The issues
The Issues
The worst place in the world?
Kroo Bay is a dump – literally. The better off Freetown residents throw their rubbish into the Crocodile River and it ends up in Kroo Bay.
A warren of higgledy-piggledy, ramshackle shacks made from bits of corrugated iron are built on the rubbish. There’s no electricity, no running water and only one rundown clinic between 6,000 people.
Kroo Bay is one of the worst places in Sierra Leone – a country that’s officially recognised as the toughest place in the world to be born.
1 in 4 children in Sierra Leone dies before their fifth birthday.
They die from diseases we know how to treat and prevent - diseases like malaria, cholera, pneumonia and diarrhoea.
World shame
10 million children worldwide won’t make it to their fifth birthday this year – and their deaths are preventable. We want you to get to know Kroo Bay because it’s a microcosm of this global disgrace. Explore Kroo Bay to see for yourself.
Can we really allow this in the 21st century?
No, we think it’s outrageous too. Together we can – and must – stop this needless waste of life. We know it's the very poorest children who are at greatest risk. They die because they don’t have the essentials we take for granted – nurses and midwives, essential medicines, clean water and the food they need to survive and grow. Help us change this.
Time is running out
In 2000, world leaders promised to cut the number of children dying in the world by two-thirds. But these promises – Millennium Development Goals – have not been kept. At current rates, we won’t save this many children until 2045.
We must act now
That’s why we want you to join our largest ever campaign to save children’s lives. If we all act now, we can get the world back on track to fulfil our promises to save the lives of millions of children. Children like Kadiatu, Samuel and Musa.
As Nelson Mandela once said, "Promises made to children should never be broken."
