Good Sanitation Can Save Thousands Of Lives

Most of the time people ignore the matter of proper sanitation as it is an unglamorous issue. I mean who wants to talk about sanitation if issues like hunger and health are around? But good hygiene can save thousands of lives by reducing the amount of deaths from diarrhea. Children under five around the world are the most vulnerable to poor hygiene and inadequate sanitation, two of the major causes of diarrhoea. According to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the disease kills at least 1.2 million children under five each year, but with proper sanitation cases of diarrhoea in children under five can be reduced by a third.

In order to ensure the well-being of millions of people around the world, the United Nations launched the program “Sustainable sanitation: The Five-Year-Drive to 2015” yesterday as part of its goal of halving the proportion of the population without access to basic sanitation by 2015. The main message of the new drive is that sanitation is vital for health, brings dignity, equality and safety, represents a good economic investment and sustains clean environments.

Access to sanitation has been recognized by the UN as a human right, a basic service required to live a normal life. It can be noted that, some 2.6 billion people – or half the population in the developing world – still lack access to good sanitation. The drive will call for an end to open defecation, the most dangerous sanitation practice for public health which is being practiced by over 1.1 billion people worldwide.

-Nisha Noor

SOURCE: UN NEWS CENTRE

Sign The Petition, Now!

Those of you who are looking for a way to help impoverished children, here's your chance! All you have to do is to sign a petition for ONE and save 4 million kids' lives in the next 5 years.

Every year in the developing world, nearly 1 out of 3 child deaths is caused by diarrhea or pneumonia. These two preventable diseases kill more kids than malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis combined. Crazy, isn't it? But for the very first time, we’ve got two new vaccines—one for pneumonia, one for diarrhea—that will protect kids for the rest of their lives.

We've only got a few weeks to make it happen because in just a few short weeks, the White House will decide how much to pledge to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (called GAVI). It is our responsibility to tell them that every kid deserves a healthy life, and we must take measures to ensure that.

ONE's petition reads like this:

"Childhood vaccines are one of the most cost-effective ways to save lives and prevent disease for a lifetime. Please fund two proven, new vaccines that will help stop pneumonia and diarrhea—two of the biggest killers of children in poor countries."

You can sign the petition at http://www.one.org/us/actnow/vaccines2011/

Mother Teresa once said, "It is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.” It is high time we change the saying. It is high time we make sure that no child dies to make us live. I have already signed the petition, and I am hoping you will do your part as well!

-Nisha Noor

SOURCE: ONE