WEEK 2: Deworm the World
Welcome back to GIVE52, so exciting to see so many new pledges - 👋 Hi Creative Mornings crew!
I've been getting lots of questions about the pledge requirements, so let's clear the biggest one up: there is no minimum requirement to donate. I think it's a Mother Teresa quote: "it's not how much we give, but how much love we put into giving." This pledge is about giving what we can (even just $1) every week this year. With that, let's get right into it!
There are more than 870 million children at risk of parasitic worm infections worldwide. While virtually nonexistent and unheard of in developed countries today, parasitic worm infections are endemic in many of the poorest countries.
Treatment with a simple pill is universally recognized as a safe and simple solution.
Evidence Action's Deworm the World Initiative focuses on treatment delivered through existing school infrastructure. This is highly cost-effective and accepted well by communities, and able to reach hundreds of millions of children.
Left untreated, these infections interfere with nutrient uptake and can lead to anemia, malnourishment, and impaired mental and physical development. Infected children are often too sick or tired to concentrate at school, or to attend at all. Worm infections disproportionately affect the poor and particularly children.
Rigorous evidence shows that school-based deworming programs can improve health and education outcomes for children at a cost of less than $0.50 per year.
The Deworm the World Initiative envisions a world where all at-risk children have improved health, increased access to education, and better livelihoods potential as a result of being free of intestinal worms.
They work with governments around the world to eliminate the public health threat of worms through scaling up school-based mass deworming programs. They advocate for national school-based deworming to policymakers, and provide technical assistance to governments to launch, strengthen, and sustain school-based deworming programs. They focus on large-scale school-based deworming programs as they leverage existing infrastructure that result in treatment coverage of over 80% of at-risk children.
There are few issues as cost effective and life-changing as deworming initiatives. The Deworm the World Initiative is doing this, and they are doing it fantastically well. They have treated more than 190 million children during the 2016 school year.
Let's keep up this amazing momentum. Here's to you!
All the best and have a fantastic week,
Jodi
