Getting arty and Save the Children

I am sure many of you are seeing lots of posts this week raising awareness for Save the Children, as am I and it is a hugely important subject. I often look at my 2 boys and realise how fortunate we are, how fortunate they are to live in a country where there is an endless supply of water, education, medical resources, and sanitation, in some respects they don't know they are born. 

The first post I read highlighting Save the Children's current compaign was over at Red Ted's Art, and here there is a chance to get your children to be arty at the same time as raising awareness and draw a self portrait.  I apologise to Red ted Art for blatently copying her words but they were so eloquently written and said everything needed to be said that I decided to copy them to here - hope you don't mind

In January Save the Children launched it’s most ambitious campaign to date, No Child Born to Die. Every year 8 million children under five die from illnesses we know how to treat or prevent, such as diarrhoea and pneumonia.

Save The Children is focusing on the provision of vaccinations and healthcare workers. In June there is a meeting in London hosted by David Cameron and attended by other world leaders. Save The Children aims to make as much noise as possible to ensure the funding shortfall for vaccinations (4.7 billion) is met by all the donor countries.
If this funding gap is met the vaccines that could then be provided would save the lives of millions of children.
This week 3 bloggers/ vloggers are going to Mozambique to follow the journey of a vaccine from the coldstore in the city right down to a rural community. They will write, make films and tweet about their experiences, the children and families they meet and the challenges of “cold” vaccinations in hot countries.
The bloggers going are diverse, Lindsay Atkin (@Liliesarelike) is a hugely popular YouTuber, Chris Mosler (@christinemosler) is an influential parenting blogger and Tracey Cheetham (@tchee) is a popular political blogger and recently elected councilor.

The Challenge from Red Ted Art

Today’s crafty challenge is designed to support their work – to spread the word about their No Child Born to Die campaign and to highlight the funding shortfall for vaccines.
We are lucky that our children have a future. They can dream about becoming policemen, doctors, teachers or artist. The children in Mozambique dream about survival…

So without further ado, self portrait number 1

He sees himself as a pirate with a parrot as his pet, and this pirate wears his school jumper!

And portrait number 2, Mini Man

Who sees himself in a stylish pink colour.

The challenge is listed below if you would like to take part, the more the merrier - I will tag 8 fellow bloggers as requested:

Deb from Aspie in the Family
BNM from BareNakedMummy
Bod for Tea
Lizbeth @ Four Sea Stars
Mummy Beadzoid
Gemma @ My Big Nutshell
Sarah @ People Don't Eat Enough Fudge
Looking For Blue Sky
So our challenge is simple:
1) Get your child to either draw or craft a self portrait of themselves now or in the future. Check out our self portrait on some tips to get the littlies interested! even a simple circle with dots and lines is sufficient for us!!!
3) Sign the Save the Children petition and then pass it onto your friends
4) Write a blog post about it as soon as possible, including info about Save the Children and the petition. We want as many people linked up AND signed up the petition by Sunday 29th May 2011
5) Tag 8 fellow blogger friends
6) Come back and link up your posts, so we can all share your craftiness
7) If you have time, visit each other posts and say hello!
I know we are not always fans of “Meme”s and Tags… but don’t forget – memes are a wonderful way to discover new and wonderful blogs. They are a wonderful way to help you build some links and to network with other bloggers… so go on, don’t knock them and take part!