West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin has carried out a tour of Ethiopia to see projects run by the international children’s charity Save the Children. And the MP raised the issue with the Prime Minister during an exchange in the House of Commons this week (Weds February 22) Harriett is a Save the Children Parliamentary Champion and works in Parliament to support the life-saving work of the charity. And she raised her trip in the weekly questions session with Prime Minister David Cameron, asking the UK to lead the international debate in tackling child malnutrition. He welcomed Harriett’s question and told the House of Commons: “My honourable Friend is entirely right about this, not only because we work with excellent organisations and non-governmental organisations such as Save the Children that are doing excellent work, but because the UK is the second largest bilateral donor in the horn of Africa, where we have seen that appalling famine with many people starving and dying. “Not only are we doing our bit in money, investment and time, but that gives us an opportunity to lead the debate on where we need to take the development and aid agenda next.” The five-day trip to Ethiopia allowed Harriett to see a range of projects run by the charity to help improve the lives of millions of people across the drought-ridden country. Harriett was taken to see an emergency nutrition project helping severely malnourished children and their mothers. She also visited projects helping communities to feed themselves and projects teaching children about basic hygiene to prevent potentially fatal transmission of disease. Much of the work carried out by Save the Children is done with the help of local government bodies. Although the economy is reporting double-digit economic growth, severe poverty in some areas means that nearly half of children aged under five suffer from malnutrition and one in nine die before they reach five years old. Harriett commented: “At a time when our country is worried about drought, I have seen communities which have been decimated by the lack of water. “It was a very sobering experience to see some of the challenges people in Ethiopia face achieving things that we take for granted. “I have been a lifelong supporter of Save the Children and I am committed to help them in this important task both in the constituency and in Parliament. “I will be carrying out a fund-raising event to offset the cost of the trip to Ethiopia and I urge people to think of charities like Save the Children when thinking about how they can help others across the globe.”