*In only eight years, from 2000 to 2008, the number of kids dying from measles declined by 78 percent (from 733,000 deaths per year to 164,000) because we are completing the work of immunizing every child.

*We used to say that 40,000 children die each day from preventable causes. In the 1990s, that number dropped to 33,000 per day. By 2008, it dropped further to 24,000. And now it is down to 21,000!

*The number of children dying before their fifth birthdays has been cut in half, and we did it in one generation using a wide range of practical strategies, from creating access to clean water to training skilled birth attendants.

*A third of the children who were uneducated because of poverty can now go to school. Literacy rates are climbing.

*In 1981, 52 percent of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty. Today that number is 21 percent.

Is there still a lot of work to be done? Absolutely! But, as you can see, WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!

***Statistical insights taken from Scott Todd’s amazing book, Hope Rising.