COULD you spare an hour or two of your time once a year to save children in need?

The week beginning April 27 is Save the Children Week, when volunteers in the Ryedale area work together to raise money for needy children in Britain and the world, for children who have been severely affected by poverty, wars or natural disasters.

Every day one million babies throughout the world die on their first and only day of life. Most of these deaths could be prevented by a fully trained and well-equipped midwife.

In Save the Children Week, we will be launching a specific appeal to raise funds to build seven equipped clinics to help thousands of newborn babies in Bangladesh.

Despite adverse comments that you may read or hear about the effectiveness of aid, the facts show that it does work. Last year, for the first time in our 94-year history Save the Children directly contributed to improving the lives of more than 10 million children around the world.

These 10 million children gained access to life-saving drugs and services, education, nutritious food and were protected from harm as a result of programmes we are delivering around the world and here in the UK in our development and humanitarian work.

In Northern Ryedale, Pickering and Thornton-le-Dale branch conduct a house-to-house collection in Pickering and surrounding villages between Thornton-le-Dale and Helmsley.

Last year, thanks to your donations we raised £1,877.30. We currently have 25 collectors, but more volunteers would give us the opportunity to raise even more money for children. If you think you could spare an hour or two to collect in your street or village, please phone me on 01653 694050.

Full support, including official ID, will be given and your collection will be counted and banked by our committee.

We Save the Children – will you?

Janet Laverick, collection organiser for the Pickering and Thornton-le-Dale branch of Save the Children