What if you knew a child whose life was in danger?
And what if you knew you had the power to save that child?
Of course, you would do whatever you could.
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| © UNICEF/NYHQ99-0884/LeMoyne |
| VIET NAM: A man lifts up his baby son as he stands on their houseboat on a canal in the Mekong Delta in the southern province of Dong Thap. |
Around the world, there are more than 25,000 children who are alive today but will not be tomorrow. They will die even though the medicines and technology that could save them readily exist. They will die from utterly preventable causes.
Today, on Universal Children’s Day, I think we should all pause to consider these 25,000 youngsters who will not live to see their fifth birthday. It is a day to mourn their tragic and cruel loss.
But it also a day to stand up and say enough—enough young lives needlessly extinguished, enough unnecessary suffering, enough squandered promise.
I invite you to join me in committing to a future in which the number of children who die from preventable causes is not 25,000 per day—it is zero.
Zero children killed by malaria, diarrhea and tetanus, zero children fatally sickened by unsafe water, zero children wasted by malnutrition. I believe in zero—zero preventable child deaths.
This is not just a slogan. Nor is it an idealistic fantasy. It is an achievable goal.
I know this because, as we have reported here before, the number of preventable child deaths continues to drop. We recently celebrated the news the under-five child mortality rate had fallen to its lowest level ever, 9.2 million per year. That’s a 60 percent decline since 1960, and it shows that the work of UNICEF—and the dedicated support of our donors and partners—is clearly paying off.
What this means to me is that we have to work harder than ever, until every child is reached.
The reason these children are dying is not a mystery. They are dying because they are poor and invisible and because their families don’t have access to the simple, inexpensive interventions that could keep them alive.
Interventions like vaccines against measles and other deadly diseases, insecticide-treated mosquito nets to guard against malaria, and lifesaving water pumps.
The truth is, we have always believed in zero. We have always believed that the only acceptable goal of an organization devoted to child survival is to save every child, everywhere—and to refuse to rest until we do. It’s one reason UNICEF has saved more children's lives than any other humanitarian organization.
What we need now is the collective will of a committed group of people who will help us reach all children who are in danger—and who not give up until we do.
I ask you to believe in zero. Please join the effort at ibelieveinzero.org.
