Connections

An Avondale College lecturer will take 114 messages in a bottle to his local Member of Parliament in support of health services for women and children in developing countries.

Dr Lyell Heise received the messages during the Mother's Day worship service at Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church this past Saturday (May 10). He plans to present them to Greg Combet, the Member for Charlton in the Parliament of Australia, this next week.

The messages, part of a campaign organised by Micah Challenge and the Adventist Development and Relief Agency in Australia, read: "The birth of a baby should be a precious time. But in low-income countries, one out of 10 children dies before the age of five and over half a million women die each year due to complications in pregnancy and childbirth. I believe that these women and children are precious and we should do all we can to bring life and hope. Please provide basic health services to meet the Millennium Development Goals so that lives can be saved."

"The UN set targets in 2000 to reduce by three quarters the number of women dying in childbirth and to cut by two-thirds the rate of child mortality, but we aren't reaching these goals," says Lyell. "So, on the day on which we celebrate mothers in Australia, we call on our politicians to support women and children in developing countries."