By Carlyn Chen, TEAR Australia From market stalls to city squares, from jumping castles to church morning teas, "Survive Past Five Birthday Parties" are being thrown in all shapes and sizes aroundthe country. Micah Challenge is focusing on the two Millennium Development Goals that are most at risk of not being achieved - Goal 4, Reduce Child Mortality, and Goal 5, Improve Maternal Health. Recent reports have shown progress towards both of these goals, but there is still much more to be done to hit the targets set in the year 2000. Australia still does not contribute its fair share to achieving these goals - so our communities are speaking up. Grassroots campaigners use "Survive Past 5 Birthday Parties" to communicate creatively to our MPs that Australians want our nation's leaders to keep their commitments to the global poor. The celebratory aspects of the parties affirm the importance of children and set a vision for a world where every child can survive beyond the first five high-risk years of life. The serious aspects call people to speak up - to those…
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