Save the Children has today launched the next phase of its No Child Born to Die Campaign, which will focus on reducing malnutrition in developing countries.
Chief executive Justin Forsyth, along with celebrity ambassadors Natasha Kaplinsky and Myleene Klass, revealed that in the first year of the campaign Save the Children has raised £3m, £2.1m of which came from the ITV fundraising show Born to Shine, and that it had gained more than 100,000 new supporters.
Revealing the findings of a report published today, A Life Free From Hunger: Tackling Child Malnutrition, Forsyth said: “The world has made dramatic progress in reducing child deaths, down from 12 to 7.6 million, but this momentum will stall if we fail to tackle malnutrition.”
The charity is now calling on Prime Minister David Cameron to “name a day” to host a summit to tackle the issue. It is also encouraging members of the public to get involved by doing the same, and naming a day when they will do something, such as tweet or donate, to support the campaign. It has created the Twitter hashtag #nameaday as part of the campaign.
Save the Children is also hosting its first worldwide Twitter chat today. It started at 5.30am GMT in Australia and will last 12 hours ending 12 hours later in Mexico.
It hopes engage policy makers, activists, celebrities and local activists in the discussion using the hashtag #hiddencrisis. High profile people expected to expected to join the chat include; the Rwandan Minister of Health, economist Jeffrey Sachs, Bollywood star Kunal Kapoor, Dr Stanley Zlotkin, inventor of 'sprinkles' micronutrient powders, and famous TV chefs and food bloggers such as Jay Rayner from the UK.
Offline launch events to discuss the issues with policy makers are also taking place in 30 countries around the world where the charity operates.
The charity has also posted moving campaign videos on Youtube to raise awareness of the issues surrounding malnutrition. Watch the video below to see celebrities including; Natasha Kaplinsky, Myleene Klass, Simon Cowell and Paul O’Grady pledging their support to the campaign.
