For the average Canadian, turning 40 is a time to celebrate, often with a party and a joke or two. It's time to enter your peak earning years as you juggle your kids' schedules and pay down the mortgage. With decades more to live, you can afford to relax. There's plenty of time to live life and achieve our dreams.

But for many people living in developing countries, turning 40 is a milestone of a different kind. In some parts of the world, the chances of living that long are slim.

Compare Canada's average life expectancy with some African countries:

Why This is So
There are many reasons why the average person in these African countries may not live beyond 40.

To begin with, they are unlikely to be able to afford immunization against preventable childhood diseases, such as measles. More than half a million people, the majority of them children, died from measles in 2003.

Preventable childhood diseases aren't the only obstacles. People in poor countries often don't have access to clean drinking water. Any number of water-borne diseases can be contracted from drinking contaminated water, including diarrhea, which kills 2.2 million people a year, mostly children in developing countries.

Then there's the AIDS pandemic, which is having a devastating impact on the developing world.

The very lowest life expectancy rate worldwide is Swaziland at 32.6. Although it has reasonable rates of literacy and primary school enrolments, it also has the highest rate of HIV infection in the world. In Swaziland, 38.8 per cent of 15 to 49 year-olds are infected with the virus.

Even in parts of the world with ongoing wars, life expectancy is higher than this (for example, in the Democratic Republic of Congo it is 51.5).

Basic Opportunities Transform Lives
Fortunately, all of these challenges are preventable. Something as simple as a course of immunization, HIV and AIDS education, or a community toilet can make all the difference.

That's why much of World Vision's work is in the area of health.

World Vision projects include building health care clinics and training people to become qualified health professionals, such as birth attendants, nurses, and doctors.

Staff members also work to provide education on health issues, so that people know how to protect themselves and their children.

Other projects involve digging wells so communities have access to clean drinking water, often for the first time.

After all, shouldn't everyone have the chance to live beyond his or her 40th birthday?

What You Can Do
Click here help World Vision bring safe water to children and their families.