Are Children Inhibiting Africa's Growth?

Adjoa Ankra carries her baby, wrapped in a white blanket, on her back. The 28-year-old woman set off from home at dawn and is now standing with several dozens other women in the courtyard of a health center in Dodowa, a city in Ghana. Rain drops fall on the brightly-clad women and the corrugated iron roof of the facility, but the sound is drowned out by the song the women are singing: "Thank you Lord for protecting our children." It is hours before it is finally Ankra’s turn to step up to the rickety table. Doctors fill out forms before her seven-month-old son Samuel can get the jab in his upper thigh that could save his life. With the support of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) two vaccines are being introduced in Ghana, one against pneumococci and the other against rotavirus. They are the main cause of pneumonia and diarrheal illness that kill 2.7 million people around the world every year.