Aug 19
And this 960 count only covers Latin America according to Colombian singer Shakira…
Why don’t we hear about these huge numbers
in the daily news?
Shakira received an ALMA (American Latino Media Arts) award last Sunday for the humanitarian work she does for Latin America’s impoverished children.
How do you feel when politicians tell you that "the children are our future"?
How do you feel when these Latin American children need a singer to help them out?
(Picture courtesy of colombiareports.com)
Is there a link to the breakdown of the numbers, Linky?
(Who needs digital broadcast television in 2009 when we’ve got FMB?)
@JohnC
The death count is even worse in other parts of the world…
Have a look at :
"9.7 million children died in 2006 before reaching their fifth birthday"
from the childinfo.org Mortality page
[...] Fuelmyblog « 960 children die before you go to bed today August 20th, [...]
Maybe we do not see it in daily news because they do not sell very good … like Shakira’s music sells when she’s shaken her you know what in videos or inked black with that spanish singer I like a lot…you know,Alexandre Sanz…?!
Another example: I was appalled when I saw Nelson Mandela’s concert a few months back, I really was.They mentioned number of children dying from AIDS in Africa every day.In my head AIDS is women and men’s disease, men with Tom Hanks’s age like in the movie, not children.
As I worked with long term unemployed people programs I know that serious problems are very close to us.Problems like : I’m a single mom.How am I going to feed my baby or provide good education with just one minimum wage when I have to pay house rent,light, water,bus,food?Where am I to find a better job if I do not have enough qualifications?? In fact we do not need to go to other continents to find people who need help,adults or children.I know that a children in Africa or Latina America faces poverty and lacks basic medical assistance in a scale that’s shocking.But for me it is also shocking to find that portuguese babys are facing severe problems. Plus, I feel very strange when I feel deeply ashamed learning about unbelievable conditions in Africa and do almost nothing to help people that live in my country.Yes, I know, I’ve been also unemployed for a long time.I am not a singer or a football player!!But I never cared for it – I worked to help those people but I gave little to NGO in general.I worked in one NGO and I felt as I was doing enough already.Then I saw my money become shorter and shorter and now I do want to help maybe one or two situations when I find a regular job.My plan is to find a child in an institution and help just that one child.I think that we all could do that.It is more rewarding because we know where our help is going.It’s not my idea.My mother helps an old coulple for maybe six years know.Old people are also facing terrible conditions.In Portugal demographic pyramide is growing older.It will be a problem for social security very soon.If we all do a small effort to help I think we can go to sleep much better even knowing that we can not save 960 children and just one.Now multily that one life for many and you can dare to smile before going to sleep…
@Belinha
A question for all FMB readers : who wants to share their experience having financially "adopted" a "third world" child: with only a few dollars a month, giving these kids a huge leap forward in education?
Thanks Belinha! You are right: if we all help 1 person, it would make a huge difference. I love your idea: My plan is to find a child in an institution and help just that one child.
Since you have worked with unemployed single moms with low qualifications in a western society, you must have felt – no matter how hard you try – that you just being 1 person are not able to change the big picture.
Helping elderly is something that’s quite overlooked I find, just take a look at how little geriatric doctors and geriatric care there is.
So for people like you and me seeing our money becoming shorter and shorter we better focus on only 1 of the 960 children and buzz so others take care of the other 959 children.