[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 66 (Tuesday, May 6, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E873]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    FUNDING CHILD SURVIVAL PROGRAMS

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ROBERT E. ANDREWS

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 6, 2003

  Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, I would first like to take this opportunity 
to thank the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing and 
Related Programs Appropriations for providing $218 million for Basic 
Education programs last year and for protecting and expanding the Child 
Survival and Health Fund. Their leadership on these highly successful 
and cost-effective programs has been outstanding.
  I would also like to thank one of my constituents, Phyllis Alroy, who 
is a member of RESULTS, a national group dedicated to ending hunger and 
poverty worldwide. She and RESULTS have been champions in bringing 
these important initiatives to my attention. I applaud their efforts 
and encourage all to follow in their courageous footsteps.
  In the world today, one in five people must survive on less than 
their local equivalent of $1 per day. Nearly half the world's 
population survives on less than $2 per day. Approximately 113 million 
primary school--age children are not in school--more than the total 
number of primary-age children in school in the United States, Europe, 
and other more developed countries. In the least developed countries, 
40 percent of children who enroll in primary school do not complete 
five years, the minimum required for basic literacy. Nearly 11 million 
children under the age of five die annually in the world mostly from 
preventable diseases and malnutrition.
  One-third of the world's population, many of them parents, are 
infected with the bacteria that causes tuberculosis, a disease that 
kills 2 million people per year. As HIV infection rates rise around the 
world, not only in those countries already hardest hit by the virus but 
soon in ``second-wave'' countries identified by the National 
Intelligence Council (India, Russia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and China), TB 
rates are expected to rise rapidly.
  While these statistics are staggering, there is some good news: Three 
million more children a year now survive beyond their fifth birthday 
than in 1990. More than 60 countries have achieved a one-third 
reduction in their infant and under-5 child death rates. The world has 
come very close to eradicating polio, and is poised to do so by 2005. 
Also, in 2000, the United States and 188 other countries committed to 
the Millennium Development Goals and pledged to reduce severe poverty 
by half by 2015 and meet a set of accompanying goals, including halting 
and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS and TB, reducing deaths of 
children under five by two-thirds, and ensuring universal primary 
education.

  These goals are achievable, but only if we act now. The United States 
must lead in the global effort to save and improve children's lives, by 
expanding funding for the simple and effective treatments that we know 
work.
  We must protect and expand funding for Child Survival programs. Half 
of all children who die in developing countries fall prey to just four 
conditions: pneumonia, diarrheal diseases, malaria and measles, 
combined with malnutrition. Each of these conditions can be treated or 
prevented--and other critical child health needs can be met as well--
for precious little money. A few cents can provide a child with a 
vitamin A capsule a few times a year to prevent blindness and death. 
Five days worth of antibiotics to cure pneumonia cost just 25 cents. A 
packet of Oral Re-hydration salts to prevent fatal dehydration from 
diarrheal disease costs just 33 cents. I have asked the Foreign 
Operations Appropriations Committee to expand funding for Child 
Survival in your 2004 Foreign Operations Bill by $150 million.
  Other low-cost solutions can positively impact children's lives by 
helping their families. Two million people die each year from 
tuberculosis, and 8 million people become sick with the disease. TB is 
the leading killer of people with HIV/AIDS. TB primarily strikes adults 
during their productive, child-rearing years. Those who become ill 
often lose months of work. Sometimes, TB patients' children must leave 
school to work or care for their sick parent. Globally, $750 million 
per year could bring TB under control. I have asked the Foreign 
Operations Appropriations Committee to protect the bilateral TB control 
programs, and ensure that the funding is appropriately used as 
effectively as possible for direct, on-the-ground interventions and 
treatment.
  Another important tool for fighting TB is the Global Fund to fight 
AIDS, TB and malaria (GFATM). Malaria kills nearly 1 million people 
each year, most of them children. AIDS has orphaned 13 million children 
already and, at current rates, there will be 40 million AIDS orphans by 
2020.
  The GFATM is an accountable multilateral mechanism capable of 
ensuring that drugs and treatment are efficiently disseminated to where 
they are needed on the ground. The GFATM is a public-private 
partnership, independent from the United Nations and other 
international bodies and working as a complement to existing bilateral 
international health efforts. I have asked the Foreign Operations 
Appropriations Committee to provide $1 billion in 2004 to this program, 
and ensure that it reaches as many countries as possible.
  In addition to these programs, you have my support to expand funding 
for Basic Education programs in 2004 to $350 million (from all 
accounts), and to provide not less than $120 million for UNICEF, and 
$200 million for micro-enterprise programs, with at least half of that 
amount going to programs that target the very poor.
  Again I would like to thank the Subcommittee for its outstanding 
leadership in saving and improving children's lives around the world by 
expanding funding for these critical health interventions.

                          ____________________