Campaigning for change
We campaign because we're outraged that millions of children are still denied proper healthcare, food, education and protection.
Our campaign successes
Get on Track: Our campaign to get the UN on track had 106,966 people standing on tracks around the world over two weeks. They stood in line, to get the UN in line with the Millenium Development Goal to cut child deaths by two-thirds by 2015. Find out more.
Your eyes are not deceiving you. This is Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, knitting a hat with the help of our youth ambassador Libby. Our Knit One, Save One campaign has received over 200,000 lovely woolly hats. These hats are going straight onto the heads of babies in countries like Tibet, to help prevent pneumonia and other preventable diseases that cause the needless deaths of two million babies every year. Do your bit and Knit One to Save One.
All summer we've been holding fifth birthday parties and giving away great freebies at festivals across the country. Fran Healy from Travis even joined us and played some music at V Festival in August. Festival goers have given us a brilliant response to our campaign, raising awareness of childhood malnutrition. 11,000 people signed our action cards and we'll be delivering them to the Prime Minister soon.
Exactly thirty years ago, health ministers from 134 countries came together to promise health care for all by the year 2000. Save the Children went to Geneva to remind governments at the World Health Assembly of the promises they made way back in 1978. Along with campaigners from other organisations, we pushed health ministers to reaffirm their commitments. Over 50 countries, including the UK, signed a statement making action on health a priority for 2008. This is an important step towards getting more money invested in healthcare for the world's poorest.
See what it's like to live in the slum town of Kroo Bay, Sierra Leone. It's one of the toughest places to be a child; one in five won't even make it to their fifth birthday. Our Film Kroo, children from Kroo Bay, had the opportunity to interview the first lady of Sierra Leone about drastically rising food prices. Watch the video.
Our first shipment of hats from our incredibly successful Knit One, Save One campaign reached Tibet in July. Check out our knitting update for more pictures of your hats on cute babies. Have you knitted a hat yet? It's easy; get knitting!
At a recent world record breaking Chinese Whisper event, 1,600 children signed our fifth birthday action cards. We're sending all these cards to the Prime Minister, to let him know he should be doing more to prevent 10 million children dying every year before they reach their fifth birthday. Fill in your action card.
Over 1,400 people signed our broccoli tree and joined the Fight for Food. We're taking those signatures to world leaders, to demand that they do more to stop the poorest children losing out in the fight for food. If you signed the tree, then thank you! See how the dramatic rise in food prices is affecting the community of Kroo Bay, a slum town in Sierra Leone.
Our Rewrite the Future campaign has been getting children in conflict-affected areas across the world back into education. 3.4 million children in more than 20 countries affected by conflict benefited in the first year of the campaign. Since launching both Gordon Brown and Hillary Benn have set out their vision for delivering education to children affected by conflict or living in fragile states. Find out more.
- Over 1,000 people have signed the Simple Solutions petition to Gordon Brown. We know that simple solutions could prevent the deaths of 10 million children under the age of five, every year. Add your voice to the petition.
- We're getting the Department for International Development (DfID) to pay more attention to child hunger and malnutrition. DFID Minister Gareth Thomas announced the establishment of a nutrition policy team. We'll be working with them to reduce child hunger.
Campaign with us
In my name
On 25 September 2008 world leaders met at the United Nations in New York. Save the Children, and other organisations, launched an international campaign to end world poverty at an event outside the meeting:
Watch personal messages from Will.i.am, Bono, and Fergie.
We need your voice. Sign the petition now. Then upload your own message asking world leaders to end poverty in our life time. We can be the generation that ends poverty.
Check out our other campaign actions
Campaigning - how do we do it?
- We use our worldwide experience to campaign for justice for all children.
- We challenge policy makers to adopt policies that create real and lasting change for the world's poorest children.
- We work with children and young people so that they can voice their concerns about issues which are important to them.
- We build alliances with other organisations to promote one, united voice on important issues, like End Child Poverty.
And that's where you come in - help us to get those arguments heard. Join our network of campaigners. Get your voice heard. Meet other people like you. And hear the latest news on events and hot issues. Get your friends to sign up too.
If you'd like more information about our campaigns, contact us: campaigns@savethechildren.org.uk
