Let’s Make 2015 a Year of Action for Children
Today marks the launch of Action 2015, a campaign to bring the world together to create the post-Millennium Development Goals. World Vision is working to help children around the world achieve their full potential and make sure that they are well represented in the new sustainable development framework. External Relations Manager Geeta writes that her New Year's resolution is to raise her voice and let our leaders know they have the gift to make 2015 a year of action for children. They must act.
By Geeta Bandi-Phillips, World Vision UK External Relations Manager
Happy New Year!
I hope you had a fantastic start to the New Year.
My New Year has started on a high with rejenuvated hopes for the future. With the Post 2015 process we are planning for our children, and we are setting goals around the world for sustainable international development that will last until 2030. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s New Year message was so inspiring; I felt like it has given me new fuel for my work in 2015.
The Archbishop says "We are not a country that turns our back on the suffering and the weak and the helpless...we are at our best when we turn outwards and use our best resources to change this world in which we live; we see what a wonderful heritage we have - and the hope we can bring to the poorest, and those with the greatest suffering on the face of our planet.”
This year, World Vision is working to do just that. For the post-Millennium Development Goals, we are aiming to help children around the world achieve their full potential and make sure that specific goals are well reflected in the new sustainable development framework.
We want world leaders to agree to work to:
- Eliminate preventable deaths of children under five by improving healthcare
- Eliminate hunger and malnutrition
- Address peace and stability in fragile and conflict affected countries
- End all forms of violence against children, protect children in conflict, and end child marriage and child labour
- Help communities learn about natural disaster preparedness and use it to make themselves safer
One way of making sure all the above actually happens for children around the world is to include these goals in the new framework. To deliver a brighter future for the world’s most vulnerable children we must put pressure on the global leaders who have the power to make a difference. And we are doing this by putting pressure on them through the global campaign called Action 2015. Action 2015 officially launches today, 15th January, with events and actions around the world. In Bangladesh and Indonesia over 11,000 young people are gathering together to make their voices heard, and in India two World Vision youth ambassadors are part of a meeting with Ban Ki Moon's wife.
The Action 2015 campaign emphasises that 2015 is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to set the agenda until 2030. We need the new global sustainable development goals to be ambitious, and we need voters to hold their government accountable to their commitments. The campaign also aims to keep people informed and involved about the Post-2015 process in a fun way. So keep an eye out for tweets about #action2015 in the coming months.
With this amazing start to the New Year, I am quiet convinced that together we can make things happen for the world’s most vulnerable children. So my New Year’s resolution is making sure that I raise my voice and let our leaders know they have the gift to make 2015 a year of action for children and that they must act.
What’s your New Year’s resolution?