Exercise some needle power

For every mum, the day her child is born should be the happiest of her life. Yet, in the world's poorest countries, many mums don't survive to look after their babies.

In the next minute, lack of access to health care will claim the life of another mum. In a year, half a million mums die because of poorly equipped hospitals, or because they can't afford to pay health care fees.

World leaders have promised to end this travesty by providing enough aid to deliver the medical services needed, but as things stand they're falling well short.

Patches to fight poverty

We cannot allow this to continue. Broken promises add up to lives lost.

Oxfam are calling on all knitters everywhere to help spell out in no uncertain terms that enough is enough, that we won't sit silently while this injustice continues.

You can take part, and turn your knitting needles into poverty fighting needles by creating a patch for a giant baby blanket – a 'visual petition' we'll hand in to world leaders in September 2008.

Oxfam are aiming for 250,000 patches - one for every mum who should have survived pregnancy in the last six months.

Play your part in a giant, knitted petition