Monthly Archives: August 2007
No Child Should Suffer This Fate
Every year, nearly 10 million children under the age of 5 die from completely preventable causes. It doesn’t have to be like this. We have the power to save these children’s lives.
There is a bill in Congress right now that would provide some of the much needed money to save these children, but it’s currently at a standstill. In order to move, the bill desperately needs the political support that people like you and me can bring to bear.
These children die from a variety of causes, from pneumonia to malnutrition and diarrhea. For us, diarrhea is a nuisance. For a child in the developing world, it is a death sentence. In 2007 it is estimated that 1.8 million children will die from dehydration due to diarrhea. In many cases, all that it takes to re-hydrate these children to save their lives is a handful of sugar, a bottle of clean water, and a pinch of salt. Download ONE.org’s pdf about this issue.
Sadly, there is one more ingredient needed to save these children: the will to do it. The Global Child Survival Act is an expression of that will. It would dramatically scale up funding for effective and affordable child and maternal health programs and it would require the government to develop a comprehensive plan for improving children’s health around the world.