Richard Kapembwa, 16 months old, lies sick in Masamba clinic, unfortunately, his twin brother has died due to a lack of medicine.

Sixteen-month-old Richard Kapembwa will never know his twin brother Roderick. He will grow up to discover he lost his twin brother from diarrhoea - a disease that could have easily been treated.

Richard was admitted along with his brother to Masamba Clinic in Mbala, 990 kilometres north of Zambia's capital, Lusaka. But a chronic shortage of drugs to treat diarrhoea meant only one boy could be treated.

"Roderick would have survived like his brother if we had enough drugs for diarrhoea to treat both of them," explained clinical assistant Joseph Bwali. "The boys were badly de-hydrated by the time they arrived at the clinic because the diarrhoea had affected them badly. We lost one child because we only had a single drip available."

Richard is the youngest of his family's six children. After three days of severe diarrhoea, he was weak, malnourished and without appetite. As a result, he was forced to drink a life-saving syrup of oral rehydration salts.

"We receive a number of diarrhoea cases here, so we run out of the drugs we need very fast," said Joseph. "World Vision has been helping greatly with such drugs. In fact the last drugs that we had for diarrhoea at this clinic were provided by World Vision."

Zidane's mother is grateful that the health centre saved her son's (in blue sweater) life.

Before the construction of Mapamboli health centre, the people of Kikimi Central in the Democratic Republic of Congo lacked decent healthcare facilities. People were forced to travel eight kilometres just to get to the nearest health centre with the only doctor. Mortality rates in the area were high.

When Adeline Wumba's nine-year-old son Zidane developed a high fever, abdominal pains and diarrhoea his mother became worried. Nothing she did alleviated his illness.

During a routine monthly visit of sponsored children, a World Vision staff member noticed just how ill Zidane was. He told Adeline to immediately visit the health centre. Here he was diagnosed with malaria and typhoid fever and treated with antibiotics for the typhoid, and drugs and vitamins for the malaria. Today Zidane is very healthy. When not at school, he loves playing football and fishing. His mother, Adeline, said not only is she grateful that the health centre visit saved her son's life, but she also received training in better hygiene and preparing nutritious food for her family.

Fatuma Adam, living in northern Kenya, fetches water for her family everyday. Sadly, the water is unfiltered, muddy and polluted from livestock. As a result, people in the area suffer from water borne diseases repeatedly - including diarrhoea, intestinal worm infections, cholera and dysentery.

At age seven, Johnson Mungai from Chokaa village, on the outskirts of Nairobi, already knows that children are getting a raw deal where their health is concerned. There are regular shortages of drugs in local health clinics and a lack of clean water that puts many children at risk of diarrhoea. "Sometimes we are forced to use water from a pond. It is not good for our stomachs because we get diarrhoea and cholera," he said.

Florence Kariuki, a community health worker, says there has been an increase in diarrhoea among children over the years due to a severe lack of clean water for the 7,500 people living in the area. As a result hygiene is poor and diarrhoea is widespread.

Close to 30,000 Kenyans, mainly children under five years, die of diarrhoea-related diseases each year. The child death toll due to diarrhoea exceeds that of HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, yet it is preventable through observation of simple hygiene practices.

Experts say child deaths could be reduced by 50 percent if clean water was made available. Effort is being made by different non-government organisations while World Vision has provided schools and health facilities with massive water tanks and has drilled boreholes to boost sanitation levels.