Wednesday, November 14, 2007

UN Millenium Development Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality

Copyright Hanna Nohynek


By Tiina Mustakangas-Laukka

In developing countries one child out of ten dies before he/she turns five. In developed countries the same number is one out of 143. What if measles and diarrhea killed children in your country? In developing countries more than 10 million children a year die of diseases that could be prevented and treated. High child mortality is a part of poverty. All measures that decrease poverty also improve young children’s possibilities to survive and grow up. Child mortality can be significantly decreased if both children and their mothers have enough of food and clean water. All children should have the possibility to be vaccinated and to receive free and general health care.

What kind of nutrition do children need to develop? Which vaccinations have you been given? Why haven’t all children in the world received them? Where do we get clean water? Why do we get it? Why isn’t there clean water everywhere in the world? What are the consequences of the use of unclean water? Where do children in your country go for a check up at least once a year during their first six years? Which projects could we start in developing countries to help to reduce child mortality?
(The Ministry for Foreign Affairs. http://www.vuosituhattavoitteet.fi/)

7 comments:

medinahaukipudas said...

By Sampo Konttavaara & Pietu Kuusento

Its really great that someone pays attention to things like this but to achieve goals like this till 2015 is pretty unlikely. There are 8 different goals and to achieve even one of those in so little time would be a miracle. Not speaking of whole 8 huge goals. There are millions and millions starving and sick children in the world who will die alone. The goal is reduce children mortality to one third of the 90’s numbers. I don’t want to be negative, I really believe there are some good people in the world but not enough to make things better. Not in this time. I am not saying I won’t support these actions, just that I don’t see why things would turn better in 8 years; we’ve had these problems for decades and if you ask me, we will have.
I wish the people doing this good luck and give them the support I can. Let us all hope I am wrong and the people over there somewhere planning this are right. Let us hope we will together make the world a better place to live. The world is sick, it needs to be cured. I challenge you to let all the children have a good, long life. Forever after.

medinahaukipudas said...

How very true! Even if it's very difficult to believe that these goals could be achieved by 2015, it is still true that people are doing something and improving the situation day by day. And we can all do something for it too; simple little things like discussing these things with people or donating a school bag to our friends in Tanzania! I honestly believe they will both make a change in people's attitudes, and make you feel good about yourself too by making this world a little bit better!

Niko Karonen said...

Many of those who die before age of five are sick or don’t have enough food or water. So if we send more money to third world countries they get better healthcare and more food and wells. When I am talking about better healthcare, what means: more vaccinations, better doctors and more hospitals. When we send workers to poor countries they get wells and doctors who can teach the locals some healthcare.

heidi said...

Developing countries needs more clinics and information.Because there yougngirls get chirldren and mothers don`t have enough knowledge about healthcare and they have a lot of wrong information.Maybe courses are good idea.There they could learn important things.Cleanwater is more difficult thing.Sometimes I feel like water is more valuable than gold or money.

hannah kohler said...

I strongly agree with everything said above. When I look at children, I see curiosity and wonder in their eyes. I see them happy to be alive. But, of course those are just the children I see daily, here in the U.S. I have never been to Africa or any other third world country and I have never confronted a child on the verge of death at the age of five. I get the impression that because we are not face to face with these problems every day, we act as if they do not exist, and we act like there is nothing we can do about it. Which, of course is entirely false, because we have the power to do everything about it.

Children should not be dying every day from lack of food, sanitation, etc. Every child should have the right to live, rich or poor. Every person should have health care, food, water, shelter, clothing..

There are currently many, many projects going on to help send money and food and clothing, but what else can be done? Maybe we just need to do more of it. We should take extra time out of our lives to help the less fortunate. It's only a matter of who is willing to help and how far they are willing to go. It can be done.

-Hannah Kohler, student of Robert Thompson

Annelie Butz said...

Jag tycker ocksa som den foregaende skriften, Man ser ofta exemplar av detta pa tv och man hor i skolan om hur barn i andra delar av varlden barn lider av hunger och sjukdom. Men varfor reagerar inte den "rika" delen av varlden och halper till? Om vi alla gjorde lite, tillsammans kan vi gora en stor skillnad. Vi lever i ett land som har sa stor influence pa resten av varlden, vi maste "parkera" vara egon och koncentrera oss pa "issues" som verkling gor varlden ett battre stalle att leva i.

-Annelie Butz,student of Robert Thompson

medinahaukipudas said...

Vad fint att få läsa svenska här också! Really great to be able to read Swedish here too! Annelie and Hannah are right, we should do even more to help! Unfortunately, it's not us who get to decide about our countries' development aid. It's the leaders of the rich countries who have the power, and, sadly, they don't seem to have the will nor the desire to make poverty history. Maybe in the future, when your generation gets to decide, things will be better!