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

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

OWINGS MILLS, Md., Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- A coalition of local media, health organizations, universities, and faith-based institutions in Owings Mills 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, MPT has partnered with UNICEF, CARE and Save the Children to form this unprecedented coalition. Working with the Global Health Council, universities and faith-based organizations also participating in the global child health and survival effort include Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland, Words to Life Ministries, Pleasant Hill United Methodist Church, Liberty Reformed Presbyterian Church, Beth Israel Congregation, and Christ the King Lutheran Church.

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, MPT has organized an Rx for Child Survival essay contest for middle and high school students, encouraging students to write either a letter or an op-ed about local and global health. Deadline for the submission is October 28, and the winners may be featured on-air and submitted to local newspapers for publication.

"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.

CONTACT: Mariah Richardson-Osgood of Global Health Council, +1-202-833-5900, x3213, mrichardson-osgood@globalhealth.org; or Local coalition: Faith Michel, +1-410-581-4031, fmichel@mail.mpt.org.

Source: Global Health Council

CONTACT: Mariah Richardson-Osgood of Global Health Council, +1-202-833-5900, x3213, mrichardson-osgood@globalhealth.org; or Local coalition: Faith Michel, +1-410-581-4031, fmichel@mail.mpt.org

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

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