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Presentation by Dr. Ms. Zilda Arns Neumann, 67,
paediatrician and health specialist, founder and National
Coordinator of the Child Pastorate of the Catholic Church,
Brazil
Panel: Improving Children’s
Environmental Health
Congress summary
– prevention is the only sustainable solution:
a healthy future for our children will only be possible
if we protect the environment.
Panel objective
– consolidate the support of all sectors of civil
society around the need to protect children from the
risks of environmental degradation.
Panel focus –
the environment, water and sanitation.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Nature
is the best source of wisdom. Animals always seek the
best place to ensure the reproduction of their species.
Fish swim against the flow in search for calm and safe
waters where they can lay down their eggs; birds fly
to the top of the highest trees and cliffs to lay their
eggs and protect their offspring from predators. They
know that the environment is the determining factor
to ensure the continuity of their kind. Humans, on the
other hand, must be stimulated to take proper care of
their environment, both for the continuity of their
species on Earth, and for protection of the natural
ecosystem. These values are most easily developed during
the first years of life. Thus, environmental protection
needs to become a cultural value stimulated among children
and families from all social classes.
My
work as leader of the Child Pastorate in Brazil started
in 1983 as an initiative of the Catholic Church. During
these 19 years, I have noticed the dramatic way through
which the environment interferes not only in the survival
of children, but especially in the development of their
own citizenship. Pregnant women need sun, good nutrition,
clean air and safe water in order to stay healthy and
ensure their babies all that they need to have a good
start in life. Talking, walking, and playing, which
are fundamental for children’s development and
social inclusion, are often denied, interrupted, or
postponed due to the lack of even minimum household
or community infrastructure. It is thus necessary to
bring together all efforts to ensure a healthy environment
for everyone in order to improve the health and well
being of our children within their family and community.
The
Child Pastorate monitors every month over 76 thousand
pregnant women and 1.6 million needy children younger
than six. Among the children monitored by the Pastorate,
the child mortality rate is less than half of the national
average.
Compared
to the national average of 34.6 deaths per 1,000 live
births, the Child Pastorate recorded less than 13 deaths.
This successful result was achieved thanks to the untiring
work of more than 153 thousand volunteers, 90% of whom
are poor women trained to work in solidarity networks
in their own communities.
Community
leaders taking responsibility for their own progress
are the main reason for the project’s success and
low-cost: the monitoring of each child costs less than
fifty cents per month. I am sure that simple and low-cost
initiatives, easily replicable through community involvement,
could also contribute to protect and rebuild the environment.
The training and monitoring of leaders, the constant
updating of the information system through the use of
simple indicators, and the feedback to the communities
are other important tools used by the Pastorate that
can be applied to developing a healthier environment.
In
addition to bringing down the infant mortality rate
caused by diarrhoea – and by extension unsanitary
environmental conditions - the Child Pastorate has managed
to decrease malnutrition, illiteracy, and marginality,
as a result of its work as a community-based human solidarity
network. Visits are made to more than one million families
every month, and monthly meetings carried out in more
than 32,000 communities at which time the children are
weighed and people’s faith in God and hope for
better days are renewed.
When
each (poor) person feels responsible for the environment
where he/she lives, and perceives it as something important
for his/her own survival and social inclusion, he/she
will naturally join the efforts to protect it.
The
big world powers, the rich and developing countries
with highest income concentration should be concerned
about implementing proper policies to assist the poorest
populations in order to improve their opportunities
and in consequence alleviate environmental degradation,
hunger, and child-maternal mortality. At present, the
debt load of developing countries is an important issue
for debate. In developing countries, paying the debt
means using financial resources that could otherwise
be invested in social projects in the areas of health,
education, housing, and environmental protection to
ensure the quality of life of the population as a whole.
It would be a great step forward if all rich countries
decided to turn the poor countries’ debt into social
commitments to be duly monitored through social control.
No concentration of power can ever make up for the death
of innocent children, hunger, poverty, ignorance, and
war. It is unacceptable that the financial profit of
just a few can lead to so much social disorder, threatening
world peace.
How
much is spent every year with violence, war, and the
impact of social exclusion?
I
wonder why the world leaders, who are so competent in
administration and management, still fail to invest
more in the construction of peace through social justice
and the globalization of solidarity.
Just
like the animals that search for safe places with an
abundance of water and food to ensure the reproduction
and growth of their offspring, we too have to care about
our environment so that all of our children can grow
up in a world free of pollution, rich in good quality
water and food, and access to all of the resources that
favour our development. This is the best way to teach
them to appreciate and protect the environment for the
next generations, as protagonists of Peace in our planet.
Thank you!
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