by Suzanne Walker
posted March 21, 2006
) Photo by Suzanne Walker Derreck Kayongo, advocacy field coordinator of CARE, with Kevin Lusk of WTCI Channel 45, and Maureen Wagner. Click to enlarge. |
RX for Child Survival Campaign is a multimedia project that began last June, said Director of Public Information and Community Outreach Kevin Lusk. The program seeks to make the world “a stronger healthier place for our world’s children.”
Mr. Lusk said child survival is providing basic health care in order to prevent the deaths of children under the age of five.
Mr. Kayongo said children are extremely vulnerable from the time of birth, particularly in countries like Uganda, his homeland. Of the deaths of children less than 18 years old, 90 percent are children under age five. “The first years of life are most crucial for survival and development,” he said.
He noted that there have been many global advances but many countries still lag behind. In places like Uganda, diarrhea is a common cause of death for children, he said, and the same was true of the U.S. in 1900. “You (U.S.) have been where we (Uganda) are.”
Mr. Kayongo also said the CDC was started to prevent malaria, a disease that has long been forgotten among Americans but is still prevalent in other countries.
CARE has had many recent successes, he said. From 1998 to 2000, 1 million lives were saved through the use of Vitamin A supplements. Deaths caused by measles have been reduced 85 percent in the last 20 years. Also, polio is being eradicated.
Mr. Kayongo said stereotypes about diseases often cause people to be misinformed. For example, polio has continued to be a problem in Africa because a rumor was started that the vaccination causes impotency, he said. He said, “We are susceptible to little stereotypes,” that cause instabilities, which in turn make us more vulnerable to disease.
Mr. Kayongo was a refugee of Uganda to Kenya when he was a child. “My village was put in the firing squad,” he said, but fortunately, they survived. However, his family was split up all over the world. He noted that these unstable types of situations cause the spread of disease.
“It took a missionary woman from Pennsylvania coming to Kenya to stabilize my life, but it won’t take that much for you. We need your support. I am a young man that has been given a second chance, and I think I’m doing well for a nobody.” Mr. Kayongo said he recently became an American citizen.
Mr. Lusk said PBS will air a special on RX for Child Survival on April 12 at 10 p.m. For more information go to www.pbs.org/rxforsurvival.
Mr. Lusk said WTCI has been involved in several new outreach programs. WTCI’s “Ready to learn services” provide parents and teachers with ideas to help children actively learn through TV shows. He said the Mister Roger’s Sweater Drive brought in 7,000 sweater in six weeks to help those in need.
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