Source: ChildFund New Zealand
ChildFund New Zealand has launched two campaigns that some find confronting – Deadly Weapon and Her First Sip.
“We make no apology for offending you. We agree that people should feel shocked and outraged. Children are dying from drinking contaminated water in our region of the Pacific – and this is entirely preventable,” says ChildFund NZ CEO, Josie Pagani.
The ‘Deadly Weapon’ campaign shows a Pacific child pointing a water gun at the camera.
The ‘Her First Sip’ campaign shows a baby drinking water from a sipper bottle that could be poisoning her. It draws on a fear familiar to many mothers in parts of the Pacific – the fear that when a baby moves from breast to bottle, their first sip could be their last.
“Imagine facing that possibility” adds Pagani.
Five million people in the Pacific still lack access to clean drinking water.
In the Solomon Islands, approximately one in fourteen deaths of children under five is linked to diarrhoea, caused primarily by dirty water and poor sanitation.
Only 16 percent of schoolchildren have access to clean, safe water.
Thirty percent of children under five in the Solomon Islands suffer from stunting, meaning their bodies and brains cannot fully develop due to poor nutrition and contaminated water. This is one of the highest rates in the world.
In Kiribati, one in ten deaths of children under five is linked to diarrhoea, and only 27 percent of households have access to clean, safe water.
“The challenges are different in each community – but they are always solvable, and the solutions are cost-effective,” says Pagani.
In the remote Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands, ChildFund NZ is working with local partner Greenergy to rebuild a water pump that will serve 3,000 people.
The local ChildFund Kiribati team is installing desalination units to turn seawater into drinking water.
“New Zealand parents take it for granted that we can fill our children’s bottles with clean water from the tap and send them to school. In some parts of the Pacific, children miss school because they must walk for hours to collect clean water,” says Pagani.
ChildFund NZ’s partner in the Solomon Islands, Greenergy, knows the risks better than anyone.
“One day my six-year-old niece was in school,” says Sharon Inone, a mother and CEO of Greenergy. “The next, she was gone. Dysentery took her life before anyone could help.”
“We want New Zealanders to be as desperate as we are to prevent these deaths. We can stop children dying now,” says Pagani.
