Chapter 21 a speech

Just 18 months ago, before I was lucky enough to be a UNICEF volunteer, whenever I saw the unbelievable tragedy of mothers and children in developing countries on TV or in the newspapers, I often feel infinite hopelessness and helplessness. Now when I see stories like this again, I don't feel so helpless anymore.Because now I know that UNICEF and other organizations, institutions, churches, governments are trying to help them.But more should be done for children in developing countries who are at risk, some of whom are now barely alive.In particular, we need to understand the fact that the financial help they need is only a small part of the world's spending; Enough to eradicate some of the poorest conditions on the planet so that these people will have basic survival needs for the next decade.In other words, there is no shortage of human resources, it is people's will.

One of the questions people ask me most is: what do you really do for UNICEF?Obviously, my role is to make society aware and aware of the needs of children through my own efforts.If I were an educator, economist, politician, religious scientist or cultural expert, I would have a deeper understanding of children's problems in today's world.While I am not an expert on any of the above, I am a mother.It is a pity that the cause of children still needs a lot of support, and many children are under the threat of malnutrition, disease and death.You don't need to know the exact number, just look at those thin faces and sick transparent eyes, you will understand what kind of situation they are living in.These are symptoms of severe malnutrition.The most important factor leading to this disease is lack of vitamin A, which can lead to damage to the cornea and even partial or complete blindness, and may die after a few weeks.There are as many as 500,000 such cases each year in countries such as Indonesia, Bangladesh, India, the Philippines and Ethiopia.Today, literally millions of children are at risk of blindness.Undoubtedly, other volunteers of the foundation and I travel all over the world, not only doing our best to seek financial support for the foundation from the society, but also popularizing the most basic medical knowledge to people in those areas and telling them how to raise their children. their children.In fact, it only takes 8 cents a year to keep a child from going blind, and 8 cents is the price of two vitamin A tablets.

I have known UNICEF for a long time.Some 45 years ago, in newly war-torn Europe, I was one of tens of thousands of starving children who needed UNICEF assistance.Wars are over, and we are freed from hunger, oppression, and enduring violence.But we were almost destitute then, just like developing countries are now.Poverty is the root of all suffering, poverty leads to lack of means to help oneself.That's what UNICEF is about - empowering people to help themselves, giving them developmental assistance.In developing countries, heavy debt burdens impoverish the poor and burden the poorest the most.No one suffers more than women and children.

Unlike natural disasters such as droughts, floods, or earthquakes, poverty does not often receive media attention and therefore does not receive social attention around the world.Poverty is not localized; it is widespread in slums, shanty towns and neglected rural areas on both continents.Poverty doesn't just happen at any one time, either. Over the years, the number of people living in poverty has continued to grow.Although poverty doesn't make the evening news on television, it threatens the very existence of millions of people.The occurrence of poverty is not only due to a certain reason, but there is an important reason, which is the difference between the industrial production of developed countries and the manual labor products of these developing countries.

In Africa, for example, despite national reforms, improved climate conditions, and significant increases in agricultural output, their hard-earned gains have been undermined by international economic trends and sharp declines in agricultural prices.They are currently forced to repay the loan at 4 times the amount.But the poorest parts of the developing world also stem from frequent misappropriation of funds and severe unequal distribution of land and other means of production. UNICEF works for children, not for the international economy.UNICEF is working in more than 100 developing countries around the world.In this work, UNICEF encounters international economic problems that would not be seen in the corridors of the financial giants, reflected in data on bond exchange rates, or found at the debt negotiating table, These questions appear on the faces of children.These include the fact that children's developing bodies and minds are being damaged by even temporary poverty.The development of the human brain and body is laid before the age of 5, and there will be no second chance for development.Children's personal development today and their contributions to society tomorrow are implicitly shaped by current economic conditions.Children are also paying the highest price.We cannot ignore the fact that millions of the world's poorest families are turning the 1980s into a year of famine.

Today, it is not the military, nor the foreign bankers, nor those who live in luxury, but the poor who lack even the basic necessities of life, the lack of necessary food to sustain Healthy women, babies whose growth and development are affected by lack of medical care and malnutrition, and children who are deprived of even the opportunity to go to school.When this effect is reflected in the rise in child mortality, it is simply an atrocity against humanity.This is absolutely unjust.At present, a consensus is being formed, that is, the debt burden of developing countries should be reduced, so that developing countries can repay their debts, so that the economies of developing countries can be freed from the extremely heavy debts, and at the same time embark on recovery and real development the road.

World population growth is gradually being brought under control.Changes are happening everywhere.But if, at this moment, we can creatively use this opportunity to discover a new world and have the courage to make it a reality, then in the next ten years, we may be able to solve the three threats to humanity. Big major problems: war, environmental degradation and poverty. The abolition of slavery, the end of colonialism, desegregation, attention to environmental issues, and the recognition of women's rights are all major social changes of our time.These social changes all started from written promises and eventually turned into practical actions.In the 1990s, it was time we should pay attention to children's issues.Our dream — to convene an international summit for children and to sign an Agreement on the Rights of the Child — must become a reality.

