CNN To Highlight UNICEF and Child Survival Sunday

CNN will highlight the work of UNICEF in a special program to air this coming Sunday, July 6, 2008 at 8PM and repeated at 11PM EST. This is an excellent program and relates to the CNN Survival Project. You can learn more here.

If you are traveling this weekend, set your recorders to record the program. If we hear about a downloadable podcast, we will feature it in our next newsletter. Our colleagues at UNICEF deserve a lot of praise for their continued work around the globe helping children and their families.

Thank you.

-Andrew E. Barrier, Ph.D., Executive Director, US Coalition for Child Survival (USCCS)

In Ethiopia, only enough food for the “hungriest”

The food crisis has taken its harshest toll on the poorest countries, Ethiopia being one of the hardest hit.

From the Christian Science Monitor :

In this African nation, about 10 million people, more than 12 percent of the population, are now in need of emergency food aid after a drought wiped out harvests. But because grain is now twice as expensive as a year ago – if it is available at all – there is not enough food in Ethiopia to feed everyone in need.

The UN estimates that 4.6 million Ethiopians are suffering from “severe malnutrition,”, but the lack of food is so severe that foreign and domestic aid-workers need to “prioritize” who is the most needy. Some have take to weighing children on wooden scales and providing food rations to the most malnourished.

UNICEF has made an appeal for $49 million to go towards “immediate intervention” in Ethiopia. UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Hilde F. Johnson emphasized the severity of the situation:

“We talked to mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers and all actors in the field. This picture was confirmed by all of them and a clear message was conveyed: there is no food. The assistance needs to be taken to scale and it has to happen urgently.”

-Betsy Avila

UNICEF reports some success in the fight against HIV/AIDS

UNICEF announced yesterday that some progress is being made in preventing and treating HIV/AIDS in children. According to UNICEF’s “Children and AIDS: Second Stocktaking Report”, significant improvements have been made in reducing rates of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and increasing the number of children receiving life-saving antiretroviral drugs (ARVs). In 2006, 350,000 HIV-positive pregnant women in low- and middle-income countries received drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission, a 60% increase from 2005. Also in 2006, more than 125,000 HIV-positive children were receiving AIDS treatment, up 70% from the year before.

In particular, steady progress has been made in eastern and southern Africa. Two years ago, only 11% of HIV-positive pregnant women in the region were receiving drugs to prevent transmission of the virus to their babies. That number rose to 31% by 2006. The number of children receiving ARVs also rose dramatically, from 70,000 to 127,000 over the same period.

Despite this progress, the world is still far from reaching UNICEF’s target of 80% treatment coverage by 2010. “Poor geographical service reach, aggravated by weak health systems, and the fear, stigma and denial that discourage many women from being tested for HIV are significant barriers to wider coverage,” the report said.

- Jessica Warren

World Water Day 2008 (T- 3 days)

Our friends at Water Advocates compiled this list of upcoming World Water Day events.

Beginning Sunday, March 16 through Saturday, March 22, restaurants will invite their customers to donate a minimum of $1 for the tap water they would normally get for free. These donations to UNICEF will go towards improving access to safe water and sanitation facilities in schools and communities, while promoting safe hygiene practices in more than 90 countries around the world. Plug in your zip code to find restaurants in your city.

World Water Day 2008 will be celebrated by the UN on Thursday, March 20. In New York you can help bring awareness to the sanitation crisis by “standing up for those that can’t sit down.”

PSI will host a World Water Day discussion about their Safe Water Programs, the successes and challenges, and the way forward on March 20 from 3:30-5:00 PM. If interested, please RSVP to akhanna@psi.org.

Celebrate World Water Day with Water For People on Friday, March 21. Raffles and speakers-including Amy Hart - Filmmaker, WATER FIRST-will make the evening one to remember.

If in Louisville, KY, join Edge Outreach on March 21, 2008 for a night of music, water and film. Join speakers and hear stories of what is being done for those without water and sanitation.

The DC Environmental Film Festival will have several water movies showing on World Water Day March 22. There is also a panel of water experts at 4:00 PM that day from Water Advocates, the Global Water Challenge, Natural Resources Defense Council and ConservationStrategy.

Join the Global Water Challenge, Water Advocates and others at the Student Movement for Real Change event on March 22: “Water is Life: Youth Leading Change on World Water Day”.

In 2007, 69 cities across the United States passed resolutions acknowledging March 22 as World Water Day. Join those interested in promoting World Water Day in a variety of events across the country.

WaterAid America in conjunction with the American Museum of Natural History present a panel discussion exploring the burden unsafe water and sanitation place on women, and the role women can play in water and sanitation development interventions. The discussion will be held on World Water Day, March 22.

Attention runners: join in an effort to raise awareness about the global water and sanitation challenge and help build a borehole well in the Azawak Valley, Niger - sign up for a Run for Water on March 22.

The Global Health Council will hold a briefing on Capitol Hill called “The Link Between Clean Water and Health.” The briefing will be on March 26 at 12:30 PM on Capitol Hill.