Fact File

More than 30,000 people in the Washington, D.C. area – nearly half of them children – face chronic food shortages.

1in 3 children in the District of Columbia, 1in 4 in Northern Virginia, and 1in 5 in Maryland are hungry.

Each Day in America:

  • 5 children or teens commit suicide.

  • 9 children or teens are homicide victims.
  • 9 children or teens are killed by firearms.
  • 34 children or teens die from accidents.
  • 77 babies die.
  • 180 children are arrested for violent crimes.
  • 367 children are arrested for drug abuse.
  • 401 babies are born to mothers who received late or no prenatal care.
  • 825 babies are born at low birthweight.
  • 1, 310 babies are born without health insurance.
  • 1,329 babies are born to teen mothers.
  • 2,016 babies are born into poverty.
  • 2,319 babies are born to mothers who are not high school graduates.
  • 2,543 public school students are corporally punished.*
  • 2,861 high school students drop out. *
  • 3,585 babies are born to unmarried mothers.
  • 4,248 children are arrested .
  • 7,883 children are reported abused or neglected.
  • 17,297 public school students are suspended.

*Based on calculations per school day (180 days of seven hours each) The State of Children in America’s Union, Children’s Defense Fund, 2002

The Following Excerpt is From the National Breast Cancer Coalition:

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death for women in the US; approximately 39,600 women in the US will die from the disease this year. Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for US women between the ages of 20 and 59, and the leading cause of cancer death of women worldwide.

A woman in the United States has a 1 in 8 chance of developing invasive breast cancer during her lifetime-this risk was 1 in 11 in 1975. This year, a new case of breast cancer will be diagnosed every 2 minutes, and a woman will die from breast cancer every 13 minutes.1 Save the Lives of Women!!!

Action:

Find out how you can help to fight breast cancer by calling the National Breast Cancer Coalition at (800) 622-2838.

Inform loved ones to get a mammogram.

 

"HEAR MY PRAYER OF PEACE, UNDERSTANDING, AND UNITY"

I leave you this message:
To have peace, it must begin in your soul,
To understand, you must have knowledge.
To have unity, you must open your heart.

-Dorothy Sullivan, Cherokee Native American

 

 

For more Information Contact:

Susie Johnson
Executive Secretary for Public Policy

Legislative Letter Table of Contents

United Methodist Women home page