Millennium Development Goal #4
Reduce Child Mortality
"Thus says the Lord: A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
she refuses to be comforted for her children,
because they are no more."
-Jeremiah 31:15
The Prayer
Let us pray for the health of women, children and families around the world, especially for an end to maternal and child mortality, that in building healthy families, all God's people may be empowered to strengthen their communities and repair the breaches which divide nations and peoples.
Almighty and ever-living God, giver of life and love, and Sanctifier of all families: Protect the health and safety of all women in childbirth and the children whom they bear, and inspire your people to work for an end to the deadly conditions which fuel maternal and child mortality throughout the world; that, in building strong and healthy families and communities, all may be strengthened to do your will on earth until the day when you gather us into one heavenly family. God of love, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
See also:
An Evening Prayer service for MDG #4 & #6 from St. Paul's Cathedral, London
The Challenge
Close to 11 million children die every year beore reaching the age of five, or 20 per minute, 30,000 per day. Nearly 4 million of these die in the first 28 days of life.
Most of the deaths are due to a handful of causes (pneumonia, diarrhoea, measles, malaria, and neonatal causes).
Malnutrition is associated with 54% of the deaths.
99% of the deaths are in low and middle-income countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Aftrica and South Asia.
Measles deaths world-wide dropped by nearly 40% between 1999 and 2003, with the largest reduction in Africa.
Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.
Click here for targets and progress indicators.
No more child deaths when they could have easily been made well.
Children under the age of five don't get sick or die from diseases that can be cured with a visit to the doctor and good medicine.
Source: Kenyon Conference 2007 Children's Program - Experiencing the MDGs
El objetivo en Espanol
Reducir por dos tercios la mortalidad de niños menores de cinco años.
Metas e indicadores
Are we on track to meet MDG #4 by 2015? Find out at:
MDGMonitor - basic, easy to navigate
GapMinder MDG Charts - This site is great ... moving graphics show how the development of all countries by the indicators you choose. You can even get country-specific charts (for your companion diocese, for example)
Human Development Trends Movable Charts -- More from gapminder, see graphic demonstrations of MDG trends past, present and future.
UN Human Development Report - much more detailed, looks at MDGs through lens of climate change.
Printable Progress Chart on all 8 MDGs
Did You Know...
In our world today nearly 11 million children under the age of 5 die in the world every year – well over 1,200 every hour most from easly preventable or treatable causes. (Source:Why do the Millennium Development Goals matter? Brochure)
Organizations that support MDG #4:
Episcopal Relief and Development - Learn about ERD's work with MDG #4 here.
Use CharityNavigator to search for and vet organizations that work toward this goal.
What One Can Do - Preach
Scripture that references our call to heal the brokenness of preventable childhood illness and death:
Matthew 18:3-4 “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
Luke 12:6-7 “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight. 7But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
Jeremiah 31:15-17 – Thus says the Lord: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more. Thus says the Lord: Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for there is a reward for your work, says the Lord: they shall come back from the land of the enemy; there is hope for your future, says the Lord: your children shall come back to their own country. “
Matthew 2:16-18 – “When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.’”
Exodus 12:12-13 – “"On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.”
Exodus 2:1-10 -God guiding Moses in the basket
Mark 5:35-43 – Jesus raising Jairus’ daughter
Luke 7:11-17 – Jesus raises the widow’s son at Nain
For scriptural foundations for all 8 MDGs, click here for "The MDGs - Straight From Scripture"
For a comprehensive list of Peace and Justice related scriptures, click here.
What did we miss? Email us your scriptural references to our call to heal the brokenness of preventable childhood illness and death.
Sermons about eradicating preventable childhood illness and death:
Submit your sermons about eradicating preventable childhood illness and death here.
What One Can Do - Activities
Ways you can make MDG #4 come alive for your congregation:
"The Click" -- A child dies every three seconds from preventable, treatable causes. As part of a sermon or adult ed class, lead your congregation in snapping their fingers once every three seconds while giving them this information. See the ONE Campaign's "Click" ad to see how it can be done. This was done with the entire House of Deputies at the 2006 General Convention!
Child Mortality Cross -- The "popsicle stick cross" makes that statistic real and powerful. Here's what you do ... pick a timeframe (say, the length of one session of diocesan convention, or the length of an average Sunday worship service), figure out how many children will die during that time and order that number of craft sticks (the multi-colored ones work best, you can order them here from ssww.com). Get a piece of board roughly 4' x 6' and lay a base of the sticks in the shape of a cross and glue a second layer on top of it. Have several tubes of wood glue available (it has to be wood glue or else the sticks won't stick -- and get a bunch 'cause you'll go through the fast) and leave lots of the unused popsicle sticks lying around the cross. Make a big sign like this one that tells that the popsicle sticks in this cross represent the X children under five who will die during whatever time period you have chosen. Have a couple people working on gluing the sticks at all times, but invite anyone who comes by to join in.
When you are finished, you will have an icon of the 30,000 crucifixions that happen every day ... and perhaps a powerful focal point for your closing worship service. Be sure and have lots of information available about child mortality and What One Can Do about it. For example, you can highlight projects in your companion diocese relationship, or ERD/HopeAfrica's NetsForLife program, which targets saving young children from malaria. After convention is over, you can give the cross to a church for use in a children's chapel or take it on the road to raise awareness about MDG #4.
