[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 41 (Wednesday, April 9, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E612]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   ``THERE IS HOPE FOR THE CHILDREN''

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. NANCY PELOSI

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, April 9, 1997

  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I rise to bring to the attention of my 
colleagues the following article, ``There is Hope for the Children'' by 
Judy Mann in the Washington Post on Friday, March 14. This article ably 
describes how children are helping themselves through programs funded 
by UNICEF and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The 
article also presents an excellent summary of the UNICEF report, 
``America's Partnership with UNICEF,'' written by former House 
Appropriations Committee staff member Terry Peel. Terry's efforts to 
promote child survival have given tens of thousands of children around 
the world a chance for a decent life. I commend this important article 
to your attention:

               [From the Washington Post, Mar. 14, 1997]

                     There Is Hope for the Children

                             (By Judy Mann)

       Ten years ago, less than 40 percent of the children in 
     Uganda and Kenya were immunized. Twenty percent of them were 
     dying of preventable diseases. Today, the immunization rate 
     has reached 80 percent. Uganda's under-5 mortality rate has 
     dropped from 218 per 1,000 live births in 1960 to 185 in 
     1995, and Kenya's has dropped from 202 to 90.
       This success story is one of many included in two new 
     reports that chronicle a decade of genuine progress in child 
     survival led by UNICEF and the U.S. Agency for International 
     Development. In the pictures of the children at health 
     centers and schools, in the faces of mothers, fathers, health 
     care workers and teachers, there is hope and a determination 
     to beat malnourishment and disease.
       The UNICEF report was written by Terry R. Peel, a former 
     staff director of the House Foreign Operations Committee, who 
     traveled to Latin America, Africa and Asia to find out how 
     U.S. support for UNICEF--which has amounted to $840 million 
     during the last decade--is being used. He found story after 
     story of children being lifted out of appalling and hopeless 
     situations.
       In El Salvador, where more children were dying of 
     preventable diseases than of all the war-related causes 
     combined, warring factions stopped shooting on designated 
     days so children could be taken safely to clinics and 
     vaccinated. El Salvador's under-5 mortality has dropped from 
     210 per 1,000 births in 1960 to 40 in 1995.
       In Uganda, Peel found a Catholic priest, the Rev. Steve 
     Collins, who works with a UNICEF center that helps children 
     whose parents are dying of AIDS complications get the 
     technical and vocational training they'll need to sustain the 
     families. He introduced Peel to Katherine Nambudye, 20, who 
     lost her parents to AIDS two years ago and is raising five 
     younger siblings. ``Because of the training program, she has 
     graduated from school and is studying to be a teacher,'' Peel 
     wrote.
       ``Katherine also runs a chicken business, makes sure her 
     brothers and sisters are in school and cares for her 14-year-
     old brother who has polio. This brother is also working 
     through the center to get a certificate in graphics. He goes 
     to the center daily with the help of his brothers and sisters 
     who push him more than a mile in a wheelchair.''
       In India, UNICEF has promoted schools for children who 
     otherwise would be working in factories. Peel's report 
     includes a wonderful picture of two beautiful girls, 
     Shabana and Sudesha, who worked in the bangle industry for 
     years before finally being enrolled in school. Shabana 
     hopes to be a doctor.
       Jon Rohde, UNICEF's country representative in India, told 
     Peel that the 2 million deep well water pumps used throughout 
     the world were invented by UNICEF in India. He said the 
     pumps, which provide safe drinking water, along with oral 
     rehydration therapy for diarrhea, have saved millions of 
     lives.
       The Agency for International Development financed the basic 
     research that led to oral rehydration therapy and used its 
     marketing experience to educate parents and health workers. 
     The therapy is widely used in Bangladesh, and experts from 
     there took it into Rwandan refugee camps, where it helped 
     prevent mass deaths during cholera outbreaks. In its report, 
     AID estimates that the therapy saves 1.5 million children a 
     year. It was critical during a cholera outbreak that began in 
     Latin America in 1991.
       AID's Lessons Without Borders program has taken practices 
     developed to increase child immunization in Kenya to 
     Baltimore--and the city's immunization rate has risen from 62 
     percent to 96 percent for school-age children. At a program 
     marking International Women's Day at the U.S. State 
     Department yesterday, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton 
     referred to the program: ``We can learn from our neighbors 
     around the world,'' she said. ``Countless lives can be 
     improved, and we can improve lives here at home.''
       Clinton, who leaves this weekend for Africa, said she hoped 
     her trip would give ``American people a renewed sense of the 
     importance of our commitment to Africa.''
       ``In this time of interdependence and interconnection, we 
     all have a stake in each other,'' she said. ``American 
     interests are at stake. Far more importantly, America's 
     values are at stake.''
       One of those values is a commitment to the welfare of 
     children. Through AID and its support of UNICEF and other 
     international child and family health organizations, the 
     United States has prevented millions of child deaths and 
     improved the quality of life for millions of children. In the 
     last decade, AID has spent $2.4 billion for child survival. 
     Americans can take heart from these two reports:
       This is taxpayers' money well spent.

                          ____________________