| For Immediate Release October 18, 2007 |
For More Information Contact: Ed Shelleby (202) 662-3631 |
WASHINGTON, D.C.— This weekend and throughout the month of October, thousands of faith organizations around the country will take part in the Children’s Defense Fund’s (CDF) 16th Annual National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths celebration, this year focused on providing health coverage for every child in America.
Churches, synagogues, mosques, Buddhist and Bahá’í communities and other places of worship will hold special worship services and education programs centered on this year’s Children’s Sabbaths theme, “My Boat Is So Small: Creating a Safe Harbor of Hope and Health Care for All Children,” which focuses on providing health coverage for the more than nine million uninsured children in America. Congregations will write letters, enroll children in their respective state children’s health insurance programs, and host town hall meetings about fulfilling our social responsibility to care for and protect all children. This interfaith event seeks to inspire congregations and religious organizations to work on behalf of children through prayer, service and advocacy—not just this weekend—but throughout the year.
“It is shameful that in the richest nation on earth, more than nine million uninsured children must live adrift in a wide sea of need,” said Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children’s Defense Fund. “They need us to create a safe harbor of health coverage for all children that will protect them from the storms of illness and injury. Without this protection, children are forced to go without treatment, receive delayed treatment when conditions have worsened, and even die needlessly.”
The interfaith National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths celebration is sponsored by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Children’s Defense Fund and supported by Catholic Charities U.S.A, the Islamic Society of Northern America, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., the National Spiritual Assembly of Bahá’í is in the U.S., the Sikh Council on Religion and Education, the Union for Reform Judaism, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, and more than 200 religious organizations and denominations.
To learn more about CDF’s National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths celebration, visit childrensdefense.org/childrens_sabbaths.
For more information on CDF’s campaign to provide health coverage to all children in America, visit childrensdefense.org/healthychild.
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