Yet one-by-one, more than 24,000 children died every day during 2008, the vast majority from preventable causes. The scale of this devastation is deceptive: it surpasses, every ten days, the death toll from the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami or the January 12 earthquake which destroyed Port-au-Prince in Haiti. It is the equivalent of the combined populations of Sydney and Melbourne being obliterated every year. Largely from one major underlying cause: POVERTY
And yet, it doesn't have to be like this. At least two-thirds of all child deaths are preventable. Most children under five in the developing world die from causes that kill few children in countries like ours: respiratory infections, diarrhea, malaria, and HIV and AIDS.
Thankfully, the world is making progress in reducing preventable child deaths. Since 1990, annual global child mortality – the number of children who die before their fifth birthday – has fallen from 12.5 million per year to under 8.8 million in 2008. The focus brought to reducing child mortality under the Millennium Development Goals (MDG 4: Reduce Child Mortality) has undoubtedly helped facilitate this welcomed decline. However, well over five million more of these deaths each year are preventable. Indeed, achieving the MDG 4 target of a two-thirds reduction by 2015 requires saving the lives of five million more children every year.
Compassion is passionate about children. That is why we have created the campaign 5 MILLION MORE [5M+] focused on seeing Five million more children under five alive and thriving every year by 2015.