It’s the 31st year of the the World Population Day, an annual event created by the United Nation’s Development Programme in 1989 which seeks to raise awareness of global population issues. It was inspired by the public interest in “Five Billion Day” in July 11, 2987 – the approximate date on which the world’s population reached five billion people. Now at 7.6 billion (as of 2018), the day endeavors to increase people’s awareness on various population issues such as the importance of family planning, gender equality, poverty, maternal health and human rights.

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  As the pandemic progresses, the overall population has already dropped 550 thousand people – still far from the 500 million deaths in the Spanish flu of 1918 but the pandemic isn’t over. This current global situation underscores the importance of human life – regardless of color, stature, age and gender. This aligns with this year’s call for global attention to the unfinished business of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development – the conference attended by 179 governments who recognized that reproductive health and gender equality are essential for achieving sustainable global development – firmly establishing that the rights and dignity of individuals are more important than the numerical population targets.

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The International Population Day hopes to educate people of the issues of concern to mobiliae political will and motivate people to address these global problems with the ultimate goal to find sustainable solutions to world problems such as this pandemic. It reminds us of our obligation to help one another and out responsibility to contribute to the necessary change that the world requires.

July 11 underscores the fact that what we do to survive this pandemic is not just for our own self-preservation but more importantly not to hinder other people’s right to survive. Simply put, putting the mask, observing social distancing and keeping strict physical hygiene is not just for yourself but more importantly the global population.

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