A Call to Reduce Child Mortality

PDG Jimmy Cura, RC Rizal West
Chair, Promotion of Rotary Values, Ethics & Financial Stewardship
Overall Chairman, Resource Group

“… In 2008-09, I will ask Rotarians everywhere to focus on the most precious resource of every community:  our children. I would like to see reducing the child mortality rate become a key goal of club and district service projects in the year ahead. I ask the entire family of Rotary to make a special effort, in this Rotary year, to focus on projects that will make a difference in the lives of children.”
- Dong Kurn (D. K.) Lee, RI President, 2008-09

The call of Rotary International President for 2008-09, Dong Kurn (D. K.) Lee of Korea, cannot but resonate loudly and poignantly in the hearts of Rotarians in the Philippines.

We are a nation that loves children. We will do anything for them. For us, they are top priority. Even if many of our families are poor and often lack even the most basic of necessities, they will readily set aside the little that they have and make certain that their children are the first to enjoy it.

This is why our hearts bleed with D. K. Lee’s at the specter of 30,000 children under the age of five dying every day from preventable causes. Due to the poverty and deprivation that stalk our land, we know that many of these children can be found right in our own proverbial backyard.

We know that safe and available water can immediately and drastically reduce a child’s risk of death from waterborne illness. But we are also painfully aware that, in many parts of our congested cities and so-called informal settlements, the system for sourcing and delivering clean and sufficient water is faulty, unreliable, inadequate, and costly. Which is why some of our children are among the 6,000 infants that get sick and die daily from waterborne diseases.

We know that good nutrition is necessary for healthy growth and improves a child’s resistance to disease.  But, everyday, we see children emaciated with hunger or subsisting on food bereft of the nutrients required by their young bodies.

We know that the ability to read and write gives a child a better chance to make intelligent choices and pursue dreams for a more prosperous and fulfilling future. But we see many children who will remain ignorant and illiterate because they either cannot go to school or drop out of school soon enough or cannot compete in class for lack of books, writing tools, or decent clothing and nutritious food for their young bodies and minds.

We also know that – all other things being equal – a child will have a better chance to survive, grow, and be healthy if its own parents are healthy, knowledgeable, and self-sufficient, particularly its mother. Yet, we see many parents bearing children without the requisite knowledge, preparation, and readiness for the responsibilities of parenthood. Irresponsible parenthood is a root cause of our galloping population growth rate and one of its adverse consequences is the high rate of child mortality.

To save our children, we must save the would-be parents as well. Parental education is a must for healthy children.

For D. K. Lee, the priorities are clear.  “Food and water, health care and schooling, the chance at a long and full life – this is the unrealized dream of too many children.” He asks Rotarians everywhere “to Make Dreams Real for these children and their families and to work…toward the Rotary dream of a happier, healthier, and more peaceful world.”

What can Rotary clubs in District 3830 do to respond to the challenge of R. I. President D. K Lee? Here are some suggestions for the consideration of either individual clubs or several clubs cooperating with one another:

Food and Water

• Supplementary feeding aimed at reducing severe malnutrition among infants and toddlers from ages 1 to 4, preferably done at community centers and with the guidance of professional nutritionists. This may be undertaken in partnership with institutes of nutrition, food science, and public health as well as community organizations like the  Rotary community corps.
• Supplementary feeding for schoolchildren in all public elementary schools in our areas of jurisdiction through regular fortified snacks as well as mass administration of Vitamin A supplements and the like.
• Installation of clean water wells and/or water stations in communities and schools.

Health Care

• Mass immunization against dreaded diseases for infants and toddlers in all the barangays of the cities and towns where we have Rotary clubs, preferably as a joint undertaking of all the clubs in each city or town.
• Maternal health care seminars and workshops for mothers and young adult females, including those of high school age.
• Responsible parenthood seminars and workshops for all young adults, either in community centers or schools.

Schooling & Literacy

• Donation of books and school materials as well as organization of Reading Clubs, with the participation of Rotarians and members of their families as well as their friends. Again this may be done at the community level, either in community centers or day-care centers or the grade schools themselves.
• Reading sessions may be timed with supplementary feeding sessions.
• Adoption by all our Rotary clubs of the RI–endorsed Concentrated Language Encounter as the principal methodology for teaching reading and language in grade school. This would require a formal partnership between the Rotary clubs and the Division of schools in each town or city covered by the service areas of our district

The above-listed project ideas are not really new to District 3830. Some of our Rotary clubs have actually carried out some of these project ideas or variants thereof. Veteran Rotarians will recall, for example, the spectacular success of the Rotary-sponsored nationwide Polio Plus immunization campaign a few years ago, in partnership with the Departments of Health and Local Governments. Within a year, millions of children were immunized against polio and several other dreaded diseases.

In planning for these or other similar projects, our Rotarians are encouraged to consider the principles of Continuity and Cooperation as well as Focus and Sustainability.