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Today sees the launch of the next phase of Save the Children‘s “No Child Born to Die” campaign. It is the beginning of a year long push to fight childhood malnutrition.
Save the Children today releases research which shows that 300 children die every hour of malnutrition.
Take a moment to think what 300 children looks like.
It’s the entire roll of your local infant and primary school.
Dying.
Every hour.
Due to wholly avoidable malnutrition.
And we’re not talking here necessarily of the highly visible distended stomachs of children you see in TV reports. We’re talking of a hidden crisis where kids are heavily malnourished but the external symptoms may not be obvious. However, the long term physical and emotional effects of malnutrition in the early years are wide ranging. 1 in 3 children in poor countries suffers from permanent damage due to malnutrition. Stunting – where kids never grow to their proper height – is one of the most common manifestations of this.
So what can you/we do to make a difference? All being well, I’m hoping to be involved with this campaign later in the year. More details here as they become clearer nearer the time. But RIGHT NOW:
The brilliant Ruth Clemens (from the Great British Bake Off) is in Rwanda. Follow her on twitter and head over to her blog to read about her journey. Plus she is asking for family recipes which will be collated into an e-book to raise funds for the campaign.
Go to Save the Children’s Name a Day page where you can pledge your support for the campaign and Name a Day when you will do something to help eradicate childhood malnutrition. The more people who pledge their support, the more chance we have of persuading David Cameron to “name a day” for a world nutrition summit in London during the 2012 Olympics.
If you’re a tweeter, use the hashtag #nameaday to help keep the term trending and put the necessary pressure on the politicians who can make a difference.
If you’re a blogger, please consider using your blog to talk about this campaign and create the kind of digital storm which other bloggers like my lovely friends Chris Mosler and Josie George have done in the last year.
Thank you for reading this…
