Remember the sights, sounds and feelings from your child or grandchild’s 5th birthday party and the joy and changes experienced during those first five years of life. Now, consider the 20,000 children dying every day from treatable and preventable diseases.
Remarkably, in the past 30 years, the number of children dying every year around the world has been cut in half because of global partners working together to get simple vaccines and antibiotics to children to fight common killers like pneumonia and diarrhea.
This week, world leaders are gathering in Washington, D.C., for a “Call to Action” co-hosted by the United States, India, Ethiopia and UNICEF with the intention of creating a step-by-step road map for ending preventable childhood death within a generation. Within a generation!
Most of the costs of these programs will be carried by the 10 countries with the highest number of deaths from pneumonia and diarrhea, but continued support by the U.S. and other donor countries is necessary for this goal to be achieved.