Today, 40,000 children die every day (35,000 by 2003), and 280,000 children die every week (245,000 by 2003).No natural disaster, whether floods or earthquakes, has claimed the lives of so many children.The killers of children are silent diseases such as polio, tetanus, tuberculosis and measles.The most terrifying of all was the dehydration caused by dysentery, which was caused by drinking unsanitary water and malnutrition.These diseases are actually preventable.It costs only $5 to vaccinate a child, 6 cents to prevent dehydration, and 84 cents a year to prevent blindness in a child.Why would the government prefer to spend huge sums of money on armaments instead of spending money on children?Children should be the greatest possession, the hope of peace.

I must admit that some of the work that UNICEF is doing strikes me at times.When I stop to think that there are many things - such as changing the world overnight - we can't do it, or when I talk to some bigoted cynics - who think that poverty and misery are the key to the population of these developing countries Caused by excess - When talking, I often feel sad and lost.The solution to overpopulation is not by letting children die, but by family planning and birth spacing.By giving the world's poor a better life, giving them health, education, housing, nutrition, and human rights, you can slow population growth.These measures are not free and require a certain price, but these are all affordable by developing countries, and we can help these countries.China, Indonesia, Thailand, and Mexico have demonstrated that population growth can be slowed through efforts in public health, education, and family planning.

The World Bank predicts that the early 1990s will be a turning point in the world's population growth, and the population growth trend will change from growth to decline thereafter.It is a fact that no country can achieve a reduction in the birth rate before the reduction in infant mortality.In other words, instead of having six children and hoping only two of them will survive, parents should have two children and ensure both survive.That's why UNICEF is committed to educating mothers about how to care for their children.Because mothers are the best "nanny" for children.UNICEF supports all educational programs related to women's health, nutrition, sanitation, education, and literacy in developing countries.

So today I speak for children who cannot ask for anything for themselves: for children who are blind from lack of vitamins, who are dying from polio, and who are debilitating from lack of drinking water I speak for the roughly 100 million street children in the world who have been forced from their families in order to survive and have nothing but courage, smiles and dreams; I speak for children who have been wounded in war who have no enemies but In the flames of war, you are always the first to be hurt.Now the war is no longer limited to the battlefield, terror and massacre are spreading everywhere.Thousands of children have become refugees and, as a result, have grown up in the shadow of violence and horror.The task before UNICEF, whether it is repatriating millions of Afghan refugee children or teaching these children to play games that have only seen death, is unprecedented.Charles Dickens said: "In the small world of their own existence, there is nothing that children are more likely to perceive and perceive than injustice." We can avoid injustice by investing more, but in the face of We often balk at such inevitable tragedies.Why, choose a low-cost way to protect these children?Leaders, parents, and young people—young people with pure hearts that have not been blurred by time—should remember their own childhoods and should rescue those born with a heavy burden. Children are our most important resource and our hope for the future.We should not only keep children alive, but also protect them from emotional, social and physical abuse.Only then will it be possible to envision a world free from insecurity and violence.It is up to us to make this vision a reality. UNICEF is a humanitarian organization, not a charity.It addresses development rather than just distributing things to outstretched hands, like welfare.I've been to countries like Ethiopia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Mexico and Sudan.In these places, instead of a hand outstretched for something, I see silence with dignity and a desire for the chance to help myself. UNICEF's mission is to protect children from hunger, thirst, disease, abuse and death.But today, we have to face a more dangerous threat - "man's inhumanity to himself", that is, the destruction of the environment.The darkest side of humanity has polluted our skies and oceans, destroyed our forests, and wiped out thousands of beautiful animals.Could children be next? This is what we want to rise up against.Because just vaccinating children, or giving them food and water is no longer enough to protect them.Humans are destroying everything that is closest to us and everything on which our lives depend, including the air we breathe, the soil we live on and our most precious children.Only by eradicating this human desire to destroy can children be protected.Whether it's the famine in Ethiopia, the dire poverty in Guatemala and Honduras, the civil war in El Salvador, or the genocide in Sudan, I see one stark truth.There are no natural disasters in those places, but only human-made tragedies.And there is only one solution for human beings, and that is peace. The "Sudan Lifeline" project is a very large project, and it also faces difficulties: Sudan is a vast country, lacking infrastructure, road network and communication system in the true sense.But even if the operation achieves only half of its goal, it can be said to be successful.Because it not only saved thousands of lives, but also gave Sudan hope.The United Nations will prove that only a peaceful and peaceful environment can save children; only peace can enable human beings to survive; only development can enable people to live with dignity and have a future.In our future, when we can declare that we have done our part as human beings, that is the future we should have. Your "one percent" fund is an example of a hundred percent.But joining forces is about love and an example of humanitarianism.As long as we are together, nothing is impossible. Thanks!