It’s surprisingly easy to save a child’s life.

The Impact of Our Choices on Children's Survival

This artwork was created with Open AI’s DALL-E.

In 2011, in Foshan, a city in southern China, a 2-year-old girl named Wang Yue wandered away from her busy working mother onto a small street where she was hit by a van that didn’t stop. As the little girl lay on the street, bleeding, 18 people walked by, but none of them stopped to help her. CCTV footage showed that it was impossible for them not to notice her, but they averted their gaze as they passed her. As she lay there, a second van ran over her leg before a street cleaner saw her and raised the alarm. Wang Yue was rushed to the hospital, but sadly, she died before she got there.

You may be thinking: “How did all those people ignore her?” And you may also say to yourself: “I would have stopped to help.” Perhaps you would have. But this tragedy reveals that although many of us have the means to help those in less fortunate situations than ourselves, many of us often choose not to. Any of those 18 people could have helped. Instead, they turned a blind eye and became bystanders.

 According to UNICEF— the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund --  in 2022, around 5 million children under the age of 5 died from preventable or treatable diseases. Right now, somewhere in a low-income country, a little boy is dying from measles. Although if he could get to a hospital he would have a good chance of survival, , that would take money that his parents do not have. So, he dies slowly and painfully. He is dying from poverty, just as much as he is dying from measles.

This is not a hypothetical story; this is happening right now to hundreds of children. Poor people in low-income countries have lower rates of vaccination than others, so they have more cases of measles, and their inability to pay for transport or treatments means that they die more often.  It happens every day. The World Health Organization says that in 2022 there were 136,000 deaths, mostly among children. Whilst many children die from malnourishment, many more die from preventable and curable conditions, like measles, diarrhoea, and malaria. In high-income countries, these conditions don’t pose a fatal threat, and some don’t exist. Children living in poverty are vulnerable to these conditions because they don’t have access to basic resources, like clean drinking water and sanitation. When they fall ill, parents can’t afford medical treatment or are unaware of what treatment is required.

How does Wang Yue’s story relate to the fact that many millions of children die from poverty? Both cases reveal our disturbing tendency to overlook those in need, even when the means to help are within our reach. Wang Yue's fate was sealed by inaction, just as inaction means that each day thousands of children die preventable deaths. However, the narrative doesn't have to end here.

It is surprisingly easy to save a child’s life. Imagine that one day you are walking past a house and you see a child crying at the window.  Behind the child you see smoke and flames. You rush in, grab the child, and carry her out, saving her life.  You are a hero, because you saved a child’s life.  I’m sure you would feel that this was one of the best things you had ever done, and perhaps it would be.  But you can save a child’s life without risking yours, and if you do, you ought to feel really good about that.  Organisations like Oxfam, Against Malaria Foundation, and Evidence Action provide life-saving services like clean water, insecticide-treated bednets, and basic health services. Check out these and other organizations, all independently assessed as highly effective and offering excellent value for money, at www.thelifeyoucansave.org.  By donating to them, you can support their efforts, and save lives.