Beckham: 'End shocking mortality rates'

David Beckham has visited Sierra Leone and asked the world not to turn a blind eye to "shocking" child mortality rates in poor countries.

The England midfielder, a United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) goodwill ambassador, said over 26,000 children are dying daily in Third World countries, mostly from preventable conditions.

In Sierra Leone, more than a quarter of children die before their fifth birthday. In 2002, the West African country emerged from a decade of civil war after over 17,000 foreign troops disarmed tens of thousands of rebels and militia fighters.

Beckham said: "We can't turn a blind eye to the tens of thousands of young children who die every day in the developing world mostly from causes that are preventable.

"In Sierra Leone, one in four children dies before reaching their fifth birthday - it's shocking and tragic especially when the solutions are simple - things like vaccinations against measles or using a mosquito net to reduce the chance of getting malaria.

"Saving these children's lives is a top priority for Unicef and as an ambassador I hope I can help to draw attention to this issue across the world."

The father-of-three arrived in Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, on Friday, before travelling to Makeni, Bombali District, in the country's northern province, which has the highest number of under-five child deaths in the country.

Beckham spent time at a health clinic learning about the most common causes of these deaths, such as malaria, diarrhoea, malnutrition and vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles and TB during his four-day visit.

He joined two health workers and visited a feeding centre for severely malnourished children where he saw babies who had survived on water because their mothers were undernourished and unable to breastfeed.

Unicef says in a new report that there remains a "long way" to go to achieve the Millennium development goal on child survival which would mean lowering the number of under-five deaths from 9.7 million to less than five million by 2015.

Unicef UK executive director David Bull said: "We are grateful to David Beckham for shining the spotlight on the unacceptable number of young children who are dying often needlessly in Sierra Leone and other developing countries.

"Everyone can play a role in changing this situation governments, donors and the public. All children have a right to survival but too many are dying needlessly. But this can be changed if there is sufficient collective will to act with determination and urgency.

"Surely there is no reward more precious than saving the life of a child? Their futures remain in our hands."

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