"Race for Survival"

As a part of Save the Children International's global EveryOne campaign Save the Children/Guinea organized a "Race for Survival" event to raise awareness of child survival issues and to advocate for policies that benefit maternal and child health, such as increasing national spending on health and supporting access to essential health services. 

While a lot of progress has been made of the last decade, Guinea still has a relatively high infant mortality rate. For every 1,000 children born in Guinea, 126 will not live to age five. For comparison, in the United States, about 8 children out of 1,000 will not make it to age five, and in countries like Sweden, only 3 out of 1,000 children will die before age five. (UNICEF, 2011) So, there's a lot of room for improvement. 

The first day of the "Race for Survival" in Kankan consisted of a gathering of decision-makers and prominent community members, including the Governor, the Head of the Health District, representatives from various NGOs and partner organizations. The guest that everyone was most excited about was the official representative of the First Lady of Guinea, accompanied by a man from the First Lady's charitable foundation. 

The "Family Photo" from the Day of Advocacy

I didn't take any of these photos, but the guy who took my camera did a good job, and seemed to be completely comfortable about getting in there for close-ups. You can see me, or the top of my forehead, anyway, it the upper left of the doorway in the photo above. Below from left to right, we have the representative of the "Parlement des Enfants" children's group, giving a speech for the local radio, my supervisor, Fatoumata D., who is fantastic, and my colleague and same-name "tohoma" Adama D., who was in charge of getting the Day of Advocacy together. 

 

Below, left to right, are the Honorable Governor of Kankan, me, and the Official Representative of the First Lady. (They both were very polite but we didn't actually talk much. 

The Fancy Table

(One of the things that I love here is that the floral bouquets that are generally used to decorate tables and offices and whatnot are usually made with fake fruit instead of fake flowers. The little blossoms above are actually small, fake, upside-down peaches. There were two others made with apples, and in the market I've seen everything form chili peppers to bananas - someday I want to buy a mixed-fruit bouquet, but they're actually kind of expensive.)

The next day the relay-style "Race for Survival" was held at the Kankan stadium. (Save the Children held similar events were held in countries all around the world on the same day.) Local school kids raced from prizes, local officials showed up, there were radio and TV reporters, and some of my Peace Corps friends came. Michelle, below right, even got to hand out some of the prizes! Cellcom, a mobile phone company sponsored part of the event, which is why there are big red umbrellas out on the field for no practical reason.

There were speeches made about child survival and maternal health, t-shirts were given out, a military band played, the kids were all really happy, their parents were all super proud, and everyone had a good time. 

Fun fact: Lily, on the left in the photo on the right, was the wonderful who brought my fancy shiny new computer with her when she came to visit her friend (my neighbor) Michelle.