Imagine the combined population of Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide dying every year. Shocking isn’t it? The reality is, in 2009, 8.1 million children around the world died before their fifth birthday.
What’s worse is the majority of children are dying from conditions that are treatable and preventable like pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria, measles, and malnutrition. Children dying from a lack of food causes at least one third of all deaths of children under five.
But we know the answer to preventable deaths.... health workers. Place a health worker in reach of every child in need and many lives will be saved.
Why health workers?
Health workers help children all over the world survive threats like newborn complications, pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria, and malnutrition. But global estimates suggest we need 3.5 million more health workers in developing countries.
Help health workers provide life saving treatment to the children who need it most. Of the children under the age of 5 who die each year, almost 2/3 could be saved with the simple low-cost interventions delivered by health workers in clinics and in their communities. With attention from developing country governments and donor nations, we can help them bring life saving care to more hard to reach communities and make the survival of children a reality worldwide.
But we need your help to build a movement for change.
If enough people get involved, speak out and help raise money, others will listen and together we can stop more children dying.
Save the Children has two main ways you can get involved in the EVERY ONE campaign: You can join our Knit One Save One campaign and you can make a donation to help train future health workers.
EVERY ONE is a global campaign, so there is action happening worldwide. To find out what other Save the Children organisations are doing around the world visit www.everyone.org.
To get a better understanding of the meaning behind our EVERY ONE campaign read the moving photo story 'A Fair Chance at Life'.
Every three seconds, a child under the age of five dies. Save the Children believes that every child - no matter where they are born - has an equal right and deserves an equal chance to survive. Our EVERY ONE campaign is a call for global action to save the lives of millions of children who die each year from preventable or treatable causes.
Can I have some statistics?
Sure, here are some more statistics which highlight the importance of our campaign.
8.1 million: the number of children who died in 2009 aournd the world, before they reached their fifth birthday.
22,000: the number of children who die under the age of five each day.
4 million: the number of children who die within their first month.
3 million: nearly three million babies die within one week of birth.
2 million: the number of children who die within the first 24 hours after birth - the equivalent of 5,500 newborn infants dying per day.
6: The number of countries where more than half of all child deaths occur - India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Pakistan, and China.
3.5 million: The number of under-five year-old deaths caused by pneumonia and diarrhoea.
4 seconds: Every 4 seconds another child is saved thanks to the work of health workers
US$17.5 billion: The annual funding gap for healthcare for mothers and children - less than one quarter of what Europeans spend on cosmetics annually
7,000: The number of children's lives saved each day by immunisation
100 million: The number of people each year that are pushed in to poverty by being charged for healthcare
3.5 million: The number of additional health workers needed to be recruited, trained and deployed by 2015 in order to achieve the MDG's of a two thirds reduction in child mortality
501,962: The number of additional health workers needed in India
2 million: The number of children in India who die every year before their fifth birthday. 57: The World Health Organisation’s assessment of the number of countries with critical shortages of health workers - 36 of them in Africa.
86%: The proportion of newborn deaths caused by severe infections, asphyxia and premature births.
31: the number of countries where 100 or more children die under the age of five, in every 1000 births.
28: the maximum life expectancy, in days, for every 1 in 14 children in Southern Asia.
5: the number of countries where nearly half of the world's under-five deaths were recorded in 2009 (India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and China).
500,000: The number of lives that can be saved annually by Save the Children through health and nutrition programs across the globe.
Are we making a difference?
Yes. We have supported the global expansion of basic public health and nutrition interventions, such as immunisation, breast feeding, vitamin A supplementation, and safe drinking water. Because of this support, globally the number of deaths among children under the age of five has fallen from 12.4 million in 1990 to 8.1 million in 2009 with Northern Africa and eastern Asia reducing the child mortality rate by 68% and 58%, over the ten year period.
What is the situation in Australia?
Infant deaths account for 85% of all deaths of children under the age of five in Australia. Despite its wealth, Australia ranks poorly in terms of infant and under-five mortality rates compared to other Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, largely due to the high number of Indigenous infant deaths. In Australia, Indigenous children under the age of five are three times more likely to die than non-Indigenous children.
Why do so many children die before their fifth birthday?
The majority of deaths of children under the age of five are due to treatable and preventable diseases and medical conditions such as neonatal causes, pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria, measles, HIV and AIDS.
