The Best Gift to Give - for only Six Cents!
What your money can actually buy? Six cents can provide one packet of oral re-hydration salts for one child to treat severe dehydration and diarrhea, a leading cause of death among young children. Thirty seven dollars can provide a small scale micro-filter, water purifier, and disinfectant used to eliminate harmful micro-organisms in turbid water in cases of emergency.
Look around you! What you see is an accurate portrayal of the inequalities in the world. It is important to remember that people are born into these circumstances randomly, just as you were randomly assigned to a group.
Today, 10.5 million kids in developing countries die each year of preventable diseases before their fifth birthday. Together – with your assistance – we can turn this unacceptable situation into history. We hope you will help us accomplish this mission by joining us educating, advocating and fundraising on behalf of UNICEF.
Of the 2.2 billion children in the world 1 billion live in poverty meaning they are severely deprived of adequate drinking water, food, decent sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education, and information. That is almost 1 out of every 2 children! What can you do to make a difference? Educate your community about this issue. It is a great way to raise awareness and help people understand some of the harsh realities faced by children living in poverty.
Thanks for
joining "Water, Source of Life" partners in awareness, and UNICEF to save children’s lives. UNICEF has saved more
children’s lives than any other humanitarian organization on earth for
one crucial reason: UNICEF is the best equipped to tackle the major
child killers like malaria and pneumonia and malnutrition and AIDS. Thank you for all you do on behalf of the world’s children!
Rerefence:
UNICEF at Work: http://www.unicefusa.org/work/water/
World Water Crisis: www.FreshWaterAlert.org
About Poverty:
Poverty has many faces. Unfortunately, many of them are children’s. According to the United Nations, poverty is “a human condition, characterized by the sustained or chronic depravation, of the resources, capabilities, choices, security and power necessary for the enjoyment of an adequate standard of living and other civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights.” In other words, living in poverty has physical, emotional and spiritual consequences that drastically affect the quality of life of children and their potential for success as adults.
Poverty causes lifelong damage to children's minds and bodies, turning them into adults that perpetuate the cycle of poverty by transmitting it to their children. Poverty embodies several factors that threaten childhood. Each factor exacerbates the effect of the others, and when two or more coincide, the effects on children can be tragic. Children who must walk long distances to fetch water have less time to attend school – a problem that particularly affects girls. Children who are not immunized or who are malnourished are much more susceptible to the diseases that are spread through poor sanitation. These and other deprivations, such as lack of adequate shelter and access to social services inhibit children’s ability to achieve their full potential.
"Water, Source
of Life" campaign focus on the unequal distribution of safe and clean drinking WATER, but for
those living in poverty; it is a far more comprehensive experience.
According to the working definition of children In poverty given in
UNICEF’s publication The State of the World’s Children 2005, “Children
living in poverty experience deprivation of the material, spiritual,
and emotional resources needed to survive, develop and thrive, leaving
them unable to enjoy their rights, achieve their full potential or
participate as full and equal members of society.” Just as we cannot
recreate all of the consequences of poverty, we cannot recreate all of
its causes. What you can do today is gain better understandings of what
poverty looks like and begin exploring what each of us can do to make a
difference!
Contact: Water, Source of LIfe Campaign Team
About UNICEF
More than 2.6 billion people – forty per cent of the world’s
population – lack basic sanitation facilities, and over one billion
people still use unsafe drinking water sources. As a result, thousands
of children die every day from diarrhea and other water-, sanitation-
and hygiene-related diseases and many more suffer and are weakened by
illness.
The lack of access to safe water and sanitation has many other
serious repercussions. Children – and particularly girls – are denied
their right to education because they are busy fetching water or are
deterred by the lack of separate and decent sanitation facilities in
schools. Women are forced to spend large parts of their day fetching
water. Poor farmers and wage earners are less productive due to
illness, and national economies suffer. Without safe water and
sanitation, sustainable development is impossible.
UNICEF works
in more than 90 countries around the world to improve
water supplies and sanitation facilities in schools and communities,
and to promote safe hygiene practices. UNICEF sponsors a wide range of
activities and work with many partners, including families,
communities, governments and like-minded organizations. In emergencies
UNICEF provide surgent relief to communities and nations threatened by
disrupted water supplies and disease. All UNICEF water and sanitation
programmes are designed to contribute to the Millennium Development
Goal for water and sanitation: to halve, by 2015, the proportion of
people without sustainable access to safe water and basic sanitation.
For more info, please go to: www.UNICEF.org
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