Being a mother takes courage. Being an expectant mother in desperate poverty takes courage and so much more.

Each year more than 500,000 mothers die in childbirth or from pregnancy complications, most of which are preventable. The babies who survive while their mothers die are much more likely to die in their first year of life.

Facts About Child Survival

• About half of all deaths of children younger than 5 are caused by malnutrition.
• Brain development starts five weeks after conception and is most affected by nutrition between mid-gestation and 2 years of age.
• Four million babies die each year in their first month of life. Half of these babies die in the first 24 hours of life.

Our Child Survival Program strives to reduce the troubling mortality statistics. (more…)

Jaime is 11 years old and lives in the La Prosperina neighborhood. He had the happy opportunity to be registered at Jesús es Amor Student Center about six years ago.

Jaimito, as many of his friends call him, is a very joyful, outgoing, obedient and disciplined child. He truly loves his parents and siblings, and most of all he has surrendered his heart to God.

Jaime and his four siblings — Jesús (16), Jonathan (9), Allison (5) and Aarón (3) — live with their parents, Jaime and María, in the basement of a humble house. Jaimito’s grandma on his dad’s side gave the house to the family 16 years ago. It was once a warehouse full of old and useless stuff, but now it is Jaimito’s home.

Jaime’s father doesn’t have a steady job. He’s an artisan who makes plaster layers that are used in roofs in most houses on the coast. Currently, he works at a little artisanal factory. He makes U.S. $40 every week.

On the other hand, María, Jaime’s mother, doesn’t work. She does all the chores at home and takes care of her five children. She would love to find a job that would enable her to sustain her family too.

María graduated as a nurse’s helper a short while ago. She took a one-year course at a local institute.

Jaimito: A Day in His Own Words

Normally, I get up at 6:30 a.m. and get myself ready to go to the center. I wash my face, brush my teeth, and then have breakfast with my family.

My mom usually puts a cup of coffee and a piece of bread or some crackers on the table for each of us. Breakfast is the coolest time of the day because my entire family is there.

After that, I take my medicine — the one that the doctor prescribed. She’s the doctor from the center. She’s really kind and always treats me nicely. She also encourages me a lot. I know she will totally help me to get well soon.

I leave for the center around 8:30 a.m. (more…)

Today is the Day of the African Child. Not a well known day for most, but an important day for the children of Africa who this day celebrates and remembers.

The African child is a resilient one, as many on the African continent must gather up great energy each day just to survive. The constant onslaught of risks and dangers that they face is more than many of us can imagine and more than any child should bear. HIV, AIDS, malaria, diarrhea, malnutrition…..just a few of the barriers that these children must overcome to live healthy and fulfilling lives.

After having spent a good deal of time living and traveling to Africa, I have been amazed and incredibly blessed by being around these children. They have taught me more than any textbook could, and have given me strength when I needed it most.

Here’s to the millions of children in Africa that could use our prayers and support as they continue to face the harshest of environments.

Let’s commit to remembering them and praying for the continued success of this ministry that seeks to serve them and bring them out of their poverty.

I have read various articles, columns and statistics on the state of Christendom in America, and the prognosis isn’t good. Christian commentators across the country are doing their best to encourage our churches to get back to the basics, but their pleas seem to fall on deaf ears.

But underneath the apparent complacency plaguing our churches is a revival that God is stirring in the hearts of our young people.

Like the young boy David who faced the giant Goliath when grown men cowered in fear, it’s times like this that God calls on our young people to bring a revival to His army – to the Church of God.

In my last post, I mentioned how 14-year-old Emily Blake raised tens of thousands of dollars to reach out to as many as 100 children in Kenya suffering from malnutrition and poor hygiene. Now once again, it is another teen who is reaching out to make a difference for children and their families halfway around the world.

Seventeen-year-old Jordan Foxworthy, daughter of comedian Jeff Foxworthy, recently had the opportunity to see the devastating effects of malaria while visiting Kenya with her family.

Being moved to action, she helped start the Bite Back Against Mosquitoes campaign.

Through this campaign, she enlisted many other teens to join the fight against malaria and is encouraging the rest of us to join the fight as well.

Watch a video segment of Jordan talking about the Bite Back campaign on Christian World News.

The theme for World Malaria Day 2009 is “Count Malaria Out.”

“This year’s World Malaria Day marks a critical moment in time. The international malaria community has merely two years to meet the 2010 targets of delivering effective and affordable protection and treatment to all people at risk of malaria, as called for by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon.”

- www.rollbackmalaria.org

You can help “Count Malaria Out” through our Bite Back Campaign.

Malaria begins with a bite. We believe that we can end malaria by taking a bigger bite.

Your $10 bite will purchase a bed net for a child, and that bed net can protect the child for three years.

• Donate a net.
• Visit the Bite Back Web site to learn more.

Jeff Foxworthy’s 14-year-old daughter, Jordan, is taking a bite. A huge bite. She has helped raise more than half a million dollars for Bite Back.

Oh yeah! The answer to yesterday’s malaria question is false.

Although malaria is an easily preventable disease, because of increasing drug resistance and struggling health-care systems, malaria infections in Africa have actually increased during the last three decades.

(Source: malarianomore.org, November 2008)

This is the last of our malaria questions. Tomorrow morning we’ll publish the answer in the comment section of this post, and we’ll also include the answer in our World Malaria Day post.

The answer to yesterday’s question 90 percent.

Ninety percent of those who die from malaria are African children.

Through our Malaria Intervention Fund, Compassion-assisted children have access to insecticide-treated mosquito nets and malaria prevention education, and those struggling with the disease have access to malaria medical treatment.

(Source: nothingbutnets.net/malaria-kills/, November 2008)

Tomorrow morning we’ll publish the answer in the comment section of this post AND right here, like this.

The answer to yesterday’s question is 41 percent.

Forty-one percent of the world’s people live in areas where malaria is transmitted, including parts of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Central and South America, Hispaniola and Oceania.

(Source: cdc.gov/malaria/facts.htm, November 2008)