Globally, malnutrition contributes to more than one-third of all child deaths often caused by the lack of access to essential health care, poor feeding practices, lack of access to clean water and safe sanitation. Adults in affected areas often do not have the maternal education or sufficient access to contraception needed to reduce the high levels of child mortality.
Poverty, inequality, discrimination, weak governance, violent conflict, climate change and natural disasters are all factors which contribute to infant and child mortality.
Why do children under the age of five die in Australia?
There are a number of prenatal conditions that contribute to child mortality such as low birth weight and pre-term birth. Combined with other factors such as congenital anomalies, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), injury, cancer and diseases of the nervous system, these are the main causes of death of children under the age of five in Australia.
Poor maternal health is also a large contributor to child deaths in Australia. A number of factors cause poor maternal health such as the lack of nutrition for mothers, high levels of smoking and alcohol consumption as well as poor access to quality health care.
What are world leaders doing about this issue?
Not enough. Governments worldwide have failed to provide the leadership, resources and sense of urgency necessary to reduce newborn and child mortality. In 2000, world leaders committed to Millennium Development Goal 4, which calls for a reduction of the global under-five mortality rate by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015. At the current rate of progress, this target will not be met until 2045.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) are eight international development goals committed to by world leaders in 2000 that, when achieved, will end extreme poverty worldwide by 2015.
How can the lives of children be saved globally?
We believe that coverage of proven interventions that reduce newborn, infant and child mortality must be expanded. Save the Children launched the global EVERY ONE campaign to raise the general awareness of child mortality and the steps that can be taken to reduce the unnecessary deaths. The campaign encourages the public to get involved in pushing their governments to take action. We promote various lifesaving interventions including:
Effective prenatal, antenatal and post natal care during pregnancy.
Presence of skilled attendants during child birth.
Preventive and curative treatment for pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria such as antibiotics, oral rehydration therapy and insecticide-treated bed nets.
Immunisation from basic childhood illness such as tetanus, polio, measles, diphtheria and tuberculosis.
Proper nutrition including breastfeeding, complementary feeding and vitamin supplements.
The presence of community health workers in poor and remote communities with limited access to hospitals and clinics plays an important role in reducing infant and child mortality. Community health workers help families recognise the warning signs of illness, diagnose and treat common childhood infections, supply basic medicine, and promote healthy behaviours such as immunisation, breast-feeding and good hygiene.
How many lives could be saved through these solutions?
It is estimated that 5.4 million children’s lives could be saved through coverage of low-cost child survival services and practices in the countries where 90% of under-five deaths occur.
What does Save the Children want to achieve globally from the EVERY ONE campaign?
Our objective is to help get the world on track to achieve Millennium Development Goal 4 by bringing about a substantial reduction in the deaths of young children and improving the health and wellbeing of mothers. We urge governments, donors, developing countries and international organisations to help save the lives of children based on the following seven-point plan:
Implement credible national plans.
Focus on newborn babies.
Prioritise equity.
Mobilise resources.
Train and deploy more health workers.
Tackle undernutrition.
Increase focus on children in emergencies.
What does Save the Children want to achieve through the EVERYONE campaign in Australia?
We are calling on the Australian Government to commit to reduce child mortality in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities by two-thirds within the next six years.
What is it going to cost?
Globally, we need to double annual spending on health programs and services for newborns and young children to $77AUD billion by 2015. This figure is far less than the $100 billion that global consumers spend on bottled water and is only a fraction of the money used to bail out the banks and financial institutions during the Global Financial Crisis.
In Australia, the Federal Government has committed to the biggest ever injection of funding for Indigenous health - $1.6 billion – but reducing child mortality is not just a matter of throwing money at the problem. A greater number of trained Indigenous health workers are desperately needed to work in partnership with Indigenous communities.
How much money do you expect Australia to contribute to the global fund?
Australia needs to substantially increase its official development assistance (ODA). Currently, the Australian government commits only 0.33% of its gross national income (GNI) to development assistance, which is well below the current contribution of 0.47% of the average donor country. Julia Gillard & the Labor Government have pledged to reach 0.5% by 2015/2016. This is still well below the United Nations recommended target that developed countries contribute 0.7% of their gross national product to official development assistance.
What does Save the Children want me to do?
We want you to get involved. Help us make child mortality a top public issue and a major topic of debate.
You can Make Your Mark online or in person. You can make a difference with your thumbprint, so check out our Make Your Mark website for more information.
Of course, please do tell your friends and help us spread the word about this very important issue. You can join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to get the latest news on our campaigns.
Handmade by Sputnik Agency