good morning Hank the 2018 project for
awesome is here you can go to
projectforawesome.com slash live right
now to join the 48 hour livestream
extravaganza or donate at
projectforawesome.com slash donate okay
so get this yesterday about three
hundred fifty three thousand babies were
born that's amazing it's like the
population of Honolulu Hawaii quick
pause to note the cuteness of a
Honolulu's worth of babies although of
course a city populated entirely by
babies would be a disaster due to babies
being you know tremendously incompetent
here's the thing that gets me about
newborn babies they have no skills like
forget about walking they haven't even
discovered their own hands and yet many
of the 350 3,000 babies born yesterday
are like eight or nine years away from
understanding that their home planet is
part of a solar system that is rotating
around a star called the Sun like humans
have been around for 250,000 issuer's
and it took two hundred forty nine
thousand five hundred of those years for
us to figure out that the earth was
definitely not the center of the
universe
we spent 99.8% of human history not
knowing something that most babies born
yesterday will be able to understand
like six months after they learned how
to tie their own shoes this seems to me
like the central hope of human history
we are so good at accumulating sharing
and passing on knowledge that the babies
born yesterday may within a few decades
know how to solve problems that to us
feel totally unfixable those babies born
yesterday were born into the healthiest
and best educated moment in human
history they're more than twice as
likely to survive to adulthood than
children born in 1990 and far more
likely to go to school they're less
likely to experience extreme poverty or
malnutrition and that has not happened
by accident or because progress is
natural it has happened because we as a
species have decided to prioritize
children but I would argue we haven't
prioritized them nearly enough 266
thousand children are expected to die of
malaria this year seven hundred twenty
eight of them were born yesterday
an additional fourteen thousand children
born yesterday will die before the age
of five and most of them will die from
easily treatable or preventable
illnesses diarrhea pneumonia starvation
I know that the challenges of delivering
health care in poor communities are
exceptionally complex it's not just a
matter of having enough food or medicine
there are challenges when it comes to
sanitation and
laughing and transportation and storage
I don't want to pretend that the
problems are simple but I think the
solution is simple the more we as a
species make the health of our most
vulnerable children a priority the more
likely they are to lead healthy lives
our community has worked with partners
in health and Save the Children for over
10 years now and we have seen and
supported save the children's work in
refugee camps and also providing health
care and educational opportunities and
nutritional support for children in
poverty or in crisis and partners in
health does extraordinary work providing
health care to the poor from Sierra
Leone to Haiti they're both highly rated
charities known for their efficiency and
effectiveness and for the first half of
the project for awesome until noon on
Saturday all your donations at
projectforawesome.com slash donate will
go to support them and because of
overwhelming support from matching
donations every dollar you donate will
count as four dollars so let's do what
we can to give all the babies born
yesterday a healthy life plus you can
get amazing perks from the p4a
commemorative coin to this amazing
poster to secret episodes of dear Hank
and John and the anthropocene reviewed
also Sarah and I are making a project
for awesome only podcast called the
statue got me high and Sarah and
Katherine are hosting a version of dear
Hank and John called dear Sarah and
Katherine or you can get some pressed
pennies we take horrible worthless
pennies and turn them into magnificent
souvenirs including one that honors the
late great fireball Wilson Roberts all
that and so much more at
projectforawesome.com slash donate and
then during the second half of the
project for awesome we'll be raising
money for charities chosen by you you
can submit your project for awesome
videos right now at
projectforawesome.com and also you can
vote for project for awesome videos and
help us decide where the money goes and
finally the 48 hour project for awesome
livestream starts now at
projectforawesome.com slash live it is
going to be so much fun Hank I can't
believe this is the 12th project for
awesome I grow old I grow old I shall
wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled I
will see you in the livestream