It is very clear that [Calcutta Kids’] work is making a huge difference in the lives of kids and their families. [My wife and I are] particularly impressed with the kind of dedication we saw in the Calcutta Kids team. I am led to believe that our small contribution was a worthy investment. My wife has now become an ambassador of Calcutta Kids — whomever she meets, she talks about [their] good and interesting work.
Child Health
The problem
Child mortality
In India, more than 2 million children under 5 years old die each year of preventable causes.
Most neonatal deaths are caused by one of the following:
- Prematurity and low birth weight
- Neonatal infections
- Birth asphyxia and birth trauma
Most deaths of children under 5 years old are caused by one of the following:
- Malnutrition
- Pneumonia
- Diarrheal diseases
Child morbidity
Roughly 1 in 5 babies in India are born with low birth weights. Even for babies who survive, low birth weight can cause serious short- and long-term health consequences, including underdeveloped lungs, stunted brain development, and an inability to feed properly. More than one-third of the world’s malnourished children live in India, where 35% of children are underweight and 38% of children are stunted.
Our goals
- Reduce child morbidity and mortality
- Improve birth weights
- Ensure normal growth among children from birth to 3 years old (the window when 80% of brain development occurs)
Our actions
The Child Health Program delivers a range of services for children from birth to 3 years old.
- Immunizations, which are widely considered the single most effective method to protect children’s health
- Supplementary nutrition for children
- Specialized care for severely malnourished children
- Monthly growth monitoring
- Personalized counseling to promote nutrition and growth
- Diarrhea treatment and diarrhea prevention education
- Medications to treat diseases and follow-up counseling
- Vitamin A to prevent blindness and other serious illnesses
- Deworming tablets to treat parasitic infections, which disproportionately affect children living in poverty
We provide these services through a combination of monthly home visits from our community health workers and clinic-based care delivered by our medical staff.