San Francisco Area RESULTS

Contra Costa Times

Letters from our readers
Contra Costa Times
June 4, 2012

Don't slash funding for children abroad

Lost in the gloom of daily news and the fear of impending debt doom is a startling statement from UNICEF: The number of children younger than 5 who die from preventable causes has dropped from 40,000 per day in 1983 to 20,000 in 2010.

That drop is the result of many developments in basic health infrastructure and in the delivery of lifesaving immunizations and health treatment around the world. Those developments have come because small-but-powerful citizen-led advocacy groups such as RESULTS, for the past 30 years have successfully moved governments of developed countries to divert a tiny portion of their tax dollars toward cost-effective, proven international health programs.

Though less developed countries are stepping up their internal funding to save their children's lives, now is not the time for the House of Representatives to cut international health funding to impoverished countries.

The Department of Defense and U.S. Chamber of Commerce agree that the House should at least maintain -- not cut -- that funding for our own security and economic well-being.

Jim Driggers
Concord Group leader, RESULTS, Contra Costa County

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