United in our common goal to save the lives of children in need, we pledge
to take action to advance the life-saving behaviors listed below. These priority
behaviors– ten life-saving acts for children—can and should be adopted by
families and communities around the world. Doing so will help save the lives
and reduce the burden of disease for millions of children.

These behaviors are endorsed by UNICEF and other major international aid organizations because they work. Our respective religious doctrines are different, but we are united in the moral conviction that we must save children from needless deaths. Thus, we commit ourselves to ensure that our respective faith communities promote these behaviors sustainably, even as we also support additional needed efforts to strengthen public health systems. We ask all, throughout the world, who have held a child in love, with joy for its life and with tears for its pain, to join us in advancing these life-saving behaviors.

• 1. Breastfeed all newborns exclusively through the age of six months. Read More
• 2. Immunize children and newborns with all recommended vaccines, especially through the age of two years. Read More
• 3. Eliminate all harmful traditions and violence against children, and ensure children grow up in a safe and protective environment. Read More
• 4. Feed children with proper nutritional foods and micronutrient supplements, where available, and de-worm children. Read More
• 5. Give oral rehydration salts (ORS) and daily Zinc supplements for 10 – 14 days to all children suffering from diarrhea. Read More
• 6. Promptly seek treatment when a child is sick; give children antibiotic treatment for pneumonia.
  Read More
• 7. Have children drink water from a safe source, including water that has been purified and kept clean and covered, away from fecal material. Read More
• 8. Have all children wash their hands with soap and water especially before touching food, after going to the latrine or toilet and after dealing with refuse. Read More
• 9. Have all children use a toilet or latrine, and safely dispose of children’s feces; prevent children from defecating in the open. Read More
• 10. Where relevant, have all children sleep under insecticide-treated bed nets nightly to prevent malaria; seek medical care for children at the immediate onset of fever to receive proper malaria testing and treatment. Read More

Thank you for joining us! Please share this pledge with your friends,
and help us mobilize communities across many faiths and countries
to make sure we keep these Ten Promises.

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A New Community and Digital Resource Center

Engage your congregation in partnerships with those of other faiths
in combined efforts to address the Ten Promises and to take action
in the fight against global poverty. Here, you will find resources for
a variety of projects and potential for immediate actions as well as a
venue to engage the interfaith community for partnership opportunities
and collaborative projects.

Read more about the ten promises

To see how other faith communities have come together in interfaith action to promote health, development, and emergency relief, check the interactive map of our Database of Multireligious Collaborations for Relief and Development. Much of the work of the organizations shown here promotes or aids promotion of the Ten Promises behaviors – draw inspiration for your own projects from their work, or add any current project you may be working on to our database!

Database of Multireligious Collaborations for Relief and Development

If you would like to find out more about some of the most active interfaith and faith-based organizations working to eliminate poverty and promote child survival, check out our list of other global faith-based efforts.

Other Faith-Based Global Efforts

Do you, your faith community, or your non-profit organization have a current project you are working on to advance one or many of the behaviors listed in the Ten Promises to Our Children? Are you part of an interfaith effort for health and development? Let us know about your activities, projects, or ideas in our survey of multireligious collaborations.

Submit a Multireligious Collaboration

Finally, if you haven’t done so already, read a little bit more about each of the Ten Promises, and why it is so vital to promote these specific behaviors to reduce needless child deaths around the world!

If you haven’t done so already, read a little bit more about each of the Ten Promises, and why it is so vital to promote these specific behaviors to reduce needless child deaths around the world!