Tomorrow my beautiful daughter turns 14.
Emily has brought me more happiness than I could have ever imagined possible, but not everyone gets to celebrate such milestones. It is only becuase she was born in a developed country like Australia that she has had the opportunity to grow up in the amazing young lady she is today. I don’t take that for granted and I can’t help but feel deeply for millions of parents around the world who battle to simply keep their children alive.
Tomorrow we’ll celebrate fourteen healthy years for our eldest child. In many countries it’s a major achievement for any child to just make it to the age of five.
Every day, over 24,000 children under the age of five die from mostly preventable and treatable causes, such as diarrhoea, malaria, measles, pneumonia and HIV/AIDS. They don’t die for a lack of knowledge or science-we know how to prevent thousands of these children from dying each day-we simply need to put our knowledge into action. It’s not up to philanthropists, non-government organisations, religions, governments or individuals alone: this will take all of our efforts, working together.
One of the things that I hope Emily has learned is that with privilege comes responsibility. We live in an amazing country and although we are far from being rich by Australian standards, when we look around the world and then at our circumstances we see how good things are for our family. That means we have a responsibility to help others in more difficult circumstances.
Our finances are pretty tight at the moment but we still have a very good roof over our heads, food in our tummies and a whole lot more. Millions around the world don’t have any of that.
Of the approximately 2.2 billion children living in the world today, more than half are living in poverty. That means they lack opportunity and options, and face challenges that can rob them of even basic rights: safety, good health, education and enough food to develop properly. Today’s children embody tomorrow’s world, and uneducated, malnourished, poor children are likely to become tomorrow’s uneducated, malnourished, poor adults.
One of the ways we help others is through Compassion Child Sponsorship.
I know that most of us don’t have too much to spare at the moment, but please consider helping others who have nothing. I’ve been to developing countries and seen the work Compassion does first hand. Believe me, they do amazing work. The money does get through and it makes a world of difference.
I’m so thankful that I have two healthy children. I want to ensure that other parents know what that’s like too so I’ll continue to support Compassion.
Please think about how you can change the life of a child and their family through Compassion Child Sponsorship.
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I’ve recently signed up for a three day bike ride to raise money for Compassion Australia and the work they do in releasing children from poverty. The ride’s in February and I’ll be cycling the Great Ocean Road in Victoria.
