Rights

Every child has the right to health care, clean water, nutritious food and a safe environment so they can be as healthy as possible.

Yet in 2008, nearly 9 million children died before their fifth birthday, and most of these deaths could have been prevented. Around 4,000 children die every day from diarrhoea because they don't have access to clean drinking water or proper sanitation, like toilets. Others die because they do not have enough food to eat.

Vaccines are injections that help prevent children from catching diseases, like tuberculosis. UNICEF delivers more vaccines to developing countries than any other organisation. In 2008, we delivered vaccines to 56 per cent of the world’s children, as well as 19 million mosquito nets, which keep mosquitos away from children at night and prevent the spread of malaria.

We also run programmes around the world to prevent mothers from passing on HIV to their babies (prevention of mother-to-child transmission), and we work to make sure children have clean water and proper toilet facilities.

In emergencies, UNICEF provides clean water and sanitation facilities, like toilets, to children whose homes have been washed away by floods or destroyed by an earthquake. In places where there is a lack of food, we train health workers, like doctors and nurses, and deliver things like therapeutic food (ready-to-eat food which is very nutritious and high in energy) to treat children with malnutrition.

Working with local governments, UNICEF helps to build health systems, like hospitals and doctor's surgeries, or to re-build them after an emergency, leading to long-lasting benefits for children. We go deep and tackle the very causes of poor health, such as poverty and a lack of information and education about a healthy diet.