Saving children’s lives

Every year, more than 9 million children die before they reach their fifth birthday. In this day and age this is outrageous. We've launched an ambitious campaign to dramatically change the future for millions of vulnerable children and to make sure Millenium Development Goal 4 is met. The goal is "to reduce the under-five mortality rate by two-thirds by 2015", and was agreed by the United Nations in 2000.

Working with parter organisations, governments, donors and YOU we will:

  • save children's lives directly through our programme work, on a greater scale than ever before
  • encourage governments and donors to invest in solutions that will dramatically impact children's lives
  • build a global movement for change to inspire governments to transform policy and practice in ways that will ensure that no child under the age of five dies from preventable causes.

Saving children's lives goes global

Our campaign to change the future for millions of the world's most vulnerable children is going truly global. From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, we're calling on people to press their governments to make critical changes:

We're demanding change so that:

  • 3.5 million children don’t die from a lack of nutritious food to eat
  • 2 million children don’t die because they don’t have access to clean water and sanitation
  • Millions more children receive basic healthcare so they don’t die from easily preventable and treatable diseases like diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia
  • Children caught up disasters, like floods and earthquakes, are helped to recover and rebuild their lives.

Join the movement now.

Africa: the epicentre of a global movement

Africa is the continent where the most children are dying.  Millions of newborn babies and children don’t have the basics they need for a decent start in life: good food, healthcare and clean water. 4.8 million die each year as direct result.

June 16 is the Day of the African Child.  With so many children dying because of poor policy decisions and lack of political will, it’s a day for important action and an opportunity to remind local and world leaders to deliver on promises made to prioritise saving children’s lives.  With global leaders coming together for the G8 in Italy in July, it’s a crucial time to get our message across. 

People across the continent want change, and they want it now. Here’s a sneak preview of what’s going down on the Day of the African Child:

  • In Nigeria, where 1 million children die each year of illnesses we can easily prevent, children will be marching in the streets of the country's capital city Abuja and participating in a national radio show with government officials
  • In Ethiopia, where 389,000 children don’t get to celebrate their fifth birthday, they’ll be holding community awareness-raising events about child survival and publishing a report on how to best tackle child hunger
  • In Sierra Leone, where one in four children die before the age of five, children will be marching in the cities of Freetown and Kailahun, asking people to support our movement by Making their Mark, and they’ll be national radio programmes and phone-ins on better healthcare for mothers and children
  • In Uganda, a petition will be presented to the Minster of Health calling for more resources for child survival

The time to act is now

Send the Prime Minister a vital message urging the G8 to double their aid commitments.

Find out more about our biggest campaign ever. Download the campaign outline, to find out what you can do to help us save children's lives.