CROC - Health Activities

AIDS is decimating the developing world – nowhere more savagely than in
sub-Saharan Africa – and great numbers of young people are now falling
under the fury of its unrelenting attack. This league table documents the toll
of the epidemic.

A bitter legacy In Botswana, 1 in 3 young women and 1 in 7 young men aged 15 to
24 are infected with HIV, as are 1 in 4 young women and 1 in 10 young men in
Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe. In nine other countries in sub-Saharan Africa,
more than 1 in 10 young women and 1 in 20 young men are infected.

The signs are evident in too many countries. In Cambodia, for example, 1 in 33
young women and 1 in 50 young men are infected, and in Haiti, 1 in 33 young
women and 1 in 20 young men are HIV positive.

How did these rates come to be so disastrously high, now, more than 15 years
into the withering curse of the AIDS epidemic?

How, with the enormous losses already endured – the millions of dead and dying,
the children orphaned, the human, economic and social blight this epidemic has
caused – have we come no further than to this bitter place?

How is it that, after 15 years of such painful acquaintance with AIDS, we have
bequeathed such a deadly legacy to 10.3 million of our young?

The HIV-infection rates among young people are a searing indictment,
documenting failures of vision, commitment and action of almost unimaginable
proportions. They tell the story of leadership unworthy of the name and the virtual
abandonment of sub-Saharan Africa, at a time of dire need, to a disaster that may
soon engulf other regions as well. And they speak of devastation waiting to emerge
elsewhere, under a similar cover of silence, apathy and neglect.

Although AIDS cannot be cured, it can be prevented. Current infection rates should
never have reached such catastrophic levels. Now that they have, leaders at all
levels and in all countries, both industrialized and developing, must immediately
commit the resources, time and energy to prevent further such tragedies. A
strong international response to this grave emergency is long overdue and young
people now at the epicentre of the epidemic need to be involved.

The world has averted its gaze for too long, in the process aiding and abetting in
this most unpardonable of crimes – the preventable deaths of millions of young
people.

Source:
Progress of Nations 2000

Health: activities

If water is the key to life... why does it kill 4 million children every year?

Because children are using dirty water. And with dirty water comes diseases and
death.

It is possible for people to survive two months or more without food. But only up
to ten days without water. Water makes up 90% of the human body. It is life
giving but it can also transmit deadly diseases like cholera, typhoid and infectious
diseases.

As you read this millions of children are suffering from diseases like these because
the water they are drinking is unsafe.

11,000 children a day are dying.

But UNICEF is bringing clean water to children.

Some UNICEF's projects:

In Mozambique UNICEF has been nominated by the Government as the lead agency in terms of supplying safe water for those displaced in the recent floods that killed hundreds of people.

In Honduras, Hurricane Mitch devastated the country killing thousands of people. The Government asked UNICEF to help avert a major outbreak of cholera and other water-borne diseases after 80% of the domestic water systems were damaged. UNICEF took prompt action, providing tanks of clean water immediately, and helping to rebuild the critical water systems.

In Madagascar, UNICEF helped the government to set up the '150 Wells'

Project in the south of the country. Since then the incidence of water-related diseases has reduced dramatically and it is now hoped that the project can be extended to other areas.

In Cambodia, UNICEF has helped to set up a sanitation awareness program through schools to teach children about the dangers of disposing waste in open fields and rivers. The children can then spread the word and apply at home what they learn in the classroom.

In Zimbabwe in the first six months of the program,UNICEF trained more than 100 builders to build latrines, resulting in thousands of latrines throughout the rural areas.

Please support our Clean Water for Children Appeal today.

Each and every gift will help achieve our aim to stop 11,000 children dying each day from unsafe water.

As little as...

$59 can buy a water testing kit, vital to ensure that rural water supplies are safe for drinking

$82 can buy enough water purification tablets to purify 1000 litres of water in a refugee camp

$123 can buy enough Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) to save the lives of 625 children struck by severe diarrhoea and dehydration

$246 can buy a hand pump and equipment to draw water from a shallow well to bring water to a village of up to 250 people

$820 can buy health services, clean water, nutrition programs and basic education supplies for a community in the Horn of Africa

Can you help bring safe clean water to children? Please select a donation method opposite to stop children dying because their water is unsafe.

UNICEF is bringing clean water for children

Source: UNICEF Australia

If water is the key to life... why does it kill 4 million children every year?

Because children are using dirty water. And with dirty water comes diseases and death.

It is possible for people to survive two months or more without food. But only up to ten days without water. Water makes up 90% of the human body. It is life giving but it can also transmit deadly diseases like cholera, typhoid and infectious diseases.

As you read this millions of children are suffering from diseases like these because the water they are drinking is unsafe.

11,000 children a day are dying.

But UNICEF is bringing clean water to children.

1. AIDS

AIDS affects children in a number of ways:

They are born with it because their mother is infected.
Their parents die from it.
Quality of life is poor.
Access to treatment is limited.

It is a preventable disease. The prevention is simple: if you are having sex, have safe sex; if you are a needle-dependent drug addict, use a clean needle. However this does not happen. AIDS is in epidemic proportions throughout the poorer nations of the world. See UNICEF's Progress of Nations 2000 for world-wide statistics.

Because it is an epidemic we must look at why people are not using simple cheap measures to prevent the spread of the epidemic.

Here are some key words that are part of the campaign to stop the AIDS epidemic:

responsibility
communicating
fear
customs
traditions
masculinity
campaign
action
violence.

Visit the Internet site: UNAIDS – Global Source of HIV/AIDS Information. After reading the information, explain the meaning of the words above in the context of the right to a healthy life.

After you have explained the words, design an Internet page called Men make a difference. In this page the issues and ideas for actions related to AIDS and children as a health issue.

Clean water

Water is the basis of all life on Earth. Without clean water, the quality of life is diminished. Humans in the past 300 years have caused many problems for our waterways and oceans through pollution and over-use. For example, in Australia there is a major problem of water salination in the Murray-Darling river system. The rise in salinity has many causes, including overuse for agriculture. Other river systems are polluted because humans use them as a rubbish tip or sewerage outlet.

Visit the EPA (USA) and find out how many pollutants are put into water by humans.

Using the following list of search engines find out:

Where does your water come from?
How is it made safe for your use?
What do you use water for?
Where does your sewerage go?
How is it treated to ensure it does not pollute?
What are the health-related issues to water in your country?
What are the health-related issues to water in two other countries?

Search engines

The bighub
Dogpile
Google
Mamma
Ozsearch
Blackstump
Yahoo Australia
Anzwers

Based on the activities, create a home page called HEALTH IS IMPORTANT FOR OUR GROWTH.

Completed material should be posted on your school's web site.

Please supply the project officer with:

URL
school name
country
e-mail address
contact person
1-2 sentences about the work.

If you have any problems in doing this, please contact the project officer.

Project officer E-mail: One.World @det.nsw.edu.au

Back to health page

Click here to register for the Convention on the Rights of the Child unit.

Other One World projects:

Other Human Rights Sites:

One world,
many democracies:
Human Rights

Explore your human rights
through Internet activities

International Human Rights Day
on ABC Online

Universal Rights Network

This unit of work is a joint venture between UNICEF Australia and the Curriculum Support Directorate, NSW Department of Education and Training.