Here are some pictures of this activity at the Diocese of West Missouri's convention.
Here is a youth dialogue presentation that makes a great accompaniment to the cross.
Submit your activities about eradicating preventable childhood illness and death here.
What One Can Do - Children/Youth Activities
Ways you can make MDG #4 come alive for children and youth:
A Net of Prayers -- Discuss what babies need and create a "safety net" with prayers attached. (Page 8 - Kenyon Conference Children's Conference: Experiencing the MDGs)
Grief Observed -- Gather in a church or walk a labyrinth and discuss what soothes people when someone is sick or sad. (Page 8 - Kenyon Conference Children's Conference: Experiencing the MDGs)
Submit your children's activities about eradicating preventable childhood illness and death here.
What One Can Do - Learn
Books about eradicating preventable childhood illness and death.
What Can One Person Do: Faith to Heal a Broken World, by Sabina Alkire and Edmund Newell. - The best primer on the MDGs. A great mix of information, stories, statistics, prayers, resources, practical ideas and discussion questions. Perfect for individual or group study.
General books about the MDGs, including reducing child mortality.
The Bottom Billion, by Paul Collier. - Accessible economics that explains how poor countries got there and are staying there.
The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, by Jeffrey Sachs. - Economist Sachs outlines the various issues that contribute to the poverty trap of the one billion people that live on less than $1 a day as well as some cheap and easy solutions to address the problem.
The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good, by William Easterly - Easterly's response to Sach's ideas. A good book to read to learn the arguments against blindly throwing money at the world's poor and for carefully targeting bottom-up approaches.
Ending Global Poverty: A Guide to What Works, by Stephen C. Smith. - Smith outlines the issues related to poverty and what readers can do to help overcome the crisis.
Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty, by Muhammad Yunus. 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner's memoir about his experiences with microcredit with the Grameen Bank.
Movies/video about eradicating preventable childhood illness and death
A-OK?(2000) - From the "Life" series, this 24 minute short film looks at the prospects for two very different Vitamin A distribution programs in Ghana and Guatemala, and asks whether the best way to ensure all children have access to the nutrients that can help them lead healthy, fulfilled lives isn't new, genetically-modified crops -- like the experimental Vitamin-A modified 'golden rice' currently being developed in Professor Ingo Potrykus' lab in Switzerland, as part of an initiative supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. The producer of this program has collected extensive resources here. Find out more and order the film here.
A Fistful of Rice - Nine out of every ten children in Nepal suffers from some form of malnutrition. Ironically, it is because malnutrition is so widespread that it is also unnoticed. This is particularly true of protein energy malnutrition, or PEM as it is known -- a condition officially defined as being short and underweight for age, but which, in reality, is a devastating intergenerational cycle of lost potential, both physical and mental. This 27-minute program from the City Life series unravels the complex causes and effects of Protein Energy Malnutrition through the stories of people in Nepal who live with it on a daily basis. It also explores ways of changing attitudes towards food and gender. The producer of this program has collected extensive resources here. Find out more and order it here.
Rx for Survival (2005) - A popular PBS documentary series featuring several stories about child health initiatives, including a youth-driven polio eradication campaign in India that sought to vaccinate 190 million children in a month.
General movies/video about the MDGs, including reducing child mortality.
The Girl in the Cafe (2005) - A sweet romance set at a G8 Summit with the subtext being conversation and debate about the Millennium Development Goals. A good combination of passion and impassioned approaches tied up in a moving and entertaining package. A beautiful movie. (Some brief nudity - if you're showing this to a youth group, be aware)
Submit your books and movies about eradicating preventable childhood illness and death here.
Click here for the reading list for the Rev. Ian Douglas' EDS course Contemporary Issues in World Christianity, which includes readings on globalization/international debt, the environmental crisis, HIV/AIDS and women's empowerment, the effect of colonialism and neo-colonialism and more.
Websites with more resources/activities about MDG #4
The ONE Campaign's "Maternal and Child Health Page" -- great, brief talking points on MDG #4 and #5.
endpoverty2015.org - The Millennium Campaign's MDG #4 page
Communication Initiative Network's MDG #4 page
http://www.povertymap.net/ - great library of poverty maps and other useful resources
www.borgenproject.org -- poverty reduction through political accountability. Great eye-opening statistics and studies.
Submit your website suggestions about eradicating preventabe childhood illness and death here.
What One Person Can Do
Stories about One Person working to eradicate preventable childhood illness and death
Submit your One Person stories about eradicating preventable childhood illness and death here.
What One Congregation Can Do
Stories about One Congregation working to eradicate preventable childhood illness and death
Submit your One Congregation stories about eradicating preventable childhood illness and death here.
What One Diocese Can Do
Stories about One Diocese working to eradicate preventable childhood illness and death
Submit your One Diocese stories about eradicating preventable childhood illness and death here.
What One Church Can Do
Stories about The Episcopal Church working to eradicate preventable childhood illness and death
Other Resources
Information and resources about eradicating extreme hunger and poverty
The MDGs: They Are About Children - information about how this MDG (and others) effects children
What One Has Said
Quotes about eradicating preventable childhood illness and death
Submit your favorite quotes about eradicating preventable childhood illness and early death here.
