"Sometimes people wait for heroes to solve problems -- the Obamas, the Oprahs, the Brad and Angelina's of the world -- but people with a first and last name can make a difference," she said. "We have a right to be concerned with our own needs and the needs of our family, but that doesn't exempt us from caring about the rest of the world." Carol Bellamy was the first returned Volunteer (Guatemala 1963–65) to be confirmed by the Senate as director of the Peace Corps.
Carol Bellamy challenges Westminster students on a healthier planet
Bellamy challenges Westminster students on a healthier planet
By ROGER MEISSEN
The Fulton Sun
As Carol Bellamy spoke to a full auditorium in the keynote address for Westminster College's symposium entitled "Global Health: Who Cares?" she focused on the most vulnerable.
"If the entire population of Michigan dies within one year, shock waves would reverberate around the world, but there are about 9 million deaths each year -- about 46,000 a day -- of children under the age of 5 and that barely even provokes a tremor," Bellamy said. "The fact that two-thirds of these deaths are preventable makes this statistic even more tragic and reflects on the many challenges that remain as we charge into the 21st century."
Bellamy's focus on the underprivileged, poor and young has roots in her history of advocacy in the public sector and through non-profit service. While she currently serves as president and CEO of World Learning, a non-profit organization operating in 77 countries to address pressing global issues and promote social and economic justice, she has a long track record of advocacy. Bellamy previously served as executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) for 10 years, was director of the U.S. Peace Corps and was elected to both the New York State Senate and was the first woman elected to the New York City Council.
"She is a leader with character, whose life of service has made the world a better place for all people," Westminster President Barney Forsythe said. "Carol Bellamy has dedicated her entire life in the private sector, the public sector and in her humanitarian effort to serving on behalf of others."
That dedication is clear in her focus on preventable health problems across the globe, which she sees most critical in youth and women.
"Nearly 4 million infants do not survive the first month of life, one in six are severely hungry and one in seven has absolutely no health care," Bellamy said. "... In spite of the fact preventable diseases are on the decline, malaria, diarrhea, malnutrition, acute respiratory disease and unhealthy home environments cut down children in unfathomable numbers across the globe."
She said poverty has an integral part in exacerbating global health problems. A lack of sanitation, potable water and access to preventive medicine springs from a lack of funding. Bellamy noted that the four biggest killers in the world are preventable diseases: Pneumonia, diarrhea, measles and malaria.
Pneumonia can be treated for 30 cents per child, diarrhea for about 20 cents, measles for about $1 and malaria can be prevented through distributing $5 of mosquito netting to an individual.
"More than 6 million deaths could be saved with an investment of only $7 billion a year by world players; that is less than 10 percent that was spent in 2005 on tobacco products in the U.S.," Bellamy said. "... We've seen the impact with measles, for example, where in just six years of vaccinating deaths were reduced 60 percent from 1999 to 2005."
One basic way to combat these numbers is through primary education, which she explained is intertwined with disease rates in poor countries and is one sustainable way to improve health.
"As many as 104 million children of primary school age are not attending and two-thirds of those are girls," Bellamy said. "There's a saying that if you educate a boy you educate a man, but if you educate a girl you educate a community.
"Empirical evidence shows that if you educate a girl six to nine years, it improves survival rates in pregnancy, she's more likely to become a healthy adult and her children are more likely to become healthy adults."
Many might see these problems as too big for the individual to make a difference, but Bellamy noted that change can start at the grassroots.
"Sometimes people wait for heroes to solve problems -- the Obamas, the Oprahs, the Brad and Angelina's of the world -- but people with a first and last name can make a difference," she said. "We have a right to be concerned with our own needs and the needs of our family, but that doesn't exempt us from caring about the rest of the world.
"... All I ask for you to do is what you can do, just a beginning, to bring down deaths and find situations where you can make inroads."
