Save
the Children's campaign to save newborn lives "EVERYONE" - its
biggest ever global campaign is underway around the world including in
"EVERYONE
Campaign is about Everyone!"
What
is this Campaign about and why is it important?
The
campaign is about saving newborn lives. It is a global Campaign. It is related
to MGD goal no. 4: reducing child mortality by 2/3 globally by 2015. The
campaign is to facilitate to help countries achieve this target on time. Every
child must have the right to and space for survival.
This will
happen if everyone plays his/her part. Everyone has a role to play: civil
society organizations, government, donors, citizens, everyone. That's what the
Campaign is about; it is not about Save the Children; it's about saving newborn
lives.
How is
the Campaign being organized?
There are
five components to the Campaign:
1.
1. We will EXPAND our health and nutrition programs in more than 35
countries. By 2015, we will be reaching 50 million young children and mothers
annually.
2.
2. We will BUILD innovative and effective partnership nationally and
internationally with all kinds of actors and stakeholders.
3.
3. We will double our INVESTMENT in maternal, newborn and child health and
nutrition.
4.
4. We will MOBILIZE more than 60 million citizens across the world.
5.
5. We will seek to INFLUENCE government and others to provnews_ide funding and
make policy changes.
Under
popular mobilization, we are doing activities that are drawing the attention of
the public in general and youth in particular. It is crucial to engage and
involve the youth in Campaign such as this. We dnews_id concerts with popular musical
bands such as Kutumba and 1974 A.D. The news_idea is to disseminate message
alongsnews_ide popular music to which the public and youths in general are attracted
to. Our last concert was organized in
The
Campaign is also being organized at the district level and grassroots as well.
We organized concerts in places like Butwal and Nepalgunj, where more than
11,000 people raised their hands in support of our campaign.. We are doing
public debates and street plays. Through them, we not only are raising
awareness but also creating demand so that the duty bearers are obliged to
provnews_ide services. We are also broadcasting public service announcement through
local FM radio stations, and mobilizing the public through social network
sites. Also, we are planning a flash mob in
Save the
Children wants to work together with other like-minded organizations to
influence policy and debate and we want to work with others on the popular
mobilization component because it is in the common interest of organizations
working on the issue and also a common goal. The more organizations join
in this campaign the better. Network like AIN can play a crucial role to make
the campaign to save newborn lives bigger and visible. It's time that we as
citizens raise our voice to say children dying needlessly from preventable
cause is not acceptable. There are 35,000 of these children dying each year, is
this acceptable to us?
It is
also a new experience for Save the Children. It is not easy to draw people's
attention, to bring them together and make them understand that their voice is
important. But once that is done, things begin to take off. Money is an issue.
Sometimes people questions the value of money, especially those used in popular
mobilization; but results are heading in the right direction when we see
thousands of people joining the Everyone campaign. But we are also increasing
our investment in programs as well both in terms of access and quality.
SHARING AND LEARNING is a forum for members to share their work and
experiences. If you want to share yours, please call 9841-435961 or mail to spacenwater@gmail.com. We will get back to you to get
your story.