THIS year Save the Children Week is highlighting the plight of children in poverty.

One in four children around the world live in poverty, that is 600 million children. The odds are heavily stacked against them here in the UK and in more than 60 countries overseas.

Save the Children is working with these children and their families. No one knows more about their struggles and no one has more enthusiasm and energy to change their lives than the children themselves - but they need your help.

Save the Children is the UK's leading international charity working to make a reality of every child's right to a happy, healthy and secure childhood. It has more than 80 years' experience in working with the poorest children in 70 countries worldwide, including the UK.

This year the Malvern branch is asking the public to take children seriously and help change the odds by popping a donation into a collecting tin, which local volunteers of Save the Children will be asking you to do on Friday, May 4. Collections are the most effective way to raise money - overheads are minimal. At least 87p in every £1 is spent directly on the children, less than 2p goes on administration and the remainder goes on essential fundraising publicity.

PLEASE FILL THE TINS ON FRIDAY, MAY 4.

MARGARET SLADE, vice-president, Malvern Branch, Save the Children, Church Street, Malvern.