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| © UNICEF/05-0676/Heger | |
| ETHIOPIA: A toddler who was severely malnourished drinks fortified milk at a UNICEF-supported therapeutic feeding center. The child has now recovered enough to take in nutrients without the aid of a feeding tube. |
For the final 12 days of 2008, UNICEF celebrity Ambassadors and supporters are posting daily blog entries about the impact UNICEF Inspired Gifts are having on children around the world. UNICEF Ambassador Lucy Liu was recently honored with the prestigious Danny Kaye Humanitarian Award in recognition of her tireless work on behalf of the world's most vulnerable children.
Of the 25,000 children who die every day from preventable causes, many of those children lack the most basic nourishment needed to survive. On my recent trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo, I witnessed firsthand how something so simple could save so many lives.
It's a fact that 31 percent of DR Congo's children under the age of five suffer from moderate to severe malnutrition; 12 percent of babies are born with low birth weight; and only 24 percent of mothers exclusively breastfeed for the first six months of their children’s lives.
High-energy/protein biscuits (a kind of nutritious "cookies") were specially developed to help children in emergency situations and are crucial to their survival. For only $40.26 you can purchase two cartons of biscuits, full of the vitamins and micronutrients needed to improve children’s health and prevent them from developing severe malnutrition, which can be deadly.
Another essential for growing and developing children is milk. In situations where mothers are unable to breastfeed, therapeutic milk provides children with the life saving nourishment they so desperately need. Right now, you can provide five supplemental units of the “magic” milk right now for only $22.25.
This year, when you leave some milk and cookies by the tree for Santa, please remember the children of the world, and all the lives that can be saved by therapeutic “milk & cookies.”
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Let’s believe in zero together this holiday season.
I am Lucy Liu and I believe in zero.
25,000 young children die every day from preventable causes—things like malnutrition, poor sanitation and lack of safe, drinkable water. UNICEF believes that number should be zero.
Comments (3)
Unicef: Thanks for all the good work you do. God bless these children and you for doing the work.
For Lucy Liu: I hope you can continue doing this work for a very long, making a difference for children or even 1 child can be lifetime-change of life-saving change for a living and breathing person.
I work with children also everyday, although in a completely different field of jobs, but to give your best to children is perhaps the most important job in the world, although still so many times underestimated, they are the future and everybody deserves a future.
Lucy, God bless and all the best for the New Year with Good Health and Happiness.
Wilfred Vriesch, the Netherlands
Posted by wilfred vriesch | December 26, 2008 1:38 AM
Posted on December 26, 2008 01:38
Lucy, thank you for giving of your time and using your voice in service to the world's children. This blog is very informative and I appreciate finding ways to take part in effeective solutions.
Congratulations on receiving the Danny Kaye Humanitarian Award --- very much deserved for your tireless service and your dedication.
Posted by mmberkeleyca | December 26, 2008 3:07 PM
Posted on December 26, 2008 15:07
It's unfortunate that it takes someone famous to bring these atrocities to the forefront, but thank God they care enough to make us care.
Posted by Carol | December 30, 2008 12:48 AM
Posted on December 30, 2008 00:48