Child Health NowAndy Freeman - 14 Mar 2011

When people start to talk about children, and the hope of future generations, there is sometimes a tendency to get cheesy.  “We believe the children are our future ...”  has become a joke rather than the truth it should be. They are. Our kids, children around us, they are the future. 

The thing is that they’re the present too, and around the world many children are under threat.

At the turn of the Millenium, the United Nations set itself some goals to see the world changed.  Three goals have children at their heart:

• Goal 4 is about reducing child mortality.
• Goal 5 is about the healthcare for mothers giving birth.
• Goal 6 is about HIV/AIDS and one focus is it’s impact on children.  

But According to UNICEF Goal 4 (reducing child mortality) is the Millenium Development Goal which is “most off track”.* 

In the Industrialised World, 7 out of every 1000 children die before they are 5 years old.  In Sub-Saharan Africa this stands at 174 out of 1000. 

For the last six months, I’ve been given the task by 24-7 of exploring some of these issues around Child Health.  My question was how can we pray ?  I wasn’t prepared for the impact it would have on me.
I’m conscious you could be from any part of the world reading this article.  Yet it’s likely that you live in a country where basic healthcare, especially for children, is taken for granted.  Yet globally the picture is very different.

• 11 million children die each year from preventable causes.  About 29,000 children under 5 die every day.  An Ethiopian child is 30 times more likely to die by his or her fifth birthday than a child in Western Europe.
• 70% of these child deaths are attributable to six causes: diarrhoea, malaria, neonatal infection, pneumonia, preterm delivery, or lack of oxygen at birth.
• UNICEF states “the majority of these deaths are preventable.  Some of the deaths occur from illnesses like measles, malaria or tetanus. Others result indirectly from marginalization, conflict and HIV/AIDS.  Malnutrition and the lack of safe water and sanitation contribute to half of all these children’s deaths.”
• Many nations have inadequate health systems to cope with the basic issues of child health.
• Significant barriers exist between the poorest and most marginalised communities and the health care they need.  These barriers can be financial, social, racial or practical.
• Of the 33 million people living with AIDS globally in 2008, 2 million were children.  In 2008 alone 0.43million new AIDS cases were detected amongst children.   AIDS also orphans children.  Worldwide, it is estimated that more than 15 million children under 18 have been orphaned by AIDS. Around 11.6 million of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa. In countries like Zambia and Botswana which are badly affected by the epidemic, 20 percent of all children are orphans - most of whom have been orphaned by AIDS.*

I’d like to issue a challenge to the 24-7 Prayer movement: I’d like to ask us to take time to pray and to act on behalf of children and their health around the world.  

James wrote in his letter that “the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well” (James 5:16). 

We know that God answers our prayers for the sick.  We know sometimes this is through miracles, we know sometimes this is through medicine, we know too that often this is through our action - by taking a conscious step to stand with those who are suffering.

11 Million children need our prayers and action.

We’re teaming up with our friends at World Vision, a global development agency,  to provide regular a regular prayer focus on Child Health. 

World Vision’s key aim over the next five years is tackling Child Health issues.  Their “Child Health Now” campaign will press governments to deliver on their commitment to help achieve the United Nation’s health-related Millennium Development Goals.

Their campaign aims to:

reduce child mortality by two-thirds by 2015, particularly in the poorest and most marginal regions of the world, raise awareness of, and provoke greater public discourse about, child mortality and inform and persuade decision-makers and governments to do all they can to keep children healthy.

Make a Prayer, Ask a Question, Take a Step.

Can I ask you to respond in three very simple ways to pray about these issues?

Make a Prayer.

Go to your local pharmacy and buy a packet of Plasters/BandAid.  Stick one on your hand and pray for God to intervene on behalf of children around the world.  Wear it for as long as it stays on.  When it falls off, put on another and pray again.

Ask a Question.

Ask God if there a specific issue that God wants to speak to you about.  If you sense there is, go and explore it.

Take a Step.

We’d like to encourage you to sign World Vision’s global Child Health Petition. (choose your country from the map to select the right petition for you)  We believe in the action World Vision are taking and want to be a part of the work they’re doing, we’d encourage you to do the same.

Over the coming months we'll be posting updates on the Just24-7 pages of this site, let's Pray, Question and Act together.

*http://www.unicef.org/mdg/index_childmortality.htm

**Statistics from World Vision, UNICEF and the UK National Health Service