Millennium Develpoment Goals

In religion class we are currently working on a project alongside Self Help Africa. We are producing a book on Millennium Development Goal 6, 'Twenty Fifteen- Thoughts and Reflections on MDG 6: 'Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases.' This is the sixth book in the series, previous books have contributions from Seamus Heaney, David Norris, Alan Rickman and Mary Robinson. The aim of the book is to bring the effects of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Malaria, TB, Ebola in developing countries to peoples attention. People in developing countries don't have access to simple vaccinations or medications which can easily cure and prevent these diseases. About 210,000 children died from AIDS related causes in 2012. Simple 10 second vaccinations could save millions of lives each year. Everyone in our class had to contribute to the book, some people drew pictures, others wrote opinions and a few people even interviewed their grandparents on what they remember about TB in Ireland in the past. It is interesting to see everyone different interpretations of goal 6.The other two TY religion classes also have contributions to the book. We also emailed people such as, scientists from the labs in St. James Hospital and Fr Peter McVerry from the Peter McVerry Trust to give us their opinion on goal 6. It was great to get contributions from people with an expertise in this area. We have learned a lot from making this book and have really enjoyed the experience. It has really made me realise that we are extremely lucky to have vaccinations and medicine in developed countries and sometimes we take these for granted. 

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