Over the next three years, Kimberly-Clark and UNICEF will work together to expand essential healthcare services in areas with limited medical resources, focusing particularly on disadvantaged regions and localities with large ethnic minority populations.

The programme is to improve menstrual health knowledge, scale up adolescent maternal care models, and promote the Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) method, which helps increase survival rates for premature infants and strengthen mother-child bonding.

In addition, the programme will also provide training for teachers and healthcare workers and support policy initiatives aimed at increasing equity in access to healthcare services.

According to UNICEF, in many mountainous provinces, maternal mortality rates remain five times higher than the national average, while neonatal mortality rates in rural areas are nearly double those in urban regions. These figures highlight the urgent need to improve the quality of primary health care.

The programme is expected to benefit 3.8 million women and children, including 1.29 million newborns and 2.5 million women and girls in four mountainous provinces of Gia Lai, Lam Dong, Dien Bien, and Lai Chau.

Maternal and neonatal mortality rates in Vietnam see sharp decline

VOV.VN - Maternal deaths have fallen more than fivefold, while child mortality rates have also dropped substantially in Vietnam, showing the country's determination to improve maternal and child healthcare.