10.5 million children under 5 will die this year—how do you save a child’s life?

Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for the rest of his life.

Saving children cannot simply be a generational thing. In order to truly save children, and their children's children, we cannot simply bring food and supplies to them or they will say to their children, "If you are poor enough, and look pathetic enough, eventually someone will bring you food."

This just continues a cycle that will never resolve. If we truly wish to save the lives of millions of children, we must go to them and implement programs that will teach them the skills that they need to survive. Teach them a trade, give them sex-ed, help them hone skills that can be passed on to further generations. Only when these people can stand alone, will we have truly solved the problem.

God bless

How do you save a child's life? Perhaps a more suitable question would be: How could you not save a child's life? Disease is rampant, murder is at an all-time high, and accidents are easier to run by than at previous times. If this is not heartbreaking, what is?

We all know how large 10.5 million is. $10.5 million, most would consider this a large sum of cash. 10.5 million stars in the sky, how many wishes could be granted? 10.5 million hours would cover the last millenium plus two hundred years. 10.5 million children under the age of five die every year, that's the entire population of New York City and more. How on Earth can we stop this? There is no simple answer, only a complex answer. Not a one can take on the severity of the situation.

Everything must be accounted for. Every disease, murder, accident, they must all be seen collectively, but distinguished and set apart as well. Only then can we attack this problem head-on.

The answer however lost in context it might be, is there to be found. Disease, a complicated part of this, cannot be taken down as easily as one might hope. It is a blemish here on Earth, one that can never be completely destroyed, yet scientists are working on this day after day and night after night, it is only reasonable that an answer be on its way. Murder, how can this no longer be a factor? Maybe it must first be attacked before the onset. This also is complicated, and the answer may never be fully realized. Accidents, accidents we can attack, at least on some ground. It is important to remove any doubt.

Lucy,

With all the answers you already have, this one probably won't get read but here goes anyway. It's obvious that there are a lot of caring people out there. Even the parents of many of the children in need probably care.

To solve a problem, the first step is to find the exact cause. Not something like

poverty- there are millions of healthy happy children that are poor (and also many wealthy children who might be better off poor)

healthcare- once it gets to this point, someone has messed up

politics- those people are just a bunch of self serving so and sos

religion- religion is optional not a requirement

or any of the many other generic cliche's. Dig right down to the basics. What do children need in order to survive and become healthy and happy?

There are three things-

1. Food (and water of course)

2. Clothing

3. Shelter (a nurturing environment)

Every thing else is extra. If you want to get the most bang for your buck, get involved in one of these areas.

By the way, I'm a 57 year old male who used a little common sense and chose not to have children until I was ready. I'm still waiting.

Also, if you'd like to know what I've done for children I'll list a few (I'm not wealthy so money hasn't been an option)

3 years as a full time volunteer at a community theater where we included childrens plays along with the others.

2 years donating plasma twice a week which is used for children with health issues

Did some babysitting back when I was in the Navy

One summer as a volunteer at the Veterans Domicilary (not that veterans are children but it carries over I think)

Oh yeah, there is one more thing which is the hardest part. The reality of it is that if you want something done, you'll probably have to do it yourself.

Consider adoption if you are ready to build a family! Millions of children all over the world lack the love and safety of a family. If you want to be a parent, adoption is an incredible way to do it. No matter what personal circumstances may lead you to adoption, the bottom line is that you will be a Mom or Dad and a child will have a family.

You can look in your own backyard or on the other side of the world- it doesn't really matter, because every single child in the world deserves a family. If you do choose to adopt from another country, you will not only gain a son or daughter, you will gain insight into your child's birth culture. This is an eye-opening experience! Suddenly you'll find LOTS of different ways to help the kids that are left behind.

Adopting my 3-year daughter (born in China) has done more to open my eyes to the needs of the world's children than any other experience in my life. I now sponsor an orphanage child in China for education and also sponsor a 5 year old girl in the Dominican Republic through Children International. These sponsorships cost me less than $30 per month, but have an incredible impact on these 2 kids. There are so many ways to help kids locally and worldwide. If you don't have money, donate your time!

Mother Teresa said, " We can't all do great things, but we can do small things with great love." This is so true... small things can make a huge difference in the life of a child.

This is a statistical question; therefore, it can only be answered through statistics.

What I mean is that 10.5 million under the age of 5 is a percentage of a whole. The absolute best option to find a way to save these children is to look at the statistics of their deaths.

There are several questions that these statistics should answer; a few are where is the greatest concentrations of the deaths and what are the cheif causes of these deaths in these areas. It's a grim business finding out that answer, but in cases like this there has to be a negative cause before there can be a positive effect.

Once you have found the key answers it would then be the time for you to take action. The action taken will depend on variables such as location, money, and man power to just name a few. But, if you know the exact problem then you can find the exact answer.

To further explain this, take this sample scenario as an example. Corndusky, Iowa has a legal drinking age of 18. As a result, they have a larger fatality rate for the citizenry at the ages of 20 - 16 than their neighbors of Beansville whose legal drinking age is 21.

By having an idea what causes the problems, it then becomes easier to tackle them head on.

