No child born to die

Miss Kahonie, aged 10

Wendy from Inside the Wendy House tagged me in this potentially life-saving meme. It took a while for me to write this post, as it's one that means a lot to me, but here goes...

Maggy at Red Ted Art and Josie at Sleep Is For The Week are currently promoting the Save The Children “No Child Born to Die” Campaign, which was launched earlier this year. Since reading about the campaign, I've found out that 3 amazing fellow bloggers/vloggers (Lindsay Atkin, Chris Mosler and Tracey Cheetham) are all travelling to Mozambique next week, to follow the journey of a vaccine to a rural community. They will be reporting back about their experiences as they meet children and families on their journey. 

I'm supporting this campaign partly as it's such a worthy cause, and partly as my younger daughter, Miss Kahonie contracted meningitis when she was a baby.

I personally find it hard to comprehend why measles and other preventable diseases are on the increase in the UK again. Parents are well aware of the free vaccines available, but they are CHOOSING not to immunise their children.

If only we could have chosen to immunise our daughter against the strain of meningitis she contracted when she was a baby. She would not have had to fight for for her life in hospital. She would not have been studied and discussed by every doctor, nurse and medical student on the ward - whispering to each other and looking concerned, shooting sympathetic glances in our direction. Her tiny veins almost invisible as needles were poked into her for blood test after blood test; Veins nearly too narrow to take a cannula as the life-saving anti-biotics were pumped into her frail body. We wouldn't have had to ask the question every parent dreads and we wouldn't have had to consider how we would cope without her. Thankfully the necessary drugs and medical expertise were available to save her life...but many children around the world are not as lucky as she was.

Miss Ony, aged 12

Now, I know some parents may think the risks of immunisation are too great to consider (due to some pretty dodgy research IMHO), but I'm sure millions of parents around the world, especially those in developing countries, envy the position these people are in. What a luxury to be able to choose whether to immunise and to decide whether vaccination is a risk worth taking or not.

I find it shocking that every year 8 million children under five (around the world), still die from illnesses we know how to treat or prevent, such as diarrhoea and pneumonia. That's like the entire population of New York being wiped out every year.

Look at the self-portraits of my 2 beautiful and talented daughters. Would I still have them both if we lived in the developing world?

Want to try to make a difference and raise awareness of this campaign?You can help to by signing the petition before 13th June 2011, to help persuade world leaders bridge the funding gap and save the lives of millions of children.  I have; Will you?

• Get your child to either draw or craft a self portrait of themselves now or in the future.
• Sign the Save the Children petition and then pass it onto your friends.
• Write a blog post about it as soon as possible, including info about Save the Children and the petition.
• Come back and link up your posts, so we can all share your craftiness.
  If you have time, visit some of the other posts and say hello.