wfn.org | Church World Service Sharpens Focus on Next Generation

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

'All Our Children:' Church World Service Sharpens Focus on Next
Generation

NEW YORK CITY/PREAH VIHEAR, CAMBODIA -- November 19, 2009 -- In tribute
to Universal Childrenâ??s Day (November 20) international humanitarian
agency Church World Service says it is intensifying its focus on the
worldâ??s most vulnerable children, under the banner "All Our  Children."

The relief, development and refugee assistance agency efforts aim first
to further shape and expand its existing child-centered programs in
Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia, with
concentration on small child and maternal nutrition and health, access
to education, greater school safety, especially for girls, and
protection for children and their rights.

The initiative recreates the spirit of the agency's original All Our
Children campaign, a campaign spearheaded by CWS in the early months
following the U.S. invasion of Iraq. That effort raised more than $2
million in funds and material aid for Iraqi children affected by the
war, with assistance ranging from desperately needed medical and hygiene
supplies for children's hospitals and institutions to trauma care and
conflict resolution-themed puppet shows.

Rev. John L. McCullough, CWS Executive Director and CEO, says the
agency is strengthening its commitment to the needs of vulnerable
children in the world's poorest countries "because we fear for the
future of the next generation.

"In terms of hunger and nutrition, there is enough food in the world to
feed the world and its children," said McCullough, "but to cite United
Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at this week's food summit in
Rome, there are still 200 million children under age 5 in the developing
world who are undernourished and stunted in their growth. Six million of
them die every year, from causes related to malnutrition.

"And the U.S. is not immune," he said. "The Department of Agriculture
has just reported there are now 16.7 million malnourished children, a
significant increase over last year."

CWS's All Our Children strategy centers concurrently on immediate,
critical interventions such as hunger and malnutrition and on broader,
longer-range child development needs.

In Cambodia almost half of children under five years of age are
malnourished, according to a report last year by the World Health
Organization. *  One Church World Service program in Cambodia's remote
Kompong Thom and Preah Vihear provinces is tackling that crisis, by
improving child and maternal nutrition and health and helping
communities expand their capacity to sustain those gains.

In collaboration with the UN World Food Program's Mother and Child
Health Project, CWS is providing food supplements for children between 6
to 24 months, for their mothers, and for pregnant women.

The CWS Cambodia health team works closely with local village health
volunteers to incorporate monitoring practices, tracking infant growth
with weight and age charts. Mothers and families are learning the
importance of breastfeeding their infants, how to prepare supplementary
food and micronutrient supplements for their small children, and gain
further childcare education in related WFP trainings.

During the program's 2009 phase, CWS staff saw lower child mortality
rates based on problems in childbirth. 60 percent of babies monitored
gained weight normally, the remaining babies being additionally stressed
due to other illnesses.

"There is the nourishment of the body and the nourishment of the spirit
and intellect," says CWS Deputy Director, Head of Programs, Maurice
Bloem on the needs of the world's children.

Bloem says CWS's All Our Children effort includes small child nutrition
programs in other countries such as Indonesia and Pakistan but notes
that the 63-year-old organization is also focusing on child and youth
empowerment programs. The agency's innovative Giving Hope program in
East Africa helps orphaned youths, now ca
ring for their siblings, learn
how to start small businesses, build homes, grow food for meals and
market, and form youth collaboratives to help other orphaned peers.

In violence-torn Afghanistan kids are finding safety, healing, welcome,
books and computer access in a Kabul children's rehabilitation center
supported by CWS.

In Serbia, Roma children who were working in disease-riddled dumps are
now able to enter a first-class primary education program, through a
CWS-led collaboration between school and municipal authorities and the
Roma families -- a project that also provides job skills training for
parents and enables them to earn incomes.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, Church World Service will intensify
its focus on community-based child assistance efforts in Brazil,
Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay. Since 2004, CWS has
provided more than $1 million in support for programs with vulnerable
children in Latin America.

Anthony Musila, a CWS Giving Hope youth caregiver in Ndithini, Kenya,
has realized dreams that progressed from selling produce from a kitchen
garden to running two barbershops employing other members of his
collaborative youth group.

On Universal Children's Day, Anthony's feelings today probably sum up
the dream of all the world's children: "The future is smiling at me
now."
For more information on Church World Service, its child-centered and
other development, advocacy and refugee assistance programs, see:
www.churchworldservice.org.

> ###

* Reference: World Health Organization, "Nutrition in Cambodia 2008,"
in conjunction with Ministry of Health of Cambodia,
www.wpro.who.int/NR/rdonlyres/7290A421-9624-4CD1-A0DE-A79AA67562A4/0/NutCom2 008.pdf

Media Contacts:

Lesley Crosson, (212) 870-2676, media@churchworldservice.org

Jan Dragin - 24/7 - (781) 925-1526, jdragin@gis.net