The first condition in accomplishing this is acknowledging and caring about the cause. Without the willingness to do such a thing this may very easily seem impossible, especially when you lack the resources, because this is something that should be taken into account. I, personally cannot say that i have literally saved a child's life, but i think that any form of help, as small as it would be, like offering a homeless child a warm meal a day (if this was done by every single adult human being it would represent very much, although it may seem small) The key to saving a million children's lives is not convincing Lucy Liu and Laurence Fishburne donate lots of money and effort to a million children, but using these two icons ( and others) in convincing a million people give a warm meal a day, clothes, a place to live, to one child. Believe me, it would make a much bigger difference. This is what i had to say regarding the topic, i apologize if the idea is not necessarily a direct answer to the question, but i really think it would be a start. Great things were, are and always will be accomplished with small people.

"10.5 million children under 5 will die this year -- how do you save a child's life?"

*NOTE* I dislike using the term "die," instead I will use the term "Leave the earth."

This is a tough one, if I had the ability to save all 10.5 million children, I would, but I know many people would want to do that and wish that would happen as well. I'm not a doctor or scientist, but from what I've experienced is that I would go to were the child is. I would also bring along some gifts, etc. for him/her. But gifts, money, etc are not always the "cure" to saving a child, of course many people know that. But I would also ask a doctor to come along to check up on the child, to see if he/she has any medical problems or anything that could harm their life or health. But as seen in history, people that are given the best health care may still leave the earth (Not from old age).

But if this child were to leave the earth soon, I would ignore when the child would leave the earth. I would also ask the child to stay calm and ignore how much longer they would have to live. After that he/she would go on an excursion with me, visiting various countries and experiencing things that this child never thought he/she would ever get a chance to do. This may be the turning point of their life, if the child has so much fun, he/she may forget when they would leave the earth. In 99.9% of all cases on the Earth, people experience fun things that can get their attention off anything subject for quite a while, and in fact they may even forget that certain subject for a few days, or even a few weeks.

If we were to get into a topic such as saving more than one life, then that would require more work, work that I love to do, helping others. If I had the money and supplies, I would make new homes for the children who unfortunately do not have any. I would also spend some money creating a few farms, that way they may learn to grow their own food and get some experience out of that. But what I think is most important is *education.* I would build a few schools around their area and hire a professional teacher which can teach them basic Math and basic English.

I hope that what I have told you is what you are hoping to read. I really and truly hope that you can save these children, it really saddens me to see children leave the earth before they can have a chance to experience the opportunites they can have on this very earth. I wish you good luck and that you enjoy your time with the children.

- Sherman (wiredforlyfe@yahoo.com)

In my opinion, if 10.5 million children under 5 will die this year from preventable causes we should take consideration of correcting the problems that causes these deaths. We should have more financially stable people, the government, and charities to fund money to drastically decrease the death with these young children. The reason why this amount of deaths occur each year is because less people worry about others in which I feel is wrong, personally, if I was a millionaire I would organize a group to help others that need more help than we do. In conclusion, if our citizens quit caring only for ourselves and not others we can over see this problem. We should be fighting a war on saving lives rather than a fake "WAR ON TERRORISM." If anyone understands my point of view, lets do something.

Saving a child's life...we hear stories every day about heroes in hometowns saving lives - the firefighter who carries the child out of a 3am house fire or the doctor that diagnoses a serious illness before it becomes life threatening. Most people say, "WOW - what a miracle!". You can turn on your TV every Sunday evening and watch ABC save a child's life, right? A new house for the parents' of the disables child with spiffy gadgets that make life so much easier for Mom and Dad - and I guess that is a miracle for them and I guess it makes us feel good to - I'm not knocking it, really. But what about the children that live in a place that there is no "feel-good reality TV"? At least in the USA there are state programs so every child can have healthcare - imagine what a miracle it would be if children in other countries had those miracles? IMMUNIZATIONS! I take them for granted, my child won't get the chicken pox - something I had when I was 12 - my children have been immunized for chicken pox - I think that is amazing! And yet what about children that still have, I don't know - Scarlet Fever or Rubella? Or the flu - my children again, got a flu shot this year, thank God! I remember thinking how outraged I was that might have been a shortage of flu shots - don't I seem silly now?

How do you save a child’s life?

You give every child the basic medical necessities they need to live or rather THRIVE - healthcare - immunizations and regular visits with healthcare professionals and a good nutritious diet.

I know, as a parent, that every child deserves this.

There is no direct answer to this question that will serve as a resolution to an issue that has existed for as long as it could be reported. The answer lies much deeper than just the focus of 10.5 million children. No child, no person should die from anything considered easily preventable. The problem is with the lack of responsibility both locally and from afar. Ya, I understand that there are "3rd World countries", but there is most definitely a money hungry government along side power hungry wealthy people that could show some responsibility and prevent things like this from occurring. Sure, I can give money to an organization that would possibly at some point make it through the mine field of the organization itself to help a child,... but the truth is that by the time my donation was through getting taxed, sorted, and finally allocated, I would be surprised if 30% of it made it to actually assist anyone.

I am a 14 year old girl living in a nice place in the United States. However, living here shelters us from what the rest of the world holds. What we can do to save a childs life, any child, is to spread awareness. The world does not have enough information on these statistics (I literally just found out that 10.5 million children under 5 will die this year), so we should spread the knowledge that we've found