Making Labour listen
Labour politicians had nowhere to hide at their UK Party Conference in Bournemouth, September 2007. Two groups of campaigning teenagers tracked them down around town, in meetings and at the conference hotel.
Their message: do more to lift the poorest million children in the UK out of poverty. Now!
Piers, Jenny, Amanda, Freddie and Katie — all from Bradford and Bristol — managed to stop Chancellor Alistair Darling. They told him how they've been affected by poverty in the UK. And they demanded his government work now to make things better for children and young people.
One big name down, the team then chatted with Beverley Hughes, Minister for Children. They also ran a formal session to ask MPs how, in 2007, children in the UK still find themselves in situations where they don't have enough food or good heating. And they talked about seasonal grants as a solution
"The best thing was meeting politicians who said they would take action," agreed the five teenagers. For example, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Peter Hain promised them the government had to meet its target to end child poverty by 2020. But they gave him a petition of signatures they'd collected just to make sure!
Not even TV man Jon Snow was able to escape our campaigners! Emma, Shona, Giselle, Megan and Libby from Bournemouth School for Girls, kept up the pressure by persuading Jon and others to don headbands supporting children's rights.
Success! After carrying around placards saying "I'm looking for Douglas Alexander", the man himself turned up to talk to the girls. They asked the Secretary of State for International Development if the government had managed to make poverty history, and he had to admit they were still working on it.
The placards and headbands also worked on Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Schools, Children and Families. The girls challenged him on the number of children in the UK who bunk off school. "I hope that politicians now realise that children have a right to be heard and that their opinions count," said Libby.
Our young campaigners smoothed the way for Save the Children's Chief Executive to perform her own lobbying activities. She shared a platform with Ed Balls, promoting the End Child Poverty campaign.
Become a young campaigner with Save the Children.
