The figures are frightening! Every year, ten million children die in the world’s poorest countries from diseases which could have been prevented. 500,000 women die during pregnancy or childbirth because they do not have access to adequate medical care.
In 2003, more people died of AIDS than ever before, three million of them. The disease is on the rise. Still millions more are suffering from diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria and leprosy. Access to adequate healthcare is a basic human right, but even so at the beginning of the 21st century a third of the human race is being denied this. More than a billion people have no access to clean drinking water, and almost two and a half billion are living without adequate sanitation facilities.
There are many causes of this humanitarian catastrophe but the primary one is poverty. Disease is too often a direct result of poverty, and poverty is too often the result of disease. Success in the battle against poverty is a precondition of success in the battle against disease.
Health is, therefore, a number one priority for the ProtectStar Foundation.
