FIVE FOR 5 CAMPAIGN BACKGROUNDER
World Vision Canada’s Five for 5 campaign is designed to address the unacceptable reality that 8.8 million children under the age of five—virtually all of whom live in poor countries—die each year of preventable causes.
We are outraged whenever a small child in Canada dies, especially from a preventable cause. And we should be. We can’t continue to let it happen anywhere else in the world anymore.
The purpose of the campaign is to call on Canadians to urge our government to make child and maternal health the top priority at the June 2010 G8 Summit in Muskoka, to significantly increase Canada’s funding support for programs focused on saving the lives of women and children who are under the age of five and to urge other G8 countries to do the same.
Through Five for 5—which launches November 26, 2009—World Vision is asking Canadians to: “Take five minutes. Do five things. Help save a child’s life.”
The five things we are asking Canadians to do are:
- Know - understand what causes child deaths and how they can be stopped
- Act - send a message to your MP asking for action from the Canadian government
- Share - get your friends and family involved
- Join - join the Justice Network to stay connected to campaign actions and developments
- Support - make a financial contribution to WV or other organizations working to support children and their families
Over 24,000 children under five years of age die every day. Through years of field experience, World Vision understands the simple interventions needed to address this chronic emergency. Interventions such as: child and maternal nutrition (breastfeeding education, provision of micronutrients, community education regarding how to grow, harvest and prepare nutritious meals), disease prevention (through access to potable water, proper latrines, and understanding and practicing basic hygiene), and access to basic health services (pre and post natal care, birth attendants, immunizations and treatment for illnesses).
But World Vision alone is not able to stem the tide of this tragedy. Canada and other governments must take primary responsibility.
Five for 5 is the first phase of a five-year campaign, the goal of which is to improve child health globally and to reduce child mortality by two thirds by 2015. It is part of “Child Health Now,” World Vision International’s first-ever global campaign focused on a single issue.
Our hope is that through this campaign, millions more children will live to see their fifth birthday.
