Over the past 200 years, global child mortality rates have fallen from 40% to just 3.7%. Now declining by 2% each year, improvements in this rate are closely correlated to growth in GDP.
Education appears to be a key factor in reducing child mortality, beyond general economic progress. Greater education opportunities and access to a wide pool of trained medical professionals (especially neonatologists) have improved neonatal mortality rates. To continue this trend, however, more neonatologists are needed all over the world.
Failure in education and lack of economic progress, along with factors like war, famine, and inequality explain why countries like Afghanistan, India, the Central African Republic, Somalia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka have some of the highest infant mortality rates in the world. These countries also lack access to proper neonatal care. If not addressed through education, economic development, and peace, more children’s lives will be lost.
On May 27, 2022, the Moez and Marissa Kassam Foundation donated $2.5 million to Sinai Health to deliver this high-quality care to infants and women in communities across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.
The initiative will help educate the local populace, but it will also allow foreign medical professionals to learn from the best. The Frances Bloomberg Center for Women’s and Infants’ Health at Sinai Health is home to neonatal experts with experience using the latest technology. By educating prospective neonatal professionals, experts can help strengthen these countries’ neonatal services and support their development of new systems.
The Moez and Marissa Kassam Foundation’s donation to Sinai Health is grounded in the belief that education can help the full benefits of a donation be realized, particularly when it comes to healthcare.