Daughterof formerUSPresidentBill Clintonyesterday met with
Nigerian President GoodluckJonathanat the Aso Rock Villa as part of a
trip organized by her father’s foundation.
While at the presidential villa,Chelsea Clintondiscussed her
mission in Nigeria with the president stating it as her father’s
foundation’s effort to prevent deaths of 1 million mothers and children
who die every year from preventable causes, including 100,000 deaths
fromdiarrhoea.
The 32-year-olddaughterof PresidentBill Clintonand Secretary of
StateHillary Clintonjoined Nigerian officials, the prime minister of
Norway and other leaders on Tuesday in promoting expanded access to zinc
and oral rehydration solutions (ORS), a treatment that could prevent
more than 90 per cent ofdiarrhoea-related deaths in the country.
“It is unconscionable that in the 21st century, children still die
ofdiarrhoea,” Clinton told Reuters in an interview over the phone from
Abuja, Nigeria.
TheORSand zinc work in Nigeria is in coordination with the Clinton
Health Access Initiative (CHAI), on whose boardChelsea Clintonserves.
She had earlier taken a tour of Africa in July with her father, who
founded William J. Clinton Foundation in 2001.
Currently, fewer than 2% of children in Nigeria have access to the
World Health Organization-recommended treatment. Increasing the number
of children with access to the therapy to 80% by 2015 is whatCHAIis
set to do, and it would help prevent an estimated 220,000 deaths in
Nigeria.
“I would likeusto make real, measurable progress here in Nigeria
and in other countries where we are working onORSzinc,” Clinton said,
including Uganda and parts of India, as part of Clinton Health Access
Initiative’s new push to improve access to essential medicines for
children.
Picture Credit: TheDailyBeast
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