No Child Born To Die

No Child Born To Die is a campaign launched by Save the Children in the UK in January 2011 to combat the more than 8 million deaths of children under five from preventable or treatable illnesses such as diarrhoea and pneumonia. Pneumonia and diarrhoea alone kill 8000 children under five every day^[1].

Goal 4 of The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - eight international development goals that all 192 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015 - is to reduce child mortality. In recent years, the number of children dying every year has fallen: it’s come down from about 12 million a year to just over 8 million a year in 2010. Immunisations alone are saving 2.5 million children a year^[2].

The campaign

No Child Born To Die aims to extend and grow that work to save more lives – and pushes world leaders to do more, too. The campaign priorities are to provide more vaccines, more antibiotics, more nurses and midwives. Research shows just making vaccines available to the poorest children could save one million lives a year ^[3].

While more than 280 million children have already been reached, £500million is needed to bridge the immunisation gap. This funding crisis threatens to stall the progress made^[4], and is at the heart of the No Child Born to Die campaign.

The campaign launched with backing from celebrities such as Alexandra Burke, Hermione Norris, Frank Lampard, Martin Clunes, Dervla Kirwan, Natasha Kaplinsky and Edith Bowman^[5]. A TV ad in support of the campaign first aired on 24 January 2011, featuring Nelson Mandela, David Beckham and Helena Bonham Carter^[6]. Samantha Cameron became a Save the Children Ambassador in March 2011, and a supporter of the No Child Born to Die campaign.

A bloggers' conference has been announced as part of the campaign, including workshops, training sessions and a talk by Melvin Burgess. This is the first time a UK charity has hosted such a conference, which is aimed to inspire bloggers across all disciplines to write about the campaign and raise awareness of the millions of children who die from preventable diseases each year^[7].

No Child Born to Die was named the Digital Campaign of the Week in Third Sector magazine^[8].

See also

• Save the Children
• Child survival
• Millennium Development Goals

External links

• No Child Born to Die campaign page

References

1. ^ Press Association
2. ^ BMJ Record number of infants immunised but 24 million in poor nations not being reached, says report
3. ^ BBC News
4. ^ ITV Daybreak
5. ^ Sky News
6. ^ Campaign Live
7. ^ Digital campaign of the week Third Sector
8. ^ Digital campaign of the week Third Sector