Bearing Light: A Journey to Sudan II
Sep 23 2008
Jenny Dyer
Click title to view video.Bearing Light: A Journey to Sudan
Sep 22 2008
Jenny Dyer
Recently, we learned of the travels of Big Kenny and his wife, Christiev to Africa and their great work promoting awareness of the crisis in Darfur. Over the next five days, we will be following their journey in our blog.Jenny Dyer
Click title to view video.Jenny
We are big Big and Rich fans. Recently, Big Kenny traveled to Sudan to assess and learn the issues of Darfur. He and National Geographic have teamed up to promote awareness for Darfur. This is an event our friends in DC won't want to miss.Bill Frist, MD
A few years back, I was in Southern Sudan. Late one afternoon, walking down a dusty, rural road — a family approached – a mother with a yellow jug of water on her head and a baby swaddled across her back.Bill Frist, MD
With the imminent landfall of Hurricane Gustav, Save the Children emergency response teams are assisting the agency's Gulf Coast staff in helping thousands of children and families as they arrive at evacuation shelters throughout Louisiana and Mississippi.Jenny Dyer
Elizabeth Vargas, co-anchor of ABC News’ 20/20 and outstanding moderator at Save the Children State of the World’s Mothers 5/28 panel in New York, has brought a program of interest to our attention. This Friday, 8/22, at 10 pm ET, she is reporting on infant mortality in the US. While Save the Children is not directly mentioned, Elizabeth tells us that her experience with State of the World’s Mothers Report and Save the Children strengthened her commitment to raise awareness of such an important issue. Child survival in the US and the industrialized world is specifically covered on pages 31-33 of the State of the World’s Mothers Report. And as always, we remind you to take action in any or all of the ways recommended on page 35 of the report.
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There are places in America where the unthinkable is happening -- too many babies are dying. In most cities, black babies are dying at three times the rate of white babies. That’s what’s happening in Memphis, Tennessee, the city with the nation’s highest rate of infant mortality. A baby dies there on average every 43 hours. But many people are working to change that startling statistic. “Babyland,” a one-hour report anchored by Elizabeth Vargas, airs on “20/20,” FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, from 10:00-11:00 pm, ET on the ABC Television Network.
Vargas travels to Memphis to report on what is being done there, and to see what the rest of the country can learn. She introduces us to young mothers and mothers-to-be who live in what can often seem to be a foreign country right here at home. Vargas takes us to the potter’s field cemetery run by the county, nicknamed “Babyland,” where babies who do not survive are laid to rest. In Memphis, Vargas asks, “What does it mean that we are losing so many black babies before their first birthday?”
The broadcast follows a black teenage mother-to-be who is mentored by a volunteer from a white suburban church in order to ensure that both mother and baby stay healthy. The surprising relationship between these two women, the poor black mother and the white mentor with comfortable means, becomes the emotional center of the documentary. Their journey through pregnancy and birth and the twists and turns afterwards is an intense story that cuts across the issues of race and class. The mentor reveals her own education through the process: “[The young woman] has seen so much pain in her short life, it makes me appreciate the things I’ve always taken for granted.”
Vargas reports the medical story of infant mortality -- being born prematurely is the primary reason for infant deaths. But this is not a problem that can be solved by medical care alone. “When you go after infant mortality, you’re not going after polio, like the March of Dimes did. You’re going after life,” says the founder of the pioneering neonatal intensive care unit in Memphis, Dr. Sheldon Korones. According to Dr. Korones and others appearing in the program, the dying babies can be viewed as a warning of a dangerous attitude toward the underclass: “Infant mortality is a manifestation of the accumulated social inadequacies that we have tolerated historically.”
Vargas finds dedicated people in Memphis begging for attention to be paid to infant mortality. One of them, Erma Simpson, a long-time counselor of pregnant teens, describes the difficulties of raising money to help poor mothers. “I have trouble even getting donations of maternity clothes,” she says. Vargas wonders if the lack of support is related to the fact that the women needing help are almost all black. “Is it because these babies are black that somehow people care less?” she asks. The black social worker replies, “Yes, period.”
Dr. Kenneth Robinson, a former Tennessee health commissioner who is pastor of a Memphis congregation tells Vargas: “Infant deaths in this nation account for more deaths than all of the other causes of death combined for children up to the age of 18. We should be marching. We should be absolutely indignant about those numbers.”
“Babyland” is anchored by Elizabeth Vargas. Tom Yellin is executive producer. Craig Leake is the producer and editor with co-producer David Appleby.
ABC News Media Relations: Alyssa Ziegler Apple (212) 456-1624