FOOD FOR SKINNY KIDS – A STORY WHICH NEEDS TO CIRCULATE FOREVER

by Jeanne Hambleton © 2007
NFA Leader Against Pain – Advocate

Maybe I should mention that you just might need some kleenex tissues before you start this story but please read it anyway, if only in the spirit of Goodwill to All Children. The men are big enough to look after themselves.

As folks in the UK were getting ready this morning to do some Christmas shopping an email arrived on my desktop with a warning, which said,  “This email needs to circulate forever.”

How could I pass up this invitation to inquire within? The email also stated, “This is a real eye opener. A real tear jerker No prerequisites (commitments).  Simply, because everyone should be reminded.“

This was sent to me by a lady from Montevideo, Uruguay called Marta. Where the pictures, shown in the email, were taken, it does not say, but I am sure it conveys a worldwide message, especially within the African continent.

Picture 1. shows European students sat at computers working, with the caption, “Does studying annoy you?”
Picture 2. reveals children, possibly from Africa, without shoes, sat on a bench and drawing their lessons in the dirt with their fingers. The caption says, “ Not them!”

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Picture 3. is a happy family picture of a father with his daughter enjoying a beef burger roll with the words, “Hate veggies?”
Picture 4. is a picture of a long line of native mothers and starved children, clothed, in rags and waiting in line with a bowl for some food handouts. This caption says, “They starve from hunger!”

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Picture 5. reveals the back view of a jolly obese child having fun, with a caption which reads, “On a diet?”
Picture 6. gives a close-up of a painfully thin starved child with a tape measure around the child’s matchstick thin arm. The caption referring to diet says, “They die from it!” Or the lack of any kind of diet.

Picture 7. shows a baby being cuddled by a parent revealing the lovely cuddly cheeks of a child’s bottom. This reads, “Does your parent’s care tire you?”
Picture 8. shows a sibling cuddling a child with the last bone in the baby’s spine clearly visible as she rests in sister’s arms for comfort. This caption tells us these children have no parents to grow tired of. “They don’t have any!”

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Picture 9. reveals youngsters sat at a games console and states, “Bored with the same game?”
Picture 10. Shows a young unclothed child playing in the dirt with a bit of stick, next to the human skull of someone who had probably died from starvation. The caption reads, “They have no option!”

Picture 11. shows a smart new trainer with a caption which reads, “Someone got you Adidas instead of Nike?”
Picture 12. pictures the feet of a child with half of a plastic bottle cut to make the sole of a pair of sandals. The picture clearly reveals the screw top of the plastic bottle on the footwear, which is tied onto the foot with rag. This caption states, “They only have one brand?” Maybe it is cola?????

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Picture 13. is of a sweet little girl in clean pyjamas snuggled up in her cosy bed. This caption reads, “Aren’t you thankful for a bed to sleep in?”
Picture 14. The final contrast picture shows a child laying in the dirt, half covered with a piece of old rag, trying to sleep, with a caption that reads, “They’d wish not to wake up!”

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The closing slide asks, “Are you still complaining? Observe around you and be thankful for all that you have in this transitory lifetime…. We are fortunate to have much more than what we need to be content. Let us try not to feed this endless cycle of consumerism and immortality in which this ‘modern and advanced’ society forgets and ignores the other two thirds of our brothers and sisters. Send this information without any obligation or expectation in receiving good luck. Don’t keep it! Send it and it won’t be in vain. Let us complain less and give more!”

I imagine you feel as I do. I work hard for my dollar and I do not believe in sharing my hard earned cash with large charities who have magnificent offices, managing directors, hundreds of paid staff and devote just a fraction of their donations to their ‘good’ works. You can call me the woman with the long pockets if you like, but I want to know my money is going where it will doing some good and helping those would really need it. How to be confident about that I am not sure? In true Scorpion fashion I hate to be misled or deceived.

Quite how we can help these starving children is the burning question. I have had masses of appeals for all sorts of charities drop on my doormat in recent weeks. At least these ends up in the local hospice waste paper recycling skip and help them a little along with our papers and magazines. I looked on the Internet at our UK BBC Children in Need but could not see children in a similar situation.

SAVE THE CHILDREN
The UK Save the Children organisation has produced a Christmas shopping catalogue, on line, so should you decide to buy Christmas gifts from them you are indirectly donating while shopping, just how much remains to be seen! Perhaps this might be more acceptable – buying and giving at the same time. It is easy to look at this site to see the work they are doing and possibly shop with them. Every Christmas I seem to receive more and more cards printed by charities and sent by to me by friends.

http://www.savethechildrenshop.co.uk/home

However I should mention that if you telephone their UK number – 0844 557 5425 – instead of ordering on line, it could cost you 40p a minute as you give your details and make your mind up. Some of that money will be going to the charity.

Our doctors’ surgery is using this 0844 prefix number and getting a rake off which is a bit vexing considering how much our GPs are reported to be earning – but that is another story.

No – I am not a sales rep for any charity – just a concerned parent. No, this is not a commercial for children’s charities – it is a wake up call.

The American Save the Children website also appears to have a programme for under privileged children in developing countries, who are suffering from hunger and poverty. It seems you can also purchase festive gifts from them indirectly helping the cause.

http://www.savethechildren.org/

What you decide to do is between you and your conscience. I would however like to leave you with these thoughts.

These pictures and words certainly do bring you down to earth especially when you consider the wastage by governments the world over.  I am just sorry I could not reproduce the pictures but I am sure you know the kind of scenes I mean – you must have seen them on TV from time to time. Send me your email address with the request for these pictures if you would like them forwarding.

Just consider the money all of the worldwide governments squander… it is time someone added the total figure and gave us some home truths.

These starving children, if they live, may be our next generation – our future leaders. Do you think if they survive they could be future terrorists? I am sure they will have a grudge against the world – surely they will feel the world owes them a living. This is all very sad and really makes you think. Whatever happened to the innocence of childhood?  

Just imagine what we spend on consumerism not to mention what we will spend on our own children this Christmas 2007. I wonder what our children would think if we put these pictures under the Christmas tree on Dec.25 instead of a new bike, a new game toy and all the other things children of our modern world expect to receive from their parents aka Father Christmas?

What would it be like if children all over the world went without just one toy from their festive gifts in aid of the starving and poverty stricken children. It would take a lot of organizing to gather in that money and it is a huge task but it could be done – all it needs is a good website supported by reliable well known people…. even if it took until Easter to collect the money – the children would still be starving.

Where are you Bob Geldorf? Can you help us with this? Does someone know his email address? My mind is boggling at the power of the people…… How about Skinny Kids for a campaign title – that rather sums it up!

Just a thought – maybe if that £5 we would be spending on a nonsense stocking gift for someone who has everything, was replaced with a warm note telling them Christmas is for children – starving children in particular – and they would be receiving his gift money with a tax gift aid. Sorry but this has been sent to starving “Skinny Kids” who have nothing.

I would hope we would get a really warm hug for this initiative. This friend really did not need an air freshener toy for his car or a key ring. If we did not get a big hug that receiver is a Christmas Meanie…. Take it from me. We will cross him off our Christmas list in future – so there.

Sorry to be a party pooper – but someone has to do it.  I will make up for it and send you some happier stories in the near future.

Take care. Jeanne.

Low vitamin D levels may be common in otherwise healthy children

Many otherwise healthy children and adolescents have low vitamin D levels, which may put them at risk for bone diseases such as rickets. African American children, children above age nine and with low dietary vitamin D intake were the most likely to have low levels of vitamin D in their blood, according to researchers from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

A study in the current issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition measured blood levels of vitamin D in 382 healthy children between six years and 21 years of age living in the northeastern U.S. Researchers assessed dietary and supplemental vitamin D intake, as well as body mass, and found that more than half of the children had low blood levels of vitamin D. Of the subjects, 55 percent of the children had inadequate vitamin D blood levels and 68 percent overall had low blood levels of the vitamin in the wintertime.

“The best indicator of a person’s vitamin D status is the blood level of a vitamin D compound called 25-hydroxyvitamin D,” said Babette Zemel, Ph.D., a nutritional anthropologist at Children’s Hospital and primary investigator of this study. “Vitamin D deficiency remains an under-recognized problem overall, and is not well studied in children.”

Vitamin D is crucial for musculoskeletal health. The primary dietary source of the vitamin is fortified milk, but the best way to increase vitamin D levels is from exposure to sunshine. Severe deficits in vitamin D may lead to muscle weakness, defective bone mineralization and rickets. In addition to musculoskeletal effects, vitamin D is important for immune function, and low blood levels of the vitamin may contribute to diseases such as hypertension, cancer, multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes. Decreased blood levels of vitamin D have also been linked to obesity.

Further study is needed to determine the appropriate blood levels of vitamin D in children, said Dr. Zemel, who added that a review of the current recommendations for vitamin D intake is needed.

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Grants from the National Institutes of Health and several private sources supported this study.

Dr. Zemel’s co-authors were Mary B. Leonard, M.D. and Virginia A. Stallings, M.D., of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, as well as Francis L. Weng and Justine Shults, also of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

About The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia: The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation’s first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals and pioneering major research initiatives, Children’s Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country, ranking third in National Institutes of Health funding. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 430-bed hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For more information, visit http://www.chop.edu.

Contact: Joey Marie McCool
McCool@email.chop.edu
267-426-6070
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

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