The Hospital and High School at Chikankata Mission in Zambia, Africa, are set on beautiful green grounds. A few years ago, I visited the doctors, nurses, teachers, and staff who work tirelessly and against great odds there to fulfill their promise of providing quality care to nearly 75,000 rural residents ravaged by poverty and disease.
That December 2000, my Christmas gift to the children was a handful of medications that I had originally purchased for me and my wife for our trip. After visiting the children's bedsides, my wife and I realized that the children needed the aspirin and cold tablets much more than we did. We gave the over-the-counter meds to Dr. Bella Carroll, a Salvation Army captain on assignment from the USA Southern Territory. We also made a financial contribution, but as I placed it in her hand, I thought that it seemed such a puny offering compared to the obvious need.
Experts predict that unless something changes, next year as many as 10 million children living in developing countries under age 5 will die needlessly from a lack of simple, affordable medication and preventive care.*
Imagine how life could change for children this Christmas if each one received a gift box containing a few over-the-counter items. For instance, a simple mosquito net, treated with insecticide, which costs about $4 locally in many African countries, has proven to be effective in reducing the chance that a small child under 5 will be infected with malaria. It's the world's most dangerous parasitic disease and kills more than three million children annually.
Can we really bring illnesses such as malaria under control in developing nations? Yes. We did it in the United States and in other developed nations half a century ago. Today, few children in this country have ever heard of, much less experienced, malaria, yellow fever, or dysentery.
Our "2005: A Year for Children and Youth" is coming to a close, yet there is still much work to be done. Let us keep this theme alive by making it the start of bolder initiatives that will bring health and happiness to children in our Mission Partner countries around the globe.
