Zambia Philately: 1973 25th Anniversary of the World Health Organisation – 9n Under Five’s Clincs

Preventive medicine aims to prevent sickness before it happens. The ideology behind preventive medicine focuses on protecting, promoting, and maintaining health and well-being. It also aims to avert disease, disability, and death on an individual basis, as well as on a large scale in communities and populations.

During the 1950s, David Morely, working at a Mission hospital in Nigeria, showed that the mortality rate of under the age of five children was normally 500 per 1000 but could be reduced to 180 per 1000. He implemented Under 5 (U5) clinics where he would help mothers chart child weight, provide immunisation, and provided simple curative measures. The success of the clinics was repeated in other countries.

Free U5 clinics were established in Zambia by missionaries. However, Government clinics were opened in dispensaries some miles from the city by Dr Tinika Boelens. Volunteers from the Organisation of Netherlands Volunteers played a major part in expanding the clinics and enrolled nurses in training, often also assisted. By 1971, Zambia’s U5 clinics numbered 570.

Details
  • Designer: Gabriel Ellison
  • Printer: Questa Colour Security Printers Ltd (House of Questa)
  • Process: Lithography
  • Paper: 
  • Watermark: None
  • Perf: 14 (comb)
  • Cylinders: Printed in panes of four separated by gutters, guillotined between horizontal panes and distributed in panes of two.
    • 1A (Cyan) 1A (Yellow) 1A (Red) 1A (Black) 1A (Brown) 1A (Orange) 1A (Gold) : 1B (Cyan) 1B (Yellow) 1B (Red) 1B (Black) 1B (Brown) 1B (Orange) 1B (Gold) [Upper left : upper right]
    • 1C (Cyan) 1C (Yellow) 1C (Red) 1C (Black) 1C (Brown) 1C (Orange) 1C (Gold) : 1D (Cyan) 1D (Yellow) 1D (Red) 1D (Black) 1D (Brown) 1D (Orange) 1D (Gold) [Lower left : lower right]
  • Sheet:
  • Quantity: 
Cylinder Numbers
References
  • Clinics for under Fives in Zambia and Malawi. Tropical Doctor. 1971 – Maurice King