According to the World Health Organization, about 80 percent of all illnesses in the developing world are caused by the lack of potable water and adequate sanitation; lack of safe water is also among the chief causes of sickness and death in children.

In Mexico, it is estimated that as many as 24 million people live in extreme poverty and lack adequate sanitation systems. Many of them are without access to clean and safe water.

Rodrigo, 16, has attended the Enlaces Amigo Child Development Center since he was 8 years old. As a young child he was very ill. His mother recalls those hard times:

“Five of my seven children got sick, all at once. They had fever and diarrhea. I gave them some remedies and most of them got better but Rodrigo was getting worse. He was already very skinny and then he started throwing up.

“I thought he was going to die. But I knew that God existed and I asked Him from the bottom of my heart to heal my son and to let him live.”

After receiving medical attention and medicine for typhoid fever through Compassion’s Child Sponsorship Program, Rodrigo’s health was restored. He has been part of our program ever since.

He is now a tall, handsome young man who attends school and helps his mother support the family in her home-based business.

Rodrigo shares,

“To me, Compassion has been of great help. My father abandoned us and I got sick. I believed in the [Compassion] program because they helped me through my sickness.

“I remember I was isolated from my family and friends because it is a contagious disease. I had fever and diarrhea and I felt very tired or weak all the time. After the treatment they kept taking care of me and then I received medical checkups every six months.”

Rodrigo and his mother are the only Christians in their family, and Rodrigo has witnessed the struggles and sacrifices his mom has made to support them.

Rodrigo attends high school and dreams of becoming an electrical and mechanical engineer.

In the future, Rodrigo would like to work for PEMEX, Mexico’s state-run oil company, designing and maintaining their equipment. He would like to start using machines that would be environmentally friendly.

During the mornings Rodrigo attends school. In the afternoon he helps his mother with their juice and shakes business.

Outside their home they have stools and a counter where they prepare fruit shakes and fruit juices for the people on the street. On most mornings, they are rushed by mothers taking their children to school; these moms buy milkshakes for their children to have something healthy to drink.

The entire family lives off the revenues of the juice stand – about $10 per day. Subtract the amount they spend for water, fruits, milk and ice and the family takes home approximately $5 per day.

For Rodrigo’s family, obtaining clean water has helped them stay healthy.

Before the water purification plant was established, they purchased water from a little cart pulled by a motorcycle and had to boil the water before drinking. The cost of the water and of the gas to boil it was too high for their regular income.

Now that they are able to buy the water in five-gallon containers for only 45 cents, they are able to save money and stay healthy.

Rodrigo is one of the many local beneficiaries of the Child Sponsorship Program and the water purification plant. He has experienced a dramatic change: from being malnourished and sick to being a healthy young man with dreams and expectations for the future.

In response to one of the foremost needs of Rodrigo’s community, the Implementing Church Partner (ICP) taught the community about improving the health of their children. Upon learning that Compassion was partnering with Healing Waters International to provide water projects to communities in need, Rodrigo’s community teamed with the ICP to apply for a purification plant in their neighborhood.

In 2009, the church and child development center inaugurated the water purification plant that now serves the community. Many people benefit from this clean water. In addition, the elementary school and the kindergarten refill their water jugs at the development center at a very low cost and with excellent quality.

Pastor Abelardo of the ICP shares,

“This Complementary Intervention was of great impact to the whole community of Mapastepec, but above all, to the children’s families. They have greatly benefited and the family economy was strengthened by paying for the water at a low cost.

“Now, families have clean, purified water that will help them to decrease gastrointestinal diseases.

“We are now sure that the children drink purified water not only in the child development center, but also in their homes. This gives satisfaction to the project.”

The water purification plant works with the support from the child development center and Healing Waters, and sells more 100 five-gallon-jugs of safe water each day. The community has even hired a member of the ICP to manage the plant full time.

Rodrigo tells us,

“The benefits are for all. [The purified water] is cheap and with good quality. When we buy this water we are benefited.”

Rodrigo is now old enough to understand that his life was once threatened by the circumstances around him. One simple element — like water — became a life-threatening monster empowered by poverty. But Rodrigo is no longer one of the negative statistics; he is healthy and strong and on his way to a bright future.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

According to a recent study by the U.N.’s World Health Organization, good progress is being made on health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

• Fewer children are dying.
• The estimated percentage of underweight children under 5 has dropped.
• New HIV infections have declined.
• Existing cases of tuberculosis are declining.
• The world is on track to achieve the MDG target on access to safe drinking water.

Let’s just pause for a moment to let this sink in. We are making progress. Let’s celebrate this!

Of course, this doesn’t mean we can slow down in our fight against global poverty. If anything, seeing progress should motivate us to work even harder. And, as has been mentioned around here before, eliminating extreme poverty is just a matter of priorities.

