Oxfam challenge

Oxfam is calling on all knitters in the South West to purl together and support a new campaign to help reduce the numbers of women who die needlessly every year in pregnancy and childbirth. Millions of mums in poor countries get low-quality health care or are forced to go though pregnancy and childbirth without it altogether, meaning that, every minute, a mother dies because she doesn’t have access to the medical care she needs.

The campaign is being launched in partnership with the parenting website http://www.mumsnet.com/ and knitters across the UK will be asked to make 9-inch squares for a giant baby blanket, with each knitted square representing a mother who did not survive pregnancy or childbirth to be able to care for her baby. Some Stitch n bitch groups are also involved already (http://stitchandbitchlondon.wordpress.com/ ).

Our aim is to get 250,000 squares by September, the number of mothers who could have been saved in that time if decent healthcare had been available. The giant blanket will be handed over to the UK Government just before world leaders meet in New York to discuss progress on the Millennium Development Goals, aimed at halving world poverty by 2015. It will represent a demand to global leaders to act now to ensure that everyone in the world has access to free basic healthcare. After the giant blanket has been handed in, it will be dismantled and sold in Oxfam shops and at festivals, with the money raised going towards Oxfam's work to fight poverty.

If this is something you would be keen to get involved in it would be fantastic to have your support.