Field of love: David Beckham pledge to the world

David Beckham has appealed for the world not to "turn a blind eye" to the deaths of millions of children in developing nations. The England midfielder was speaking after a visit to Sierra Leone as a Unicef goodwill ambassador.

More than 27% of children in the African nation die before their fifth birthday. "We can't turn a blind eye to the tens of thousands of young children who die every day in the developing world mostly from causes that are preventable," he said.

"In Sierra Leone, one in four children dies before reaching their fifth birthday."It's shocking and tragic, especially when the solutions are simple - things like vaccinations against measles or using a mosquito net to reduce the chance of getting malaria."Saving these children's lives is a top priority for Unicef and as an ambassador I hope I can help to draw attention to this issue across the world."

The star, who is a father of three, spent four days in Sierra Leone during which he visited a health clinic and joined health workers as they travelled to local communities to vaccinate children. At a feeding centre for severely malnourished children he also saw babies who had survived on water because their mothers were undernourished and unable to breastfeed.

Unicef, the UN children's charity, has also published its The State of the World's Children (SOWC) 2008 report. It shows more than 26,000 children under the age of five die every day around the world. Unicef UK executive director David Bull said thanked Beckham for shining the spotlight on the situation in Africa.