We want future generations to be stunned to learn that children would die from diarrhoea, malaria or pneumonia. We want to be able to tell that that together, we stopped it.
Save the Children — Mummy Bloggers Head to Bangladesh
It is a hopeful sentence, and brings along a baggage of truth about the world of humans. A great number of our fellow Earthlings are born into poverty, disaster-prone regions, and where diseases run rampant.
So, let’s start with one child. One mother. Whose child gets sick. Something simple like a tummy bug, most of which us parents have dealt with at one point or another with our own children. And the treatment that will cure it? Costs a couple of quid. Except THIS mother comes from one of the poorest countries in the world, one of 86% of the world’s population surviving on less than two dollars a day, or even one of 36% of the world’s population surviving on less than ONE dollar a day. If you’re this mother you’re probably dependent on your own young children to work and help bring in enough money to survive. Chances are your sick child is already severely underweight…
Your child needs help fast. But you can’t pay the doctor’s fees. And so you watch your child die. From something entirely preventable. You watch your child die not because they had a tummy bug, but because they were poor.
The difference now is, more than at any previous time, we have it in our power to put an end to this sordid state of affairs. To spend more on helping the weakest in society rather than blow them up, or blow them off.
Make the poor our priority. Eliminate poverty, and we eliminate many other problems bugging us today.
Save the Children is currently running a campaign in Bangladesh, and three mummy-bloggers have been recruited to report their activities there. Add the following blogs to your feeds, read them, and sign the petition requesting world leaders to fulfil the Millennium Development Goals pledge.
