S Goldstein

Executive National Programmes

Soul City: IHDC

Tel: +27 11 341 0360

Tel: 0861 768 524 (0861SOULCITY)

Fax: 086 661 3145

Fax:011 341 0370

Cell: 082 851 4080

Physical Address: First Floor, Dunkeld West Centre, 281 Jan Smuts Avenue

(CNR Bompas Rd), Dunkeld West

Postal Address: P.O. Box 1290, Houghton, 2041

Johannesburg RSA

SKYPE: susangoldstein1

Any ideas how we can access

Any ideas how we can access these doccies? (ED - refers to the Why Poverty series). Haven't been able to ascertain when they can be watched in SA.

Jeanne

To: Children, Equity

To: Children, Equity Community within The Drum Beat Network

From: Isa Espadon Blyden

Re: Your review: "Welcome to the World - Is it better to be born poor or die poor?"

Neither one, and we should try to discard this myth of poverty and wealth since it is a subjective evaluation as are the criteria.  Poverty is often used as a mechanism to raise funds or exploit the funds of wealthier and more industrious citizens by those in more developed countries, who may not be paying enough taxes. This is my opinion. 

Targeting countries as "poverty" stricken who do not fit the criteria  for wealth or povery in developed societies,  impedes their ability to develop.  .  Let us give the rest of the people in our  world who have suffered severe setbacks from latent colonial or neocolonial incubii, a chance to determine what constitutes wealth and poverty for themselves this year. A woman (living on less than a dollar a day), but wearing a pair of 24 carat gold earings made from gold she panned from the river a block away from her house for example, in not a few west african countries, might  have a different view about  what constitutes poverty ...

Isa Espadon Blyden

To: Children, Equity

To: Children, Equity community within The Drum Beat Network

Related to the documentary: Welcome to the World - Is it better to be born poor or die poor?

http://www.comminit.com/whypoverty/content/welcome-world-it-better-be-born-poor-or-die-poor

From: Vaidehi Krishnan - New Delhi, India.

Yes, I happened to watch with great interest: " Welcome to the World - Is it better to be born poor or die poor?"

While I appreciate the thought behind the production of this documentary, I feel, that similar to the mandatory statutory warnings on wrappings of tobacco products, a message line of hope and optimism included in such films could alleviate the negative impact of gruesome stories and statistics on young minds. The educated and altruistic sections of society could come forward to use the power of media to educate the masses in their own little ways and channels to take all possible factors under their control to curb Infant, child and maternal mortality rates.

I look forward to viewing the remaining seven documentaries and am also glad to be part of this network. I applaud the fact that these are being made downloadable in due course as these would be eye-opening for a wide cross section of society and many institutions and organizations including the development sector. Meanwhile, the PDF document ‘Reducing Maternal Mortality – Strengthening the World Bank Reponse, June 2009, (downloadable at the link http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPRH/Resources/376374- 1278599377733/MaternalHealth62910PRINT.pdf ), highlights CUBA’s success strategy besides others. It shows how CUBA coordinated with private maternity waiting homes thereby jacking up institutional deliveries from 63 to 99%, way back in through the period 1963-’84, leading to a decline in MMR from 118 to 31/100,000 live births.

Cuba’s model of preventive health strategies for health promotion is well known and worth emulation, but needs to be widely disseminated, unleashing the power of media, especially to parts of the developing countries, world over.

Regards, Vaidehi Krishnan New Delhi, India.

I think the documentary was

I think the documentary was excellently done. We need to circulate it widely especially in countries where majority are living in adject poverty despite abundance human and natural resources. Poverty in Africa is mainly due to high level corruption and missmanagement of public funds and poor leadership that characterized most African societies.

There are crisis in most African countries today due to Political Class quest for power in a do or die attitude because their motive for seeking political power is for personal enrichment and not to serve or provide good governance for the betterment of their people. No wonder in most African Contries while the few that are in power and their associates continue to swim in affluence, the majority are living in adject poverty.

Yes, it better to be born poor than to die poor. If you are born poor, you can do something to change your situation through education, self development or skills acquisition, hard work and dedication.

We must all stand up against poverty

Jafar Danesi

Children and Equity
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