(2) UNICEF's 2005 Report states that over 29,000 children under age five die every single day of the year from starvation or lack of the most basic medical care.  That is almost 10 million children per year.  Breathe In, Breathe Out - a child has just died somewhere from easily preventable causes.  

 (3) UNICEF data also points out that one out of every three children on this planet goes to bed sick, hungry, or malnourished.  One out of every six goes to bed severely hungry.

 (4) Sadly too, the US government's National Institute for Health (www.NIH.gov) reports that childhood obesity and its resulting medical problems are of epidemic proportions in the United States.

 (5) UNICEF and the World Health Organization (www.WHO.org) report that world wide 40 million children below the age of 15 suffer from abuse and neglect that requires serious health and social care.

 (6) According to UNICEF, throughout the world there are at least 246 million children ages 5 to 16 years old working at full time jobs, with about 180 million engaged in the worst forms of child labour. 5.7 million children work at jobs that cause them to die prematurely or to become physical and emotional wrecks for the rest of their short lives. Many children are sold into involuntary servitude, slavery, or military service.

 (7) According to UNICEF there are almost 100 million children living or working on the streets of the world - 40 million in Latin America alone.  Needless to say, these children live very wretched lives.

(8) A UNICEF fact sheet on child protection reports that more than 1 million children (under 16) worldwide are in prison, jail, or detention centers. In Central and Eastern Europe about 1.5 million children were living in other public facilities at the end of the 1990s.

 (9) George Bush in his September 23, 2003 UN speech pointed out that trafficking of children, some as young as 5, is out of control worldwide.  UNICEF's 2005 Report says that as many as 1.2 million children are trafficked each year.

 (10)  UNICEF also reports that the number of children exploited in the multi-billion dollar commercial sex industry and pornography is estimated to be at least 2 million.  At the end of 2000 as many as 325,000 children were at risk of commercial sexual exploitation in the United States alone. UNICEF has previously reported that in the United States there are at least 100,000 child prostitutes.

 (11) UNICEF reports that sanctions meant to punish leaders of a country actually kill many children. On CBS 60 Minutes, on Mother's Day 1996, Leslie Stahl asked Madeline Albright, ambassador to the United Nations, about US sanctions on Iraq, "We have heard that half a million Iraqi children have died, I mean, that's more than died in Hiroshima. And, you know is the price worth it?"

       Her answer was, "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price - we think the price is worth it."

     President Clinton shortly after proudly promoted her to Secretary of State.

 12) Almost half of Iraq's total population is under 18.  Fourteen years of United States sanctions, destruction of all water treatment facilities, bombings, and military operations have resulted in the deaths of over 1 million Iraqi children. Many children are orphaned, maimed, living on the streets, malnourished, and in general are not doing well.

 (13) Ramsey Clark, former US attorney General, reports (www.iacenter.org) that "Depleted Uranium" radioactivity is causing much cancer, leukemia, and birth defects in children of Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, and Iraq. Also there are cases of birth defects in children born to Gulf War veterans.  

 (14) War is waged by adults, but it is the children who suffer the most. UNICEF has previously reported that in the twentieth century 75 million children were killed by war.

      The UNICEF 2005 Report says that since 1990 upwards of 2 million children have been killed in or died as a result of wars around the world, and at least 6 million children have been seriously injured or permanently disabled by war. Countless more are seriously traumatized. Is the 21st century going to be worse?

(15) According to UNICEF, in the past 40 years at least 1 million children have played with or stepped on landmines or other ordnance and were grotesquely blown apart or maimed.
     Presently, 10,000 to 15,000 children yearly are maimed or killed by land mines. In Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yugoslavia there are high incidents of deaths and maiming of children from land mines and unexploded cluster bombs. There are presently many unexploded cluster bombs in Lebanon.

(16) UNICEF reports that over 300,000 child soldiers (boys as well as girls)(8 to 15 years old) are fighting in 32 wars all over the planet. Also many girls are forced to 'service' these troops. Many of the soldiers and fighters in Afghanistan's recent wars were children.

 (17) UNICEF's 2005 Report states that 14 million children, under age 15, have been orphaned because of AIDS. Last year half a million children under 15 died from AIDS.  2.1 million children across the world live with HIV. Every 14 seconds a child is orphaned because of AIDS.

(18) UNICEF's 2005 Report says that 121 million children (65 million of them girls) have never attended school.  UNICEF believes that education of girls is the single most important step in relieving poverty throughout the world.

(19) UNICEF reports that an estimated 100 to 130 million women and girls alive today have undergone some form of genital mutilation. Much of it done in childhood.

(20) The World Health Organization reports that an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 vitamin A-deficient children become blind every year, half of them dying within 12 months of losing their sight. Between 100 and 140 million children worldwide are vitamin A deficient.

    The WHO also reports that nearly 600,000 women die from childbirth-related causes each year, the vast majority of them from complications which could be reduced simply through better nutrition, including provisions of vitamin A .

(22) United Nations High Commission on Refugees (www.UNHCR.org) reports that there are 8 million refugee children. Many live their entire childhood in squalid refuge camps.

 And the list goes on and on. . . . .

 Finally, much is being done to help the children of the world, but many goals fall far short. To find out more about the "state of the world's children" and what is being done (and not being done) and what one can do to help, the UNICEF website www.UNICEF.org. is a great place to start.

       Especially informative is the 165 page 2005 State of the Worlds Children Report and the December 2004 message of Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF.