On December 29, World Vision Taiwan launched Child Health Now, a five-year campaign as part of its global launch following events held in New York at the United Nations and Nairobi, Kenya last November. The campaign¡¦s overarching goal is to help the world reduce under-five mortality rate by two-thirds. Spokespeople Sylvia Chang, Joseph Cheng, and Mike Ho attended the launch press conference and called on the people of Taiwan to join Child Health Now to help save six million children every year from dying of preventable causes. They encouraged the public to take five minutes to perform five simple tasks to help end the global health crisis.

After screening a brief Child Health Now introductory video, Hank Du, Executive Director of World Vision Taiwan, posed three questions:

¡§Do you know how many children have died in the last three minutes? Statistics tell us 8.8 million children under five years old die every year. That¡¦s 24,000 children who die every day; one child every three seconds. Most of them die from preventable causes such as diarrhea, pneumonia, childbirth complications, and malaria.¡¨

¡§Do you know what NT$10 (30 US cents) can do? With an oral rehydration sachet that costs NT$10, a child can be saved from diarrhea.¡¨

¡§Do you know what one can do in five minutes? One can save a child¡¦s life in five minutes by joining Child Health Now.¡¨

¡§One in five children living in poverty die before the age of five. This is one of the most desperate crises facing the world today,¡¨ Du continued. ¡§However, simple and low-cost measures like bed nets, oral rehydration, exclusive breast-feeding, skilled attendants, and immunization could significantly improve the health of children in the poorest countries and save millions of lives.¡¨

Du called on the people of Taiwan to join the global efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goal 4 set by United Nations ¡V reduce the deaths of children under age five by two-thirds over the next five years.

Film director and actress Sylvia Chang, a long-time volunteer and World Vision spokesperson, said advocating for global issues is challenging.

She explained, ¡§Most people don¡¦t like bad news. They would prefer gossip to problems facing the world. This time I¡¦m particularly happy for the opportunity to partner with two young artists to speak for Child Health Now. With their participation, I hope we can call more young people¡¦s attention to global child health issues.¡¨

Chang added, ¡§As a mother, I¡¦m most concerned about what legacy we will leave to our children. With millions of children dying before the age of five, unable to grow up to become a person who contributes to the world, we will lose an entire generation! I will do as much as I can to help create a better world for our children.¡¨

Child Health Now spokesperson and drama actor Mike Ho said, ¡§Though I suffered diarrhea quite often when I was a child due to my poor digestive system, it¡¦s not a big problem in Taiwan. I¡¦m a healthy grown-up now. Can you imagine that many children under five years old die of such an easily treatable disease every year? Their lives can be saved just with an oral rehydration sachet that costs only NT$10.¡¨

Joseph Cheng, also a drama actor, said, ¡§Although we know this world has many problems, a lot of people, especially young people like my fans, do not think they can change it. They think they have no resources and power. What they don¡¦t know is we can save a child¡¦s life with as little money as NT$10. I want to deliver this message: be you a rich adult or primary school kid, by joining Child Health Now, together we can make a difference.¡¨

The spokespersons introduced Give Me Five to encourage people to spend five minutes to take five actions to help end the global health crisis: „P

• Sign the Child Health Now online petition: http://childhealthnow.worldvision.org.tw
• Give financial support to Child Health Now or sponsor a child
• Share campaign information with friends and family
• Purchase a Child Health Now t-shirt and wear it on the 5th day of each month
• Practice healthy habits, e.g. drink water, wash hands, workout, eat fruit & veges

The spokespeople will visit a Taiwan funded program in India in March 2010 as the country is one of six ¡§emergency hotspots¡¨ identified by World Vision and accounts for one-fifth of the world¡¦s child deaths before the age of five. They will share their firsthand experience upon return to Taiwan.

They will also visit a World Vision¡¦s domestic program in Hualien County in January to support a community kitchen project and care for local children who lack adequate nutrition due to poverty.

In 2000, at the largest gathering of world leaders in history, governments committed themselves to eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to significantly reduce extreme poverty by 2015. MDG 4 committed governments to reduce the number of under-five child deaths by two-thirds. MDG 5 committed them to lower the number of maternal deaths by three-quarters. Right now the world is only 32% of the way to achieving MDG 4 and 10% of the way to achieving MDG 5.

World Vision, which works with children and communities in nearly 100 countries, will invest US$1.5 billion in its programs over the next five years to provide simple life-saving solutions at the family and community level.