SOS Children’s Villages Canada launches Put Children First campaign - #putchildrenfirst
At the start of the new millennium, the United Nations set eight universal goals, known as the Millennium Development Goals. These goals outlined what the global community wanted to achieve by 2015. They were:
- Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
- Achieve universal primary education
- Promote gender equality and empower women
- Reduce child mortality
- Improve maternal health
- Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
- Ensure environmental sustainability
- Organize global partnership for development
All of the goals are in line with what SOS Children’s Villages want: to see that children are safe, healthy and educated. Thus far, huge progress has been made. From 1990 to 2010, mortality for children under five has decreased from 90 deaths per 1000 live births to 48. Similarly, maternal deaths have dropped from 400 per 100,000 live births to 210. Significant headway has also been made towards the goal to achieve universal primary education: the number of out-of-school children dropped by almost half from 102 million in 2000 to 57 million in 2011.
Certainly, there have been considerable improvements since the goals were adopted, but there is still a long way to go to reach them.
The United Nations has been working hard to develop a post-2015 Development agenda that will define the international community’s plans for the developing world for the next 15-20 years, with a commitment to give children and youth even more consideration.
Over the next eight weeks, we will be sharing our support and our own stories on the rights of children, emphasizing the need to Put Children First when creating the Sustainable Development Goals. The Put Children First campaign will discuss the importance of education, child and maternal health care, care for orphaned and abandoned children, and child protection and safety, with suggestions about how you and your family can get involved and make a difference.
For more of our Put Children First campaign, please follow our Twitter and Facebook. Keep others in the loop by using the hashtag #putchildrenfirst!
Canadian's wishing to support SOS Children's Villages are encouraged to sponsor a child, sponsor a village or to make a direct donation. Your support ensures that SOS Children's Villages can continue to provide a safe and loving home to orphan and abandoned children worldwide.