Free The Children’s Michelle Douglas running a mobile health clinic in Kenya.

On April 7, the United Nations (UN) will observe World Health Day. This international day raises awareness about the fact that, if we work together, most diseases in developing countries can be prevented.

People shouldn’t die from malaria—but every year 1 million of them do.[1]

Children shouldn’t get sick from drinking water—but every 15 seconds a child dies from diseases related to unsafe water and unhygienic sanitation facilities.[2]

World Health Day asks us to work together to change this.

Huge improvements can be made by taking small steps. Simply ensuring all people have access to clean water will save lives and improve quality of living. Today, 1.2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water.[3] In addition to millions of lives lost, this also leads to diseases including diarrhea, cholera, dysentery and typhoid.

In fact, unsafe drinking water is the number one cause of disease in the world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 2.2 million people, most of them children, die from diarrhea each year after drinking contaminated water.[4]

In Africa, water contamination is a great concern for millions of people. For example, in the Kibera slum area in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, contaminated water has led to a child death rate seven times higher than the Kenyan average. However, a few miles from where people are suffering from lack of clean water, golf courses use sprinklers to water their lush green lawns. The problem of contaminated water, then, is not a shortage of clean water but rather a matter of getting the clean water to where it is needed most.[5]

Working for Health
The theme of this year’s World Health Day is “working for health.” So how can we work together for a healthier world? Most of water-borne diseases can be easily prevented. Proper disposal of waste, both human and animal, helps ensure that water doesn’t come into contact with the bacteria that cause these diseases. The best way to prevent water contamination, according to the WHO, is to improve water and sanitation systems.[6]

Free The Children provides a number of resources to help rural communities access clean water, become self-sufficient with their water resources and learn how to prevent diseases caused by water contamination.

An Adopt a Village Clean Water project in Kenya collects rainwater from the roofs of the local school, which is then filtered, treated and stored.

To date, 132,000 people in rural areas across the globe have benefited from Free The Children’s clean water and sanitation projects, and 505,000 people have benefited from our health care programs.

With your help, we are saving lives.

Other International Health Problems
In addition to lack of clean water, the world also faces many other health issues. Improving sanitation and education can also help to prevent these other global threats to health and life.

• HIV/AIDS is one of the main killers in the developing world. At the end of 2006, 39.5 million people were living with HIV, the highest number of people on record.[7]
• HIV/AIDS not only affects those that are ill, but also the family left behind. Africa, for example, has 12 million AIDS orphans.[8]
• Tuberculosis (TB) is an air-communicable disease rampant in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Every day, 5,500 people die from it—that’s 1 million deaths worldwide each year.[9]
• Another disease rampant among children in the developing world is malaria. Malaria affects 1 out of 5 children in Africa. There are more than 1 million deaths every year due to malaria—the majority of these are children. These deaths are preventable with proper identification and treatment after the disease is contracted.[10]

Check out Free The Children’s Adopt a Village campaign.
By “adopting a village”, you make sure children and their families around the world can lead healthy and productive lives. The Adopt a Village program has four key components: schoolbuilding, alternative income, health care, and clean water and sanitation. By raising money for the Adopt a Village: Clean Water project, for example, you bring a source of clean water to an entire community. This prevents and reduces disease. It also means people, especially girls, don’t have to walk so far to find clean water, allowing them to attend school instead.

Educate yourself and others.
Learn about health issues affecting people in the developing world. Then, use your voice to share what you’ve learned. Raise awareness among your friends, school or community. Every voice—especially yours—brings us a little closer toward a better and healthier world.