The annual income of Christian American churchgoers is $5.2 trillion. The amount of money needed to end global poverty is about $74 billion a year. … Basically, 1 percent of our annual income a year is what is needed to end extreme poverty.

So the question is, what are your priorities?

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

This is the home of Amina, a toddler enrolled in the local Child Survival Program (CSP). At the back of the homestead lies waste from the nearby kitchen. On the other side of the home are thick bushes of indigenous trees.

As the CSP specialist visited the mother, mosquito bites could be noted on the face of the child. Throughout the session, the TEEEE! TEEEE! sound of mosquitoes could be heard.

In some countries, mosquitoes are just nuisance, but in Riaciina, mosquitoes pose a deadly threat. Mosquito-borne malaria is the major killer disease in the area.

Riaciina village lies in the semi-arid part of Kenya on the extreme southern slopes of the largest mountain in Kenya, Mount Kirinyaga. The occupants are mainly the Ambeere and the Akaamba people whose primary work is farming and fishing.

On the lower side of the community lies the River Tana, the longest river in Kenya. The areas surrounding the river are dumpy and bushy – a breeding ground for mosquitoes. The infestation of the parasites is especially heavy along the riverbanks during rainy season.

Community members cannot escape the mosquitoes, as this is their only water source. Poor sanitation and disposal of kitchen wastes has also increased the mosquito breeding areas. The area has high maternal and infant mortality rates due to malaria-related complications.

According to a report from a nearby dispensary, an estimated 11 percent of mothers die before childbirth, while about 20 percent of children die before 5 years of age due to severe malaria. Lack of adequate food due to poverty, especially during the dry season, and malnutrition have led to low immunity. A survey by the local health officials shows that there has been an increase in the number of malaria cases and deaths reported in the previous year.

The living standard of the community members is low. Many children rarely attend school and the majority of adults are illiterate. Over 70 percent of the entire adult population is jobless. Those who find casual jobs bring home an average of $1.25 per day. This amount of money cannot provide for a large family’s daily meal.

An average mosquito net, which can greatly reduce cases of malaria, costs $3.25. The caregivers cannot afford to buy mosquito nets for all their children.

AIDS is also on the rise in the community. The pandemic has left many children either homeless or under the care of their aged grandparents. These children are exposed to malaria infection since the poor caregivers either cannot afford or have no knowledge of the importance of using insecticide treated mosquito nets (ITNS). Due to their illiteracy, the caregivers have no basic knowledge on malaria preventive measures either.

More than 50 percent of the malaria-associated deaths in the region are the result of less effective antimalarial drugs, poor management and improper diagnosis, and lack of knowledge by the primary caregivers on the importance of early disease interventions.

Some villagers use indigenous plants to create herbal remedies for the treatment of malaria. The herbs and leaves are boiled to form a colored liquor. They have no knowledge on actual dosages; therefore, most of those using the drug are referred to main hospitals with complicated severe malaria. Those who cannot afford transport to main hospitals die as a result.

In 2008, little Amina was admitted to the hospital twice with severe malaria. As a Compassion-assisted child, she was able to receive much-needed treatment and her medical bills were covered by the program. Through malaria education, provision of mosquito nets and removal of the nearby bushes, the child is now healthy and free from malaria.

Tragically, Amina’s sister was not so fortunate.

In 2007, Amina’s elder sister Joyce was 3 years old when she contracted malaria. Joyce had been running a fever and was very weak. Her mother, Agnes, took her to a nearby dispensary. The child was unconscious; her body temperature was high and she had severe febrile convulsions.

According to Agnes, Joyce’s initial treatment was a traditionally prepared herbal remedy that lacked exact doses. Agnes collected herbs and administered them to her daughter without knowing that it would be the last time little Joyce would ever drink the herbal medicine.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO)’s guidelines for the integrated management of childhood illnesses, the child had severe malaria and therefore required urgent referral to a hospital. The family could not afford transport to the far distant hospital. The nearby Kenyan dispensary lacked facilities, so the helpless child died in the hands of her heartbroken mother.

This is one of the many stories in which children die of a disease that could otherwise have been prevented. Despite the tragic loss of her older daughter Joyce, Agnes is grateful that Amina is growing strong and no longer attacked by malaria.

The difference in Amina’s case was the presence of Compassion.

Our CSP staff members work tirelessly, in line with the local health officials, to ensure that the mosquito-breeding places are eradicated. Compassion strives towards this goal so that no other mothers suffer the loss of a child, as Agnes did.

The education by CSP staff on the importance of clearing the nearby bushes, use of treated mosquito nets (ITNS), use of insecticides and early interventions has made progress in reducing malaria in the region. In addition to families enrolled in the Child Survival Program, this information has also been passed to other community members.

