A team of mummy bloggers are getting set for a ground-breaking trip to Africa to galvanise a global vaccination drive for Save the Children - get blogging and get involved
Save the Children is calling on mums up and down the UK to join them in an online ‘first' to build support for a life-saving vaccination drive.
A troupe of social media experts – all mums - are travelling to Mozambique where over one in ten children don't survive past their fifth birthday. The trip takes place in advance of a key-note immunisation summit hosted by David Cameron in London, where the lives of four million children could be saved if world leaders pledge enough funds.
Meet the mummy bloggers
The bloggers are: Lindsay Atkin, a prominent video blogger and the mother of the UK’s number one You-Tuber Charlie McDonnell, influential mummy blogger Christine Mosler and political blogger and political blogger Tracey Cheetham.
Christine Mosler: A Mummy blogger and mother of four from Frome, Somerset.
Twitter: @christinemosler
Blog: Thinly Spread http://christinemosler.wordpress.com/
Mum to four children aged 5, 11, 13 and 15, a trained teacher, Christine is very passionate about education and childhood. Her blogs tend to focus on parenting and education issues. One of her children is severely asthmatic and receives both the flu and pneumonia vaccine so this trip, where she will be meeting children denied this vaccine, has a personal aspect to it. Christine hasn’t travelled abroad for over 15 years, has never visited a developing country or even been away from her children for more than two nights in a row since they were born, so this trip is a huge step for her.
Tracey Cheetham: A Political blogger and mother of three from Royston, South Yorkshire.
Twitter: @tchee
Blog: www.tchee.co.uk
Mum to three children aged 7, 9 and 12. Diagnosed with breast cancer Tracey underwent two mastectomies, seven months of chemotherapy and reconstructive surgery. Most of her writing is about current affairs and political events, although she has touched on her experiences with breast cancer. Not wanting her sons lasting memory of his childhood to be her struggle with cancer and her chemo. Tracy took her eldest son Harry to Africa three years ago. There they witnessed poverty and spoke with people who were being hugely affected by health issues such as HIV and AIDS. She has been very involved with the Labour Party for over ten years and in May, was elected to Barnsley MBC as a Councillor representing her home ward of Royston.
Lindsay Atkin: A video blogger and mother of three from Bath.
Twitter:@liliesarelike
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/liliesarelike
Mother of the UK’s number 1 YouTuber Charlie McDonnell (Charlieissocoollike), Lindsay Atkin has been a primary school teacher for the majority of her working life and currently teaches at a primary school in Bath. A single mother she brought up her three children (now aged 15, 18 and 20). Encouraged by her son Charlie, Lindsay started make videos as she wanted to make a series of Anti-Bullying videos, and teenage issues. This trip will be the first time Lindsay visited a developing country.
An online first
In an online 'first', Save the Children is asking supporters - including celebrities - to form ‘tag teams’ where they team up behind the individual Mozambique mums, retweeting messages from their journey and helping to #Passiton to their followers.
They will urge sign-ups to Save the Children's petition, to put pressure on world leaders to fill the funding gap of £2.3bn over the next five years. The petition will ensure the global vaccination drive doesn’t stall and that new, cutting-edge vaccines for common childhood killers – pneumonia and diarrhoea – continue to be rolled out.
Mums in Mozambique
The mums are going to Mozambique where they will be seeing first hand the amazing power of routine vaccination – taken for granted here in the UK - but that many of the world’s poorest children travel epic journeys by road, foot or bike trying to find.
As the three tweet, blog, post videos, photos, hold ‘live’ video feeds, twitter parties and webchats about the children and mothers they meet, they’ll be asking the online public to get involved.
To sign the petition, click on the link above left.