An opportunity for the Church to lead
It's going to be a significant year for Canada. With the upcoming Vancouver Winter Olympics and then the G8/G20 Summits, the eyes of the world will be looking to our nation.
And yet, there is another challenge of Olympic proportion that remains to be overcome.
The year 2010 marks the two-thirds point in the world's timeline for achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals established by the United Nations almost 10 years ago.
Many will recall the historic time in September 2000 when 189 world leaders came together at United Nations Headquarters in New York to adopt the United Nations Millennium Declaration. The declaration committed the largest number of world powers in the history of humankind to making the world a better place by establishing a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty.
Under the global partnership for development, action has been taken and progress has been made. But more than halfway to the target date of 2015, much remains to be accomplished, particularly among the world's youngest and most vulnerable citizens.
One of the goals toward which the least amount of progress has been made is goal four: reducing child mortality. Unless governments put forward a significant new effort to achieving targets associated with this goal, there is little hope it will be reached by the 2015 deadline.
It is a chronic emergency; 8.8 million children under the age of five die every year, most of them from preventable causes. Malnutrition and lack of access to quality health care (such as pre and post natal care, birth attendants, immunizations and treatment for illnesses) and basic infrastructure—including water and sanitation—continue to cause sickness and death among infants, children and their mothers. We know that six million of them could be saved, if we work harder to ensure better nutrition, clean water and access to health care.
In my work with children over the past 35 years—as a parent and grandparent, a lay leader in my church and the leader of an organization whose focus is on children—I've come to appreciate the tremendous potential God builds in to each and every child. And I consider it deplorable that more than 24,000 children under five—their lives filled with God-given potential—die every day. I know I'm not alone.
A recent Ipsos Reid poll commissioned by World Vision Canada that reveals that 85 per cent of Canadians want our country to be known as a global leader in finding solutions to poverty and protecting the world's children. Nine in ten (88 per cent) say Canada should use its influence in hosting the G8 and G20 to make sure promises to reduce child deaths are kept.
Of all Canadians, those who follow Christ know we are called to love our neighbours, and we know we have a responsibility to care for those who cannot care for themselves.
That's why Canadian Christians need to take the lead in urging our government to make child and maternal health a top priority at the G8/G20 Summits, and to significantly increase Canada's funding support for programs on saving the lives of women and children who are under the age of five.
The fact is, right now, donor aid for maternal, newborn and child health accounts for only three per cent of global aid.
We need our government to address this silent emergency by making significant new investments in child health. And we need the prime minister to use his influence as host of the G8 and G20 meetings to push other countries to take action on child health.
This is an incredible opportunity for Canada to provide global leadership. And it's an opportunity for the Canadian Church to put into action our love and concern for all God's children in the world beyond our borders.
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