As the G8 prepare to meet in Japan next week and food prices skyrocket, Save the Children asks UK families to join its Fight for Food as part of its biggest ever campaign to save children's lives.
Wednesday 2 July 2008
Save the Children's online interactive website This is Kroo Bay featuring Kroo Bay, a slum in Sierra Leone, hosts new videos, photos and information on the reality of rising food prices and how they are affecting families in Kroo Bay.
First hand stories from some of the most vulnerable families show the personal impact of political decisions and should compel the G8 to wake up and take swift action to the current emergency threatening the lives of millions of children across the globe.
Fatu is interviewed from Kroo Bay. She is 28 years old and has twin girls aged 1 year 3 months - Khadija and Fatima. "We're struggling this year. Last year, one cup of rice was 400 (7p), now it costs 800 (14p). The price of everything is increasing every day. When they weighed my children at the hospital they told me they’'d lost weight because they were not eating enough food. If there is any more increase in price things would be even worse for me."
Save the Children has also launched a new online initiative asking for the public for support by putting their voice to Save the Children's Fight for Food and help influence the world leaders at the G8 in Japan next week. Taking inspiration from an ancient Japanese tradition of tying your wish to a bamboo tree, the charity has created its very own (broccoli) tree and is calling on the public to send in their online wishes to be tied to the branches.
Adrian Lovett, Director of Campaigns and Communication: "We want as many people to sign up to our online tree as possible so we can send the messages onto the G8 and show how many people are ready to fight for food. We want potatoes not promises, and bananas, not biofuels!"
This online action begins as leaked documents show G8 leaders plan to announce next week that they are dropping their promise of delivering 25$ billion of increased aid to Africa. Since the promise of this aid was made in 2005, rising food prices and other inflation means the cost of living has risen by 83%.
Lovett continued: "The G8 is betraying the hopes of a generation of children by cutting back its aid for children who haven't got enough to eat. The food crisis is an emergency and the G8 must treat it as that."