Activity 3:   Some encouraging signs!   Read the short text below which gives examples of how the MDGs are helping to improve people’s lives.  

Bed Nets in Ghana

In Ghana some 80,000 children under the age of five die each year, most of them from diseases that can be prevented or treated. Malaria is the biggest single cause of childhood deaths, causing about a quarter of all deaths among children under five.   Sleeping under a bed net can cut child deaths by as much as 20 per cent.

In November 2006 a campaign was started in Ghana to give out free bed nets to all families with children under the age of two. The government  of Ghana was able to do this with the help of £6 million grant from the UK government.  At the same time the children were given injections against measles and polio.

Edith & Pronia’s Story

Edith lives in Malawi. She is poor, HIV positive and cannot afford to pay for expensive medicines. For years Edith suffered ill health. She first became sick after she had a baby who died five months later. She had five further miscarriages, then found out she had TB.   Her husband died from AIDs, so Pronia, Edith’ s 11 year old daughter, had to take care of her.  A new project funded by the United Nations means that Edith, like thousands of others in Malawi, now gets the treatment she needs.

Edith says, “ When I first found out I was HIV positive I was really shocked and scared, but now I am finally  getting the right treatment. I look and feel healthy, I can work again, and my future is more secure. “

Pronia says ” I’m glad my mother’s health is better because now I can go back to school. When she was sick I had to look for food, cook and do all the household chores.”

Sources: Make Poverty History, Oxfam, UNESCO, Christian Aid, DFID, Understanding the world through English

a)     How have projects funded through the MDGs helped people in Africa?

b)   Any thoughts or comments on this text?