According to the World Health Organization, each year in Africa, approximately 1 million babies are stillborn of whom at least 300,000 die during labor. Inasmuch, another 1.6 million babies will die in their first 28 days of life of whom 800,000 will die in their first day.

A neonate baby is under 28 days old. This is the riskiest time of life for a newborn and thus requires extreme, gentle, and compassionate care. During these 28 days of life, in high-risk areas where neonatal deaths occur, specialized medical care needs to be administered to these high-risk babies. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts up to an alarming 41% of the total burden of neonatal deaths worldwide. However, two-thirds of neonatal deaths that occur in the first week of life can be prevented if mothers and newborns had access to cost-effective interventions during pregnancy and childbirth.

Upon analyzing the issues of concern, The 400 Year Celebration in collaboration with their international partners has created “The 100 Year Africa Project” as our program of operation to combat and create an effective solution to the issue of neonatal deaths in Africa. We understand the complexity of the issue and that it cannot be properly dealt with in one lifetime, but will require the support and participation of consecutive generations to fully alleviate/eradicate this issue from the continent of Africa.

Giving hope to lives is our focus, aim, desire, and passion. And it is through this passion we purposely position our directives to contribute to the eradication of neonatal deaths. Therefore, our program cannot be completed in five years or twenty years. However, when we position ourselves to build a long-invested movement that can fight this problem, we will see better results and a decrease of neonatal deaths across the African continent.