Segment 1

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Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

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4. Reduce Child Mortality. The death rate of children under five has declined steadily from 12.6 million in 1990 to 9 million in 2007. But the rate is still too high -- one death every 3 seconds, mostly from preventable causes.

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Target. Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.

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Papua New Guinea.

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Often one of the challenges in reducing child deaths is reaching the large populations that live in remote areas. So health teams like this one in Papua New Guinea trudge for hours on muddy tracks through mountainous countryside to set up health clinics in villages like this one in Kanga, not far from the Kokoda Track.

LEON SIME [Health Action Officer]

My work in here, being a health action officer, we were trained especially to work in the rural areas, like a doctor that does clinical duties in the hospital, we do the same in rural areas. That includes the family health and immunization patrols, doing family planning, antenatal care, I coordinate that within the health center.

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Village volunteers are also trained to provide basic medical assistance and advice.

LEON SIME

They have also been trained to identify and refer those cases to the health centers and hospital for treatment, and also they've been trained to do antenatal care for mothers who are pregnant and they can estimate the date of birth and refer them in, encourage mothers to come in for deliveries in here.

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Better access to healthcare, immunization, and education are keys to keeping children healthy.

MICHAEL LUCAS [Kanga Village Chief]

When health program is an educational program like this, trying to educate people, I think that will help us, will change our living and also people will change from when they're young, too.

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What is Australia doing? Training more skilled birth attendants in rural and remote PNG to help reduce infant deaths. Increasing births supervised by skilled staff is an important focus of the PNG-Australia Partnership for Development. Working with governments and other donors to improve the supply of vaccines and immunization globally.