Cleveland Joins Local Coalitions Across America on Campaign to Improve Child Health and Survival Worldwide

Cleveland Joins Local Coalitions Across America on Campaign to Improve Child Health and Survival Worldwide

CLEVELAND, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- A coalition of local media, health organizations, universities, and faith-based institutions in Cleveland have joined with 30 other communities across the country in an effort to increase awareness of the 11 million children who die each year worldwide (pbs.org/rxforsurvival/campaign).

As part of WGBH/Boston and Vulcan Productions' Rx for Child Survival(TM), a nationwide mobilization campaign created by WGBH/PBS Boston and Vulcan Productions, WVIZ is working with the Global Health Council, Ohio Department of Health, Girl Scouts of Lake Erie Council, League of Women Voters, YWCA Greater Cleveland, City Year Cleveland, Planned Parenthood, and the Children's Defense Fund to form this unprecedented coalition.

The coalitions are working in their communities to increase awareness about global health, encourage donations to child health programs, and advocate for increased government funding for global child health and survival. For example, the Girl Scouts of Lake Erie Council are going to tie their International Thinking Day in with the Rx for Child Survival campaign by making medical kits for Healing Children, a nonprofit humanitarian organization dedicated to securing donated medical and surgical care for foreign children in need. At the congressional level, Senator Mike DeWine and Rep. Sherrod Brown have joined with their bipartisan colleagues to support efforts to increase assistance and support for global health and development programs.

"We are building a grassroots movement to educate the public about the preventable deaths of millions of children across the world," states Deryck Spooner, national campaigns manager at the Global Health Council. The Council is also calling on the U.S. government to nearly double funding for global child health in the coming fiscal year.

The Rx for Child Survival campaign was created by WGBH and Vulcan Productions to coincide with their far-reaching multimedia project Rx for Survival -- A Global Health Challenge(TM) anchored by a six-part television series airing November 1-3, 2005 on PBS stations across the country. Major funding for the project was provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Merck Company Foundation.

http://www.pbs.org/rxforsurvival/campaignhttp://www.globalhealth.org/http://www.pbs.org/http://www.vulcanproductions.com/

LOCAL COALITION CONTACT: Eugene Sasso (216) 739-3869 http://www.wviz.org/

GLOBAL HEALTH COUNCIL CONTACT: Mariah Richardson-Osgood 202.833.5900 x3213 mrichardson-osgood@globalhealth.orghttp://www.globalhealth.org/

Source: Global Health Council

CONTACT: Local Coalition: Eugene Sasso, +1-216-739-3869; or Mariah Richardson-Osgood of Global Health Council, +1-202-833-5900, ext. 3213, mrichardson-osgood@globalhealth.org

Web site: http://www.globalhealth.org/ http://www.pbs.org/rxforsurvival/campaign http://www.pbs.org/ http://www.vulcanproductions.com/ http://www.wviz.org/

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