Bata Movement stakeholders gather together to remember the deaths of 1 million children under five years old – 82,000 of which are Filipinos—as well as to ensure that this mortality rate would significantly be decreased by promoting the eight interventions to child survival.

According to recent statistics, 32 out of every 1,000 Filipino children die before they turn five. What’s worse is that these deaths could have been prevented, says Dr. Lulu Bravo, executive director of the National Institutes of Health and co-convenor of the Bata Movement.

An initiative composed of organizations from all over the country, the Bata Movement is a response to the 4th Millennium Development Goal (MDG4), which aims to decrease mortality among infant and children below 5 years by 2015. The group’s strategy is to build awareness among Filipinos, teaching them the recommended interventions for child survival.

One of the Bata Movement’s biggest battles is encouraging vaccination for invasive pneumococcal diseases (IPD), which tops the illnesses that kill children under five worldwide. Of the 10 million kids succumbing to IPD, 82,000 are Filipino children.

Aside from vaccination, Bata Movement suggests that the essential child survival package should include the following:

1. Skilled birth attendants to ensure that mothers deliver in hospitals, lying-in centers, or with trained midwives and physicians
2. Proper newborn care, especially with latching on during the first hour of life
3. Exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months and complementary feeding
4. Micronutrients supplementation, de-worming, and the giving of vitamin A, iron, and zinc to children
5. Integrated management of diarrhea, pneumonia, and malaria
6. Accident and injury prevention
7. Birthspacing
8. Other interventions for endemic areas, such as the use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets for malarious areas, safe drinking water, and prevention of maternal transmission of HIV