Documentary on Child Survival coming soon to PBS

From The United Methodist General Board of Church and Society--tell a friend

Documentary on Child Survival coming soon to PBS!
Please publicize!

Rx for Survival--A Global Health Challenge, a six-hour PBS television production narrated by actor Brad Pitt, will air November 1-3, 2005. (Please check your local listings for times) We urge you to widely promote this documentary in your local church, community, family and friends!

The General Board of Church & Society has signed on as a supporter of this initiative due to its long-standing commitment to children and hopes this production moves those in the United States to take action to eliminate poverty and disease.

“Rx for Survival is the most ambitious global health media education effort ever mounted for Americans,” say producers of the documentary, WGBH (Boston)/NOVA Science Unit and Vulcan Productions. While the historic vignettes feature actors and sets, the documentary sequences were filmed in more than 20 countries around the world to capture the real-life drama of today’s struggle to overcome poor health and rampant disease. The series includes sequences filed in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Central America, the Pacific Rim, the Indian sub-continent and the United States .

According to UNICEF, more than 10 million children die totally preventable deaths every year. Child survival is one area of global health in which every American can take simple steps that make a dramatic difference. Millions of children die each year who would have a better chance at life if they received five basic and inexpensive health interventions: vaccines, vitamins, antibiotics, oral rehydration medicine to prevent death from diarrhea, and insecticide-treated netting.

Major funding for Rx for Survival -- A Global Health Challenge is provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Merck Company Foundation. For additional information on the documentary and related statistics, go to the following websites:

http://www.globalhealth.org/rx_for_child_survival

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/rxforsurvival/campaign

http://www.unicef.org

http://www.unaids.org


The General Board of Church and Society
100 Maryland Avenue, NE
Washington, DC 20002 202-488-5600
FAX 202-488-5619
Order Resources 1-800-967-7000
www.umc-gbcs.org