Anti-poverty activist and v-logger Kristina Horner writes about her experience at last year’s Advocacy Day, Save the Children’s annual event that calls on Congress to take action on issues affecting children at home and abroad.
Save the Children invited me to be a sort of Internet/YouTube ambassador for Advocacy Day in 2010, so I hopped a flight to DC armed with only a video camera and a whole bunch of curiosity and eagerness. I sat in on meetings, watched promo commercials, shook hands with countless people and learned more about what Save does around the world in two days than I ever could have learned by browsing their website. I was touched, immediately, by the passion and the drive I saw in so many people attending this event. I’ll admit I felt a tiny bit out of my element having done very little philanthropic work myself at that point, but I found myself fitting right in just by the incredible atmosphere and energy in the room.
Every 4 seconds, local health workers help save a child’s life. And it’s time to make sure these workers get all the support that they need. That’s why our partners at Save the Children have teamed up with the Ad Council to launch the “See Where the Good Goes” campaign. The campaign’s website is loaded with tons of great information, from powerful PSAs, profiles of local health workers from around the world and lots of ideas on how to take action right away. For a sneak peek, take a look at the video of a health worker below.
As one of the tag lines go, the idea is simple. Help one. Save many. Visit www.goodgoes.org and find out all the ways you can help get the good where it needs to go.
We’re right in the middle of World Cup fever. And Save the Children—along with ONE and many other partners—is using this moment to help make sure 72 million children around the world get the education that they deserve.
To help spread the word, 1GOAL Ambassador and musician Shakira issued a YouTube challenge last month asking people from all corners of the globe to record themselves doing the World Cup “Waka Waka – This Time for Africa” dance and show their support for universal education. Save the Children just posted their video, which highlights staff and friends dancing in the streets of Dakar, Senegal and rural Bangladesh. Take a look—and make sure to share the 1GOAL message with your family and friends.
To mark Mother’s Day yesterday, Senator Chris Dodd and former Senator Bill Frist co-authored an op-ed on the need to “nurture the future by giving children a basic security that no military could ever match”. The Senators write at length about maternal and child health:
Children and pregnant women are dying needlessly. Americans know it’s wrong to let these deaths continue when we know how to prevent them.
The tools to stop this are proven and often very low-cost. Using them, we could prevent an estimated two-thirds of 8.8 million annual child deaths and three-quarters of 343,000 maternal deaths.
Some poor countries have already made astounding progress — thanks to a combination of foreign aid, national will and sustainable strategies for getting basic health care to poor mothers and their children.
The most effective solutions are not high tech. Exclusive breastfeeding, micro-nutrients, antibiotics, anti-malarials, vaccines, oral-rehydration therapy and ready-to-eat foods could save millions of children each year. Skilled attendance at births, as well as basic prenatal and postnatal care could prevent most maternal deaths.
The countries with the highest number of child and maternal deaths also have the largest health care provider shortages, according to the new report, “State of the World’s Mothers 2010” from Save the Children. Yet, the report also shows that we can address this without having to confront the extreme challenge of producing large numbers of additional doctors to meet the estimated global shortfall of 4.3 million health care professionals.
Here’s a partner post from our friends at Save the Children about Moms Rule!, a new project launched just in time for Mother’s Day.
My mom is a dynamic woman who is spending her retirement years traveling, golfing and herding my father. She always reminded me of Rosalind Russell at her ‘My Girl Friday’ best. She was a working mother when it wasn’t common, thanks in large part to the support of her own mom. Then when my Gran fell and broke her hip, mom left work to care for her. Now in her 70s, she still wears her leather pants as she hits the auctions looking for great deals. I think my mom rules!
I doubt I’m alone. We likely all think our moms are pretty special and we appreciate their sacrifices and their support. This Mother’s Day, there’s a way to not only honor your own mother (or a special woman in your life), but to also help moms around the world.
At www.momsrule.org, send an e-card to your mom, grandma, sister, friend and thank her for all her love, support and sacrifice. You can also upload a picture and include a short comment or story to the ‘Momsaic,’ an online photo mosaic comprised of pictures of mothers and caregivers from around the world.
To further honor your mom and moms across the globe, you can also send an email to Prime Minister Harper or President Obama, urging them to make a commitment towards long-term funding that will help improve the health of mothers and children in some of the world’s poorest countries. Each year, nearly 9 million children under age 5 die from preventable causes and more than 340,000 mothers die from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth. This doesn’t have to be the case.
I can’t wait to upload a picture of my mom and her leather pants. I will send her the e-card to thank her for being such a great mom. I know that she will be thrilled that in her name, an email will be sent to Prime Minister Harper about the maternal newborn and child health initiative.
Progress is being made to save these women and children, and when they survive, they contribute to a stronger, safer, more prosperous world. Our moms help us grow and learn to shape our own destinies. By honoring them, we can help moms around the world do the same for their own children.
-Cicely McWilliam, EVERY ONE Campaign Coordinator, Save the Children Canada
It’s almost summer here in Washington, DC—and you know what that means? Time to sign-up for national conferences! Several of our partners are hosting events and advocacy workshops in Washington, DC from May through July, and we hope you’ll be able to join them.
Find out more and RSVP by clicking the links below—and don’t forget to tell your family and friends to sign-up, too!
As you likely read on the ONE blog last Friday, last week was a big week for education. Congresswoman Nita Lowey unveiled the Education for All Act of 2010 and Jessica Alba launched the 1GOAL: Education for All campaign.
Save the Children has also been quite busy spreading the word about the importance of education in recent months. In fact, America Ferrera—Save the Children’s Artist Ambassador for Education—recently returned from a trip to Mali, where she talked with teenage girls, played with preschoolers and met with community groups to learn about small ways that people can make a big difference in helping to educate children in Africa.
Learn more about America’s trip in the video diary below:
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My mom is a dynamic woman who is spending her retirement years traveling, golfing and herding my father. She always reminded me of Rosalind Russell at her ‘My Girl Friday’ best. She was a working mother when it wasn’t common, thanks in large part to the support of her own mom. Then when my Gran fell and broke her hip, mom left work to care for her. Now in her 70s, she still wears her leather pants as she hits the auctions looking for great deals. I think my 