During the CSP home-based trainings, the visiting neighbors are never left out. The use of compost pits as advocated by CSP has ensured proper disposal of kitchen waste, minimizing the number of mosquito breeding areas.

The CSP training on malaria is also extended to the pregnant mothers. Malaria is a deadly disease that has severe effects on the growing fetus. Mothers severely hit by the disease have low birth weight babies or even stillbirths as associated with plasmodia in the placenta.

Since malaria has become resistant to most of the common drugs, the government has introduced other strong antimalarial drugs. The drugs are quite efficient in the control of the disease, but are rarely affordable. The use of a sulfur drug (fansidar) during pregnancy has reduced the number of malaria cases among the CSP pregnant mothers.

Our Child Survival Program has changed the lifestyles of many families in Riaciina. A survey by the CSP staff at the end of 2009 showed that:

• More than 90 percent of the community members had compost pits where kitchen wastes are deposited and burned.
• The training on modern methods of farming has led to proper utilization of the available land; most of the bushes where mosquitoes once thrived are now cleared.
• The malaria morbidity and mortality rate among children under 5 years old is now going down progressively.

Malaria has plagued humankind since ancient times and is still a significant threat to half of the world’s population; 3.3 billion people living in 109 countries are at risk of contracting the disease. Estimates suggest that malaria afflicts between 350 and 500 million people every year. In addition, as many as 30,000 visitors to tropical countries are infected annually.

April 25 is a day of unified commemoration of the global effort to provide effective control of malaria around the world. This year’s World Malaria Day marks a critical moment in time. The international malaria community has less than a year 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.

(Excerpt from rollbackmalaria.org)

- Counting Malaria Out: World Malaria Day 2010 Resources

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

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.

Child Survival Program Mission

The mission of our Child Survival Program is:

To rescue infants at risk of dying by providing nutritional information to the pregnant mothers, assisting in the birth, and providing prenatal and postnatal health care and nutrition assistance.

Since infant mortality is extremely high in the developing world, our first priority in promoting effective child development is to ensure that children survive the early years when they are most vulnerable to disease and malnutrition. That means educating the mother or primary caregiver, before and after her child is born, about providing critical care during the earliest years.

Our Child Survival Program provides:

• prenatal care and infant survival training for mothers and caregivers, as well as spiritual guidance and education, such as literacy and income-generation training
• ongoing health screenings and immunizations for the children
• child development training for mother’s of children under 4

We have adopted a strategy (GOBI-FFF), developed by the World Health Organization and UNICEF, to ensure that we address all the issues affecting immediate child survival and children through the first years of life.

GOBI-FFF is an acronym for:

• growth monitoring
• oral rehydration therapy
• breast-feeding
• immunization
• female literacy
• food supplements
• family spacing

Child Survival vs. Child Mortality

The underlying and structural causes of child mortality include:

• poorly resourced, unresponsive and culturally inappropriate health and nutrition services
• lack of food
• inadequate feeding practices
• lack of hygiene and safe water or sanitation
• female illiteracy
• early pregnancy

Basic health interventions such as breast-feeding, immunization, insecticide-treated mosquito nets and vitamin A supplements are highly successful in lowering a child’s risk of death. And according to the World Bank, immunization and vitamin A supplementation are two of the most cost-effective health interventions available today.

Child Survival Program: How It Works

Our local church partners carry out this ministry and contextualize the program to each situation individually and culturally. The church provides the critical interventions such as nutritious food and medical assistance.

Ultimately, success is based on building open and trusting relationships with the mothers and caregivers, so our church partners invite the mothers and caregivers to get involved in a loving, supportive community. The mothers and caregivers learn how to create a safe home environment and provide the essential developmental opportunities needed to raise happy, healthy children with bright futures.

The families also receive spiritual discipling so they can develop a dynamic lifelong relationship with Christ. Children are stronger, caregivers are more confident, and families and communities benefit from their newly discovered physical, emotional and spiritual strength.

The Child Survival Program is a one-to-one home-based program in which Survival Specialists from the church visit homes and educate mothers in the child’s own environment. There, the actual needs of the baby, mother, family and community will be known, seen and met accordingly.

The program is primarily home-based so we can address the immediate needs of the baby and mother.

When you get into a community and find that most children are malnourished, the best way to get to the root cause of this problem is to visit families in the community.

During the visits, we see and learn what the children are fed and why. We observe the cultural reasons for certain practices, and come up with an action plan from a knowledgeable perspective.

In home visits, mothers learn about parenting practices, including hygiene and nutrition, using locally available foods. Only during home visits can we assess whether what we have been teaching has been put into practice.

Home visits create one-to-one relationships where mothers can open up and share their innermost fears, problems and needs.

Support a Child Survival Program

Sources:

• The State of the World’s Children 2009: Maternal and Newborn Health – UNICEF
• Better Brains for Babies – University of Georgia
• Zero to Three – National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates