UN event examines kids’ health worldwide.

Children are the ultimate victims of circumstance. Born in the West African nation of Burkina Faso? Too bad. Before your fifth birthday there’s a 37 percent chance you’ll be underweight and a 20 percent chance you’ll die. Should you make it to 5, you’ll have a 40 percent chance of attending school, 35 percent if you’re a girl.

Child health and welfare is at the center of the Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations’ drive to drastically reduce world poverty by 2015, and the subject of an upcoming event sponsored by the UN Association. Edwin Joe Judd, a 30-year veteran of UNICEF and special advisor to its executive director, will appear with Dr. Phil Rasori of Village HopeCore International to discuss global challenges in children’s health.

Some 11 million children under age 5 die each year, mostly due to preventable illnesses like diarrhea and malaria. Targeting individual diseases won’t result in a great leap forward, Judd says, but there are two cross-cutting issues that will: malnutrition, which weakens children’s immune systems, and girls’ education, because educated girls grow up to be educated women who understand how best to care for themselves and their children.

Reverence for human life ought to be enough to spur a global response to appalling circumstances, but in fact pragmatism may be more effective. Judd tells how the Chinese government was persuaded to undertake a salt iodization campaign in the 1990s to combat iodine deficiency disorder, which can reduce a child’s IQ by 10 to 15 points.

“When we first broached the subject with the government it was around a human rights theme, and they were interested but not really excited,” Judd says. “As soon as we multiplied 380 million children under the age of 18 by 10 IQ points, they perked up. And that’s because in China, economic policy planners are calling the shots.”

“The notion is that you’ll be intergenerational in your effort,” Judd says, “so that tomorrow’s adults are more intelligent than today’s adults, which is really what it’s all about.”  

JUDD AND RASORI will speak on “Global Challenges In Children’s Health” at 7pm Thursday, Sept. 28, at Miis’ Irvine Auditorium, 499 Pierce St., Monterey. Free.