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 | | | February 14, 2003 |
 |  | Death, Disease, Starvation Await Iraqi Children in Event of War A U.S. invasion of Iraq would deal a devastating blow to that nation’s 13 million children, a new study has found. Compiled by an international research team which visited Iraq in January, the study concluded that: the 1991 Gulf War and a dozen years of economic sanctions have crippled Iraq’s health system; more than 500,000 Iraqi children under five are acutely malnourished or underweight; most Iraqi families have exhausted their financial resources and are highly dependent on government food rations; and the infrastructure upon which the country’s population depends – electricity, water and sanitation – remains badly in need of repair a dozen years after it was damaged in the 1991 Gulf War. Read more... | 
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| Bush Unveils $15 Billion AIDS Plan Stating that “seldom has history offered a greater opportunity to do so much for so many,” President Bush has proposed a five-year, $15 billion initiative to stem the tide of HIV/AIDS in severely affected parts of Africa and the Caribbean. Using his State of the Union speech to launch the initiative, Bush said the plan would prevent seven million new AIDS infections, treat at least two million HIV-infected people with life-extending drugs and provide humane care for millions of people suffering from AIDS. The $15 billion in funding would triple the U.S. commitment to international AIDS assistance. Read more... | |||
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 | Angola Peace Brings Famine, Death After three decades of intermittent civil war, Angola finds itself waging a desperate peace. Famine threatens the countryside, where inadequate roads and extensive landmine infestation have thwarted humanitarian relief efforts. “Many communities are facing death and starvation,” said World Vision relief officer Jonathon White. “Children are dying in the villages. One woman told us that last week 15 children died in her village of 800 people.” Read more... | ||
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| Former Sponsored Child Named Kenya’s Assistant Water Minister John Munyes, who as a child received educational assistance from World Vision, has joined Kenya’s new government under President Emilio Mwai Kibaki, the nation’s first new president in 24 years. Mr. Munyes hasbeen named assistant minister for Water Resources Development and Management.“Without educational assistance from World Vision, I would not be a government minister today,” Munyes told an audience at the recent opening of Pokotom Primary School in Turkana District. The school was financed with the help of a $42,350 gift from World Vision. Read more... | |||
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| Business Coalition, Harvard to Launch HIV/AIDS Project The impact of HIV/AIDS on businesses in Africa and Asia will be the focus of four workshops this year, the first at Harvard University on Feb. 20-21. The university is organizing the event in partnership with the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS. The GBC is an alliance of international businesses dedicated to combating the AIDS epidemic. Read more... | |||
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| Founded in 1950, World Vision is a Christian humanitarian agency serving the world’s poorest children and families in nearly 100 countries. As your news agency covers issues and events affecting the poor around the world, World Vision can offer photographs, video B-roll and specialists worldwide for interviews. Contact Brian Peterson: 407.445.6484, or e-mail MediaInfo@worldvision.org | | |
