Send a Message for Mothers

This activity asks young people to participate in the global campaign to improve maternal health. More than half a million women die during pregnancy or in childbirth every year, virtually all of them in developing countries. This is universally recognised as an urgent problem and recently 6 of the world’s poorest countries were supported by donors to provide free maternal and infant health care for their citizens.

However challenges lie ahead in making free health care viable in the long term and extending similar programmes to more countries. In April 2010 the then Leader of the Opposition David Cameron wrote to young campaigners at Oxfam promising to prioritise health services and clean water for mothers if he was elected Prime Minister. We reproduce David Cameron’s letter to assess the progress that’s been made during 2010 and 2011 before writing a new message to the Prime Minister.

Send a Message for Mothers may be conveniently differentiated to suit learners of different ages and abilities. This is a basic guideline;

KS2/3: design and write a creative Mother's Day card to the Prime Minister with a simple message about the need to improve maternal health.

KS3/4: review David Cameron’s letter and the case study evidence from Sierra Leone before suggesting some policy advice in the message.

KS4+: include some of the suggested further reading or independent research during preparation.