As world leaders meet at the UN in New York to discuss increased funding for healthcare in developing countries, Amnesty International's Secretary General has launched a campaign to reduce maternal deaths in Sierra Leone.

A high-ranking government official from Sierra Leone has told an international churches team visiting his country and in Liberia that the world needs to get behind urgently needed peace-building efforts.

In Liberia, Sierra Leone and South Africa, churches have played a major role in reconciliation between groups who had been in violent conflict for decades. Two international ecumenical teams sent by the World Council of Churches will visit the three countries during the next two weeks.

World Vision has launched its Alternative Gifts’ Christmas catalogue, encouraging the UK public to buy Alternative Gifts this Christmas and help make a life-changing difference to families and communities living with poverty around the world.

The international development agency Christian Aid says the presidential and legislative elections which will be held on 11 August 2007 are a crucial test of whether Sierra Leone has truly turned away from conflict.