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Every baby should have the same opportunities to good health. Fear of diseases that have proven to be preventable by vaccines just shouldn’t exist. It isn’t right that in village where I was born children are still to this very day getting polio, the disease that paralyzed my left leg. As a father, I now fear even more for those children and their parents.
When Franklin Roosevelt called on Americans to celebrate the first UN Day, the term “United Nations” had just been coined to describe the alliance that stood against fascism’s march. But for a dedicated group of internationalists, it was more than a slogan, more even than an alliance, it was the embodiment of an idea that would come to final fruition with the signing of the UN Charter on October 24, 1945.
Nearly 20 years ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared tuberculosis (TB) a global public health emergency. Today, according to WHO’s 2013 Global TB report, much progress has been made toward the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal (MDG 6) of reducing the spread of TB, although there is much more work to be done.
Every day, in every part of the world, the UN is working to solve pressing challenges and improve lives. By supporting the UN, each of us can help strengthen its work and build a more peaceful, just world.
A recent polio outbreak in the Horn of Africa serves as a reminder that this crippling disease still exists and is actively threatening children. While there is no cure for polio, vaccines protect children from the disease for life.
Americans overwhelmingly support the UN’s work – including destroying Syria’s chemical weapons and providing humanitarian aid to refugees – and believe we should pay our dues to the UN on time and in full.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the challenges facing girls and women around the world. One in seven girls in developing countries will be married before age 15. Approximately 800 girls and women die every single day from pregnancy-related complications. But awe-inspiring everyday heroes refuse to accept these statistics.
Today is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and a fitting time to learn about where we are in the fight to end poverty.
Today marks World Food Day – a day established by the United Nations to focus the world’s attention on hunger and food security. To get up to speed on where we are in the fight against hunger and how we can increase progress, the UN Foundation recently spoke to Zak Bleicher, a Partnership Officer in the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development.
With 808 days until the target date to achieve the MDGs – eight goals embraced by governments and the UN in 2000 to reduce poverty, hunger, gender inequality, preventable deaths, and environmental degradation by 2015 – it’s a question at the top of many minds.