Save the Children- No Child Born to Die

Saturday saw the first Save the Children Bloggers Conference put into motion ahead of the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, where world leaders will meet and life changing decisions will be made.

On Tuesday, Chris Mosler (@ChristineMosler) will attend the UN General Assembly in New York. She is going there with Liz Scarff on behalf of Save the Children to pressure David Cameron to play his full part in solving the health worker crisis. There is a target of 60,000 signatures on the petition by Tuesday.

Here's what we can do to help:

1. So first off - Let's all sign the petition, 30 seconds work and a step closer.
   
   
2. Then the challenge set by @HelloItsGemma and @MichelleTwinMum is that to see 100 posts of 100 words linked up here by Tuesday. If 100 bloggers each write a post about this and encourage more signatures that could make a massive dent in the 20,000 signature shortfall that we sit with right now!
   
   Write your 100 words about a great health professional you have encountered in your life. Add a link to the petition and either link or add in some information from Save the Children about the #Healthworkers campaign
   
   
3. Link to a number of other bloggers/ vloggers and ask them to do the same.
   
   
4. Tweet about this, facebook mention it, remark on google plus, talk to your Mum on the phone, whatever you can do to spread this to just a few more people, please do it.

Why is this so important?

Save the Childrens new report, No Child Out of Reach, shows 350 million children will never see a health worker in their lives.

       

Children living in the UK will see a doctor or a nurse at least ten times in their first five years. But in Africa and Asia millions of children die every year from easily preventable diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhoea, simply because they have no way of being seen by a trained health worker if they fall sick.

Surely no mother, no one, can think this acceptable. If everyone just does one tiny thing- like sign a petition- a difference can be made.

Health workers save lives

Doctors, nurses and midwives are vital to help children survive. Without them, no vaccine can be administered, no life-saving drugs prescribed and no woman can be given expert care during childbirth.
But the massive shortfall of health workers in some of the poorest countries is hitting the most vulnerable children and families the hardest.
Half of the 8 million children who die each year are in Africa, yet Africa has only 3% of the world’s doctors, nurses and midwives.

No Child Born to Die

Children are dying from causes we know how to prevent or treat.
That’s why lots more doctors, nurses, midwives and community health workers are needed in the poorest countries. We can stop millions of children dying.
Our No Child Born to Die campaign has helped secure a massive increase in funding for life-saving vaccines. Now we must take the next step to ensure children don’t die simply because they are too poor to see a doctor or nurse.
Sign our petition to the PM now

and so I leave you with my 100 words:

Finding out we were having a twin pregnancy was a shock, finding out that ‘twin 1’ had stopped growing at 30 weeks was heart wrenching, the support from midwives and health workers was tremendous, ensuring we had the best possible care and monitoring, even late into New Year’s Eve.

Finding out that twin 1- Tom had stopped growing again at 8 weeks old was too much, admitted with pyloric stenosis, I needed so much strength, and those at two hospitals were able to provide this, always there to support with a smile- no matter what.

We are fortunate.