Waco Joins Local Coalitions Across America on Campaign to Improve Child Health and Survival Worldwide

Waco Joins Local Coalitions Across America on Campaign to Improve Child Health and Survival Worldwide

WACO, Texas, Nov. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- A coalition of local media, health organizations, universities, and faith-based institutions in Waco have joined with 30 other communities across the country in an effort to increase awareness of the 11 million children who die each year worldwide (pbs.org/rxforsurvival/campaign).

As part of WGBH/Boston and Vulcan Productions' Rx for Child Survival(TM), a nationwide mobilization campaign created by WGBH/PBS Boston and Vulcan Productions, KWBU has partnered with the Baylor University School of Social Work, World Hunger Relief, Inc., and the Texas Department of State Health Services to form this unprecedented coalition. Working with the Global Health Council, universities and faith-based organizations are also participating in the global child health and survival effort, including Baylor University, Waco Baptist Association, and Lakewood Christian Church.

The coalitions are working in their communities to increase awareness about global health, encourage donations to child health programs, and advocate for increased government funding for global child health and survival. KWBU, World Hunger Relief, and the WACO coalition will manage a tent at the Waco cultural arts festival taking place November 12-13. The tent, called "A Day in the Life of a Luo Child", will focus on two Rx for Child Survival issues: mosquito netting and water. Children and adults will be able to learn interactively about the life of an African child; they will have the opportunity to handle mosquito nets, carry heavy buckets of water, grind corn and peanuts, and learn about global health statistics.

"We are building a grassroots movement to educate the public about the preventable deaths of millions of children across the world," states Deryck Spooner, national campaigns manager at the Global Health Council. The Council is also calling on the U.S. government to nearly double funding for global child health in the coming fiscal year.

The Rx for Child Survival campaign was created by WGBH and Vulcan Productions to coincide with their far-reaching multimedia project Rx for Survival-A Global Health Challenge(TM) anchored by a six-part television series airing November 1-3, 2005 on PBS stations across the country. Major funding for the project was provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Merck Company Foundation.

CONTACT: Mariah Richardson-Osgood of Global Health Council, +1-202-833-5900 x3213, or mrichardson-osgood@globalhealth.org; or Local Coalition Contact, Nan Holmes, +1-254-710-7881, or nan_holmes@kwbu.pbs.org

Source: Global Health Council

CONTACT: Mariah Richardson-Osgood of Global Health Council,
+1-202-833-5900 x3213, mrichardson-osgood@globalhealth.org; or Local Coalition
Contact, Nan Holmes, +1-254-710-7881, nan_holmes@kwbu.pbs.org

Web site: http://www.globalhealth.org/
http://www.pbs.org/rxforsurvival/campaign
http://www.pbs.org/
http://www.vulcanproductions.com/

-------
Profile: intent