"All children deserve a happy, healthy childhood. Save the Children is working flat out in more than forty countries (including the UK) to help them get it. Your support makes it possible."

          Save the Children's work world-wide can really be divided into two categories. The first, and probably best known, is in responding to emergencies. Relief supplies are constantly being topped up and assessment teams are always ready to travel anywhere in the world to ensure that the money you donate is spent effectively. A few examples from 2010 include support for children and their families after a major typhoon hit the island of Luzon in the Philippines, and during the monsoon floods in Pakistan, while constant support is still being given in Haiti and in Niger, a country where the number of chronically hungry people recently topped one million.

          The second category can be described as "preparedness". Over the past two decades the number of natural disasters has quadrupled. Children do not need to suffer from these dire predicaments - there is much that can be done to prevent this. Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is any activity carried out by a village, community, aid agency or government that helps prepare for, reduce the impact of, or prevent, disasters. Save the Children has pioneered child-centred DDR, ensuring that the needs of children are considered in all the work done. We work to make this happen at all levels - with children, communities, national governments and international organisations.

          From international organisations to Pickering and Thornton-Le-Dale! The members of your local branch continue to be grateful for your support and interest, and would like to encourage more of you to be involved. Over the past few months we have been thankful for several friends who have helped us at coffee mornings and other fund-raising events. At the end of April we shall once again be collecting house-to-house for Save the Children week - please consider if you could enable us to cover a wider area, by being willing to collect, perhaps with a friend, in your street or area. We would also love to see you at our popular Ceilidh at the Memorial Hall, on Saturday March 19th - look out for the posters! We Save the Children - will you?

 Gill Freeman.