THE LIFENET WAY

ADDRESSES AN URGENT NEED

The region that includes Uganda, Burundi, Malawi, and the DRC faces harrowing health realities. In Uganda and Malawi, 5.3% and 5.5% of children die before the age of 5. In Burundi and the DRC, that number increases to 7.2% and 9.4%. The likelihood that a 16-year-old girl will die due to maternal causes during her lifetime is 1 in 23 in Burundi, 1 in 24 in the DRC, 1 in 29 in Malawi, and 1 in 47 in Uganda. Overall life expectancy in the four countries is 57.1 in Burundi, 59 in the DRC, 59.2 in Uganda, and 63.8 in Malawi—15-20 years lower than the US and other developed nations.

Although rural health centers are the first, and sometimes only line of defense against sickness and death for the majority of East Africa’s communities, they continue to be crippled by lack of equipment, medicine and knowledge. Providing 40 to 70% of healthcare in the region, faith-based health centers are East Africa’s opportunity for better health.