21 June 2015

Help Shine a Light on Child Mortality


All over the world children continue to die in such numbers that it is sometimes difficult to believe that we are all living in the same century.  Charity Human Appeal has recently released this video to raise awareness not only of the shocking numbers of children who are dying but what causes these awful child mortality rates too. It forms part of their #shinealight campaign to end child mortality and global poverty.

The release of the video has been timed to coincide with the beginning of Ramadan when Muslims throughout the world reflect on their relationship with those less fortunate than themselves (amongst many other things, of course).

The video shows two children but the shadow of one of them freezes.  When the camera pans to what is making the shadow we do not see the child but the many causes of child mortality around the world.  Rotting food, damaged medical equipment, dirty water, weapons and ammunition all come together to make this an extremely powerful visual metaphor for the things that kill children each and every day.

To focus on just one aspect of this shadow sculpture – the food that is crawling with insects represents the 3 million young lives lost to malnutrition each year.  However, this can be stopped.  Human Appeal’s activity in Syria alone over the last two years benefited over 2.7 million people.

There are ways you can help.  You could share this post through your social media channels.  You can also share directly from the video on Facebook or retweet it on Twitter.