Ask Gordon to act

Saving children's lives: Ask GordonAsk the UK Prime Minister to do more to stop needless child deaths. Add your voice today.

10 million children die every year before their fifth birthday, with the very poorest and neglected children at greatest risk.

Many of these children die from illnesses like pneumonia and diarrhoea - things we can easily prevent or treat. In the 21st century, that's just wrong.

We know that it's simple to save lives. Vaccinations, mosquito nets and clean water are all simple things that can keep a child alive.

These should be available to all children, wherever they are born.

What you can do

Ask the government to help make preventable child deaths a thing of the past.

Make your voice part of the soution: sign our petition to the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Because the situation is urgent. World leaders may have signed up to Millennium Development Goal 4 - to cut the number of children dying by two thirds by 2015. But at current, shockingly slow rates of progress, that goal won't be reached until 2045. That's 30 years behind schedule!

Knitting to save children's lives

A newborn baby can't regulate its own body temperature. It loses lots of vital body heat through its head, which makes it more prone to pneumonia - a disease which still kills around 2 million children each year.

Your hat can help us save a life. When you knit a hat and send it to us at Save the Children, we'll send your hat to mothers and babies that we work with in developing countries that desperately need your help.

We're asking everyone who knits a hat to pin a short message to it. Tell politicians that enough is enough. If they don't act now, millions of children will continue to die needlessly every year.

Download our knit kit (PDF 1.3MB) for all the information you need including a knitting pattern, a 'how to knit' beginners guide, and the all important action card to send to Prime Minister Gordon Brown. 

Want to find out more?

  • Read our campaign in a nutshell (PDF 6.MB) to discover what needs to be done.
  • Watch Kadiatu's video to see conditions in Sierra Leone, one of the toughest places in the world to be a child. 
  • Read an overview of our healthcare work in 2006/07.
  • Find out how healthcare fees are preventing children from poor families from getting the life-saving treatment they need.  
  • Let Badaam tell you the difficulties facing mothers and babies in India, and how Save the Children is helping.