A normal Wednesday for me usually involves some laundry, some grocery shopping, maybe a walk in the park, and a jigsaw or a game of hide and seek with DorkySon.
Yesterday was a little different. I went to Downing Street.
I was one of six Save the Children campaigners who went to hand in a petition calling on David Cameron to sign up to the Charter to End Extreme Hunger.
We have these amazing new vaccines that can save the lives of millions of children, but the health services through which they are delivered are poorly resourced and rely on weak infrastructure.
They are also massively understaffed — there’s a global shortage of at least 3.5 million health workers who are needed to put the jab in the child’s arm.
Much like the members of the A-Team, I love it when a plan comes together. But while reflecting on the Decade of Vaccines Action Plan on my journey home from the regional consultation, my thoughts turned to: What’s Next?
It would be a missed opportunity if the plan is adopted only to later flounder because people don’t know how to get started. I decided to use this blog to do a little ‘blue-sky thinking’, if you’ll excuse the business speak, and think in terms of actions.
The Horn of Africa is currently experiencing the most severe food crisis so far this century – 13 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are affected, hundreds of thousands are at risk of starvation, and some estimates place the death toll at 50,000-100,000.
There were warning signs as early as August 2010 but almost across the board they were not significantly acted upon until well into 2011, despite East Africa’s longstanding propensity to drought and food insecurity.
Save the Children is supporting Big Energy Week, a campaign by Citizens Advice and Citizens Advice Scotland to advise people how they can cut energy bills and make their homes more energy efficient.
Today Save the Children, ONE, Oxfam and African’s Act for Africa will be leading a twitter takeover during PMQs from 12-1.
We need as many people as possible to tweet using #PMQs and #hungercharter with the aim of taking over the #PMQs twitter feed and getting the hunger charter trending.
So, while you’re taking your lunch break, stopping for a coffee or waiting for that important e-mail, why not do something amazing today. To quote the wise words of Take That: ‘It only takes a minute’.
Something pretty historic happened in South Africa recently. Midwives from all over the world, who had came together as a professional body to consult the experts, and each other, on the latest in midwifery. Nothing particularly historic about that – they do it every year, apparently. Except this time, they were marching for the rights of mothers and babies.
Save the Children’s ‘Talk Action’ series is a succession of bi-monthly learning tools designed for Save the Children supporters and campaigners to develop their practical skills in campaigning to raise further awareness of the issues we focus on.
This month we interviewed Noorjhan Akbar, co-founder of Afghan women’s grassoots movement for gender equality, Young Women for Change.
It’s been four weeks since the launch of our #66Cities campaign and, with what felt like quite a tough first round, we seem to be making waves and collecting some city champions along the way – but we still need more of you!
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