FACT: Every three seconds a child dies of hunger or illness rooted in poverty.

FACT: 1 in 4 children live in absolute poverty around the world.

FACT: 40% of the worlds population are children.

FACT: 12 million each year do not survive to see their fifth birthday.

FACT: 30,000 children die every day from the effects of poverty.

Take a moment to consider these figures. Put simply, what they mean is that for millions of children, adequate food, schooling, necessary clothes and medical care are simply beyond reach.

Add to this the child headed households, the child beggars and prostitutes and ask yourself if something should be done about this.

In 1990 the governments of the world agreed a set of targets to improve the health and education of children and reduce poverty. In 2000 these targets were relaunched as the Millennium Development Goals, to be achieved by 2015.

So, with more than half of the time gone, how are we doing? The answer is badly. In almost every case the situation is worse now than it was in 1990. Bad news for the worlds children.

The Grow Up Coalition, of which Mothers Union is an active part, is determined the issues at the top of the agenda in the next decade. The Mothers Union is on the steering committee for the group which is made up of development agencies, faith groups and charities - all with a particular interest in the relief of poverty worldwide.

View the Grow Up Coalition's six point plan (63k PDF Document)

One of the main aims of the coalition is to make more young people aware of the causes and effects of child poverty and encourage them to be actively involved in their communities.


2005 Update

The new report from the Grow Up Free From Poverty Coalition, Achieving our dreams for 2015, was launched at the House of Commons on the 16th June 2005. Hilary Benn MP, Secretary of State for International Development attended the launch along with a number of other MPs. Humanitarian campaigner Bianca Jagger, who has endorsed the report, also attended the launch.

The report is the result of a two-month consultation carried out by coalition members with their partners in over 18 countries around the world. More than 4,000 children and their carers were consulted through participatory workshops and interviews.

The Achieving our dreams for 2015 report includes many direct quotes and references from the actual consultations with children and their carers. It focuses on the needs and rights of children and young people, their own plans and paths out of poverty, and suggests how targeting them can be achieved.

Achieving our dreams for 2015 can be downloaded from the new Grow Up Free From Poverty website: www.grow-up-free-from-poverty.org


Young People's Conference

Back in February 2003 the coalition organised a conference specifically aimed at young people based on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG's). This event was held at the Treasury and included a mixture of speeches from senior officials such as the Chancellor Gordon Brown, and workshops based on the MDG's.

The Mothers Union ran an interactive workshop on issues surrounding child mortality and improving maternal health. Participants took part in a number of role-plays based on family life in the developing world and then discussed how they felt about what they had heard. A virtual baby was also passed around the group as they discussed what opportunities a baby in the developing world has today.

At the end of the day, the participants had the chance to put a few challenging questions to the panel of officials. Many of the young delegates left feeling enthused, and with a sense of determination to join in the campaign to end child poverty.