Every Five Seconds, A Child Dies From Hunger Related Causes
On Thursday, July 07, 2011
Sometimes it's easy to forget. In the past few weeks, thousands of people across the United States tuned in to the Casey Anthony trial. The media has been all over this story. If you're not passionately enraged about the not-guilty verdict (or passionately arguing that our nation's justice system has been upheld), you undoubtedly know at least a handful of people who are.
As a mother of a 2-year-old, I am acutely aware of the value of Caylee's lost life and the tragedy of that loss. I cannot even fathom what my daughter's death would do to me. The fact remains, however, that all of the passion and negative energy that is going into people's reactions to the Anthony case will do absolutely nothing to bring Caylee back. In this case, the general public–no matter how mad it gets–is powerless.
This year, nearly 9 million children under five around the world will die; more than one third of those deaths will be related to hunger. It's July, which means that roughly 4.5 million kids have already died. Where is their media coverage? Who is on trial for their deaths? Why aren't people angrier about this?
Children in rural areas of developing nations–areas where Heifer does most of our work–are nearly two times as likely to be underweight than their urban counterparts.
Through the Millenium Development Goals, the United Nations has set goals to dramatically change the world. Since 2000, the UN has tracked what's working and where gaps persist. While global poverty rates have substantially declined, hunger and child death rates are not declining quickly enough.
Depending on how quickly you read, about 15 kids under five died since you started reading this post.
Sadly, there's nothing we can do for Caylee now. But for the millions of preventable deaths of children around the world, there are many things we can do. Let's put some energy into thinking of what those things are. List your suggestions here, and I'll do a follow-up post with your ideas and some of my own.