UK: Name a Day, Dave

Last week two brilliant Save the Children campaigners from Carterton, Oxfordshire went to see their MP, David Cameron.

Graham and Pauline Evans handed the prime minister a copy of our recently published nutrition report A Life Free From Hunger and asked him to Name a Day when he will host a world hunger summit to tackle the malnutrition crisis.

They also spoke to him more broadly about the life-saving impact of British aid and expressed their support for the government’s commitment to give 0.7% of national income in aid by 2013.  (You can read more about our case for aid here.)

A hidden crisis

Despite real progress in stopping killer diseases, progress on tackling malnutrition has been pitifully slow for 20 years.

You won’t see it on their death certificates, but malnutrition is the biggest underlying cause of a third of children’s deaths (more than 2.6 million) every year.

For those children who survive, long-term malnutrition has devastating and irreversible effects, stunting their growth and leaving their bodies and brains permanently damaged.

Galvanising political commitment

Our campaign is calling on world leaders to put nutrition at the top of the political agenda this year.

In the UK, we’re asking the prime minister to Name a Day when he will host a world hunger summit (just like Graham and Pauline did last week), and to deliver with other G8 leaders a new global food security initiative that gives greater emphasis to nutrition and sets a target to reduce the numbers of children affected by stunting.

The prime minister told Graham and Pauline that he sees nutrition as a priority and has promised to come back to them on the issue of holding a world hunger summit.

This is fantastic news and shows just how much impact our campaigning can have.

Now we need all our supporters to keep up the pressure.

Act now

As well as challenging the prime minister to Name a Day why not choose the day when you’ll take action in support of the campaign?  You could:

• Name a Day online- you’ll receive an email on your chosen day with a list of simple actions you can do in support of the campaign.
• Write to your local newspaper about the campaign, visit or write to your MP or host a food-related event and invite them along. For all the resources you need (including template letters, action cards, event materials and recipes) please contact the campaigns team campaigns@savethechildren.org.uk or telephone 020 7012 6532.