The campaign, Make Your Mark, kicks off on 16 June in eight countries across Africa and in the UK and is calling on Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other world leaders to put an end to children dying in Africa.

Today in Africa 4.5 million children die before their fifth birthday each year from illnesses like diarrhoea, pneumonia and malaria — illnesses that could easily be cured or prevented.

Matt and Save the Children say this is outrageous and we must help African children to change this.

The Make Your Mark campaign is inspired by the method of voting used in some African countries where people who can’t write are allowed to vote by putting their thumbprint on the ballot paper.

Save the Children hopes that a quarter of a million children and adults across the UK and Africa will add their thumbprints to the petition alongside Matt. 

On the 16 June, mass marches are taking place in countries such as Sierra Leone and Nigeria, national radio phone-ins are being held on the health of children in Liberia, and around 100 schools are learning about the campaign in South Africa.

Meanwhile, on the same day the charity is taking the campaign to the UK public and inviting MPs to come and ‘make their mark’ in Westminster during their lunch break.

Save the Children will take the thumbprint petition to European leaders, including Gordon Brown, who will get together in Italy in July for the annual G8 meeting, to ask them to help stop child deaths in Africa.

Make Your Mark