Seeker

A child's first birthday is a very special landmark. Perhaps this is especially so in situations where many children die in the first few weeks and months of life. Infant mortality is a key indicator of the health of a nation. It tends to be highest in the poorest countries. In England and Wales the number of infant deaths has been steadily declining. The  infant mortality rate in 2010  was 4.2 deaths per 1000 live births, which is about 1 in 250. In stark contrast, according to Christian Aid's  'Count Your Blessings'  Lent calendar today 1 in 6 babies in Afghanistan do not live to see their first birthday. Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world. Christian Aid has been working in Afghanistan for 3 decades under 4 different regimes. It works through Afghan partner organisations focusing on protecting rights in conflict, increasing food security and promoting the  rights of women. You can read more about this work here .  Chris...

When I was a schoolgirl I occasionally missed the odd day at school due to minor illness. It was not often and never because of a water related illness. Around the world today children miss a total of 443 million days of school every year as a result of water related illnesses. In other words, because of a lack of clean water to drink. I have written posts on this topic before, for example 'Water'.  In the 'Count your Blessings' Lent calendar today Christian Aid suggests giving 5p for every clean glass of water you have drunk today. Including water in tea and coffee I will probably drink at least 6, so that's 30p for Christian Aid.  Image: Drinking Water: Wikimedia Commons

I wasn't immunised against measles (rubeola) as a child. The vaccine wasn't available. Actually I received no immunisations of any sort in infancy. My mother refused them, influenced I think by the idiosyncratic health views of my maternal grandmother. I have had some done as an adult when I could make my own decisions. All our children received the various immunisation offered by the UK National Health Service, including the one for measles. I've had measles twice, at 5 years and 22 years old. Both times I remember feeling really ill, but recovered well with no permanent health damage. The first time I realized how dangerous measles can be was when I met a boy whose severe and permanent disabilities had been caused by measles which led to encephalitis. Measles is often also a killer disease particular in children whose health is already impaired by poor nutrition and unhealthy living conditions. It is highly contagious. According to Christian Aid's 'Count ...

About 3 children die every minute as a result of diarrhoea. That's 4,100 every day.  That's about 1.5 million children each year. This is the fact highlighted on this 2nd day of a week for children in Christian Aid's Lent ' Count Your Blessings' calendar. According to the World Health Organisation diarrhoea is the second leading cause of deaths in children under 5 years, accounting for 1 in 5 child deaths. The scandal is that most of these are preventable through clean water, sanitation, simple treatment measures etc.  It has taken me about 15 minutes to prepare this post. In that time around the world about 45 children will have died of diarrhoea and many of those need not have died. Christian Aid suggests you give £1 if you have not been ill in the past month. I haven't been ill, so that's another £1 in the kitty for Christian Aid.  Image of clean water from PhotoRack

It's a week for children in Christian Aid's Count your Blessings Lent calendar, starting today with 'education'. This  photo from Wikimedia Commons shows secondary schoolgirls in Iraq. Since the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights , education has been recognised as a basic human right. Sadly, it remains only an aspiration for many of the world's children. For example, Christian Aid tells me today that only 10% of children in south Sudan finish primary school. According to the Right to Education Project  69 million children in the world are still out of school. More than 700 million can't read.  The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child listed 32 categories of vulnerable children who are particularly likely to be excluded from education. As quoted here these are:  " abandoned children; asylum seeking children; beggars; child labourers; child mothers; child prostitutes; children born out of wedlock; delinquent children; disabled childre...