PSI

Vulnerable children are one of PSI’s most important target groups. According to the WHO, nearly 10 million children under the age of five die each year – more than 1,000 every hour. Tragically, about two-thirds of child deaths are preventable through practical, low-cost interventions. PSI works to improve child survival by helping developing countries address diarrhea, malaria and HIV.

Each year, almost two million children around the world die from diarrheal disease due to unsafe water and hygiene practices, constituting about 17% of child deaths worldwide. PSI combats diarrheal disease with prevention and treatment education and products. On the prevention side, PSI promotes hand washing and safe drinking water. Through household water treatment, a water quality intervention that employs proven, easy-to-use and inexpensive solutions appropriate for the developing world, PSI saves thousands of children’s lives. When treatment is called for, PSI works with partners to educate caregivers on the use of oral rehydration salts and zinc and expand the availability of these life-saving products through commercial and other non-traditional channels.

Malaria threatens more than 40% of the world’s population; the majority of deaths from malaria occurs among young children in sub-Saharan Africa. To prevent malaria, PSI supports ministries of health throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America to rapidly achieve high and sustained net coverage of vulnerable populations. On the treatment of malaria, PSI supports the global effort to increase access to effective malaria treatment through the public and private sectors and at the community level. To date, PSI has delivered more than 20 million malaria treatments in a number of countries, including Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania and Sudan.

The devastating scourge of HIV hits children hardest: UNAIDS estimates that more than 15 million children worldwide have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. PSI is working in dozens of countries worldwide on a number of HIV prevention programs that include behavior change, provider training and product distribution. As successes mount, the number of parents contracting HIV will hopefully diminish. PSI also works to educate HIV-positive prospective mothers on the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV to keep newborns free of the infection.

Five & Alive, a program PSI, provides children and their families with the education, products, services and care needed to improve health and save lives in more than 30 countries.

Five & Alive