Archive for July 1st, 2009

This Saturday see’s ‘Stop Climate Chaos’ group members Oxfam UK, WDM, RSPB UK, People & Planet, NUS, Christian Aid UK & the WI get together to put on the first ‘Mili-band’ event of the summer at the Kingsnorth summer fête in Kent. The event is being held at the proposed site of a new coal power station at Kingsnorth, with the aim to show government minister in charge of UK climate change policy, Ed Miliband, that the UK must show true global leadership on tackling climate change.

The plan for the day is to form a giant human band around Kingsnorth and send an unmissable message that a clean, low-carbon future can be the only way forward at UN climate meeting in Copenhagen this December. It promises to be a family friendly fête atmosphere, with music from Get Cape Wear Cape Fly alongside internationally renowned Ugandan musician Geoffrey Oryema, plus loads of fun activities such as dancing, face-painting and lots of interesting and informative eco stalls.

Ed Miliband has already pushed through a Climate Change Act which commits the UK to an impressive 80% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, but still needs to invest in low carbon solutions not a coal power station. This day of solidarity will hopefully convince the UK government to ditch its plans to build the power station in Kingsnorth and think more towards a cleaner future.

> > Click here to find out more about the ‘Stop Climate Chaos’ Summer Fete

With nearly 10 million children dying before their fifth birthday through preventable illnesses like measles and diarrhoea, World Vision UK is calling on the G8 to address the economic and financial crisis which are causing these deaths across the globe. A decade ago, world leaders laid out plans to cut the death rate among children under 5 by two thirds by 2015. Yet even now, with only six years left to reach that target, there are still parts of Africa that are not even a tenth of the way to reaching that goal.

With the leaders of the G8 meeting in Naples, Italy this month, World Vision is inviting you to join them in calling for the promises of 10 years ago to be kept and the necessary steps to tackle this health crisis upheld. However, with the current global economic crisis there is the distinct possibility that the G8 could limit the support for aid, which would hit the world’s poorest countries the hardest. Figures have already suggested that nearly 3 million additional children could die by 2015 as a result of the financial crisis and the rising cost of food.

The G8 members now have a vital role to play in protecting those most likely to be effected by the global financial crisis. To financially fulfill the promises made a decade ago, the G8 would need to prioritise just 2% of the current domestic economic stimulus packages on aid to support child health. This small percentage would have a real impact in preventing illness and death of millions of the world’s poorest children.

With the majority of deaths caused by diarrhea, pneumonia and malaria which can be prevented through access to basic antibiotics and immunisation, World Vision are asking you to reach out and send a message to Gordon Brown to invest in the global health of the world. In the last 7 years alone, the number of children dying under 5 years old has been reduced by 2 million thanks to the increase in aid for basic health services by 70%. It is time for the world leaders to act now and make a stand to make the promises of 10 years ago come true.

> > Click here to ‘Send a Message’ to Gordon Brown with World Vision UK

Help World Vision by sponsoring a child

The World Vision Sponsor a Child programme is a great way to give a needy child a real chance of escaping poverty. As part of a long-term program, your continued support enables World Vision to use your donations to build sustainable communities in partnership with the people who live there.

You can provide a child with a better future for just 60p a day – giving them a real chance of escaping poverty.

You get to see and feel the difference your support makes directly, through the eyes of your sponsored child and their regular letters and photographs.

> > Click here to sponsor a child with World Vision UK

UNICEF UK has launched a new campaign to help raise money for the estimated 246,000 street children in the Philippines, who face numerous problems such as malnutrition, lack of education, whilst also being at risk to drug abuse, violence and exploitation. Whilst working alongside other local charities and the Philippino Government, UNICEF are concentrating thier efforts on taking children off the streets and putting them into shelters.

UNICEF UK Trustee and international consultant on children’s rights, Gerison Lansdown, said -

Whether it’s a right to health, education or a childhood, there’s a clear legal obligation on governments and societies to ensure that the necessary provisions are in place to ensure that it is realised for every child. Childhood is a unique window, when children develop much more rapidly. They need protection, food and shelter, family care and an environment in which they can thrive. It can only really be defined as a childhood if those things are in place.

Unfortunately, many children all over the world are forced into early labour and sexual exploitation. They’re living in situations of extreme poverty, violence and conflict. And what that does is deny them the right to a childhood. So it’s important to recognise what needs to be in place to give children the opportunity to fulfil their potential and develop without harm.

UNICEF is now helping ro provide local social workers and street educators to befriend the children and provide some life skills and basic healthcare, whicjh in turn can lead on foster care. UNICEF are also working to contact families to reunite existing street children with their parents, whilst also working within at-risk communities to help tackle the root causes of the problem.

The UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, set up in 1989, promised the world to fulfil every child’s right to be educated, to be healthy, to be treated fairly and to be heard. Though there has been significant progress, there still remains a lot to be done, as millions of children across the globe continue to suffer and die.

Help Support UNICEF UK with a Charity Gift

You can help raise funds with UNICEF Inspired Gifts. Presents start at just £8, and for a little as £16 you could buy a virtual present like five footballs for children in refugee camps. There are so many to choose from, and charity gift would make an ideal present for a loved one…

It’s the present that keeps on giving.

> > Click here to purchase a UNICEF UK Inspired Gift

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