In LambethPalace yesterday evening, Multi- Faith leaders came together to share a common vision with the Global Poverty Project; A vision of a world without extreme poverty within our lifetimes.
The Global Poverty Project’s ground-breaking presentation, 1.4 Billion Reasons, launched at a high-level UN summit in 2008, was co-delivered by expert in International Development and Country Manager of the Global Poverty Project, Elisha London, and Samia Ahmed, Senior Development Education Coordinator for Islamic Relief.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Rowan Williams, gave a timely introduction where he said:
“All great faiths share the idea that human dignity is inalienable, and human dignity requires that people have control over the circumstances in which they live so that they can shape their meaningful lives with constructive relationships.”
He added : “The Global Poverty Project has very clearly defined aims, aims that are directed at our own societies, the wealthier parts of the world, to challenge themselves to do what they can to release that dignity, that destiny, of others.”
Working with the Tony Blair Faith Foundation on this Multi-Faith launch, the Global Poverty Project appealed to all faiths, asking them to seek to activate their own communities, as fully as possible, in the fight against extreme poverty.
Elisha London said: “Our aim at the Global Poverty Project is to empower people to take action through raising awareness on issues of extreme poverty. By taking 1.4 Billion Reasons to your faith communities, you will be empowering your audiences to take action in the most appropriate way.”
Samia Ahmed said: “Central to all faiths is belief and taking action that can benefit others. The Global Poverty Project aims to do just that.”
1.4 Billion Reasons urges viewers to look beyond stereotyped views of trade and aid to help the 1.4 billion people who are still living on less than $1.25 per day. London drew renewed attention to the UN Millennium Development Goals and warned that, despite pledges on the issue, the global community is in danger of falling considerably short of the objectives by 2015.
This memorable event marks the beginning of the movement to take 1.4 Billion Reasons to different faith communities across the UK, empowering individuals to take concerted action against extreme poverty in its path.
To host a presentation in your own community contact Matti Navellou at matti.navellou@globalpovertyproject.com
With today being International Women’s Day, there will be millions of men around the world thinking – “This is so sexist! Where is my International Man’s Day?”
Heck, I used to be one of those people. I used to think that all the affirmative discrimination was sexist, backward and downright wrong. For my male friends nodding your head in agreement, I challenge you to watch the below video and read on.
It has only been in recent years that my stubborn mindset has changed. I happily admit that I am no expert on this issue, but you don’t need to be an expert to realise that things need to change.
I was truly shocked when I heard some of the horrific facts, facts like:
38% of girls in developing countries are married before the age of 18.
These saddening facts really hit home when I volunteered for an education project in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Teachers at the school would regularly have to confront parents planning to marry off girls in year 6 – much against the will of these 12/13 year olds who loved going to school.
For me, there are two reasons for changing this deplorable situation. Firstly, it is a matter of justice – women have the right to participate and access the same opportunities as everyone else.
Secondly, empowering women is one of the most effective tools for improving the lives of families, communities and nations all over the world. Such simple step can have far reaching benefits:
When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children.
Every extra year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10 to 20 per cent. And for every extra year of secondary school: 15 to 25 per cent.
With over 600 million girls living in extreme poverty, 600 million lives lie in the balance. International Women’s Day is a chance to ensure that girls are given the chance to contribute positively to society, rather than having their opportunities limited and their potential extinguished.
Investing in girls will put them in control of their own destiny and allow them to become assets for the world. Keeping them in school and providing them with an education will slow population growth, increase their future income, and subsequently the income of their family and future generations.
On the contrary, if we ignore the situation of girls and women around the world, if we miss the point of International Women’s Day, we will lose the opportunity to create a world of healthier, more educated and wealthier communities; we will condemn girls to early marriage, abuse, illiteracy, unemployment and maternal mortality.
As a man, I believe it is important for all of us, men and women, to honour the true spirit of International Women’s Day by taking action to support girls and women around the world. We can do this in many ways, such as:
Support an organization that provides women with micro-credit and income generating opportunities (eg. Opportunity International), or
But most importantly, help raise awareness about the reality faced by women around the world and the need for change.
I encourage you to share this article and the above video with your friends.
Last night St Paul’s Cathedral hosted the Global Poverty project’s launch to churches across the UK to an audience of 800.
We were joined by special guests Secretary of State for International Development Douglas Alexander, Archbishop of York John Setanmu and TV presenter Denise Robertson.
Douglas Alexander emphasised timeliness of campaign to end poverty and the role that faith groups can play: “In these difficult economic times it is especially important that the public continue in their commitment to end global poverty. Faith groups have an enormous role to play in the fight against global poverty. They inspire confidence and trust in their communities, which helps them to inspire others to take the small steps that can make a big difference.”
“I have been determined to bring the message of GPP to the UK. Let’s stand on the shoulders of giants and follow in the footsteps of the same people who opposed slavery, who were the same people who marched for civil rights. Let’s resolve to be the change we want to see in the world. The Global Poverty Project can help to bring home to people that each and every one of us, in some way, can do something that will help bring an end to poverty. In today’s world, there are fewer more important messages.”
Archbishop John Sentamu said “There are many kinds of poverty. There is a poverty of spirit with loneliness in the West. In India the problem is togetherness with diseases being spread.”
Denise Robertson said "Technological advance has made it impossible to stay, eyes shut, in our own little world. We can see what is happening to our fellow human beings. Global Poverty is no longer “their” problem. It is our problem."
To see hi-resolution photos, click on the desired image.
Never have I been at an event that's all fairtrade. Tea, coffee, sugar, wine, orange juice and camapes ... All fairtrade.
Joining 200 others, I'm here at the launch of fairtrade fortnight here in the UK.
Listening to Harriet Lamb, the fairtrade foundation's CEO, it's amazing to see how our efforts as consumers are making a real difference in the lives of producers.
The fairtrade market here is £800m a year - 12% up on a year ago.
Last year 9/10 UK households bought fairtrade at least once.
Great results in a recession - and even the more important when we realize that without fairtrade, producers would be earning just a fraction of previous prices for cotton, tea and sugar.
“The number of children out of school has dropped by 33 million worldwide since 1999”
So says this year’s Education for all Global Monitoring Report, released last month as the most comprehensive and up to date analysis on progress towards getting all kids into schools.
On the face of it, that’s a huge step forward – a cause for celebration as evidence of things getting better. But, there’s still twice that many kids – some 72 million – who aren’t getting the chance to learn to read and write, to gain the skills that will enable them to take part in society.
It’s a topic that’s going to get a lot of attention later on this year, with the FIFA Football World Cup in South Africa focusing heavily on the power of education to change lives. FIFA have gotten behind the One Goal campaign, working to get all gets into school by 2015. They’ve got an amazing array of world leaders, footballers and celebrities behind the campaign – who you can see in this video.
You can’t tell it from their website or videos at the moment – but there’s actually a clear set of policies that One Goal is asking for, based off the work of the Global Campaign for Education, and focused on achieving the Education for All Goals, which in their briefest form are for all kids to go to and complete primary school for free.
One of these goals which has been largely neglected in the media coverage that you’ll see I quality – making sure that kids don’t just go to school, but they actually learn things are relevant, important and useful to them and to their community. ant, important and useful to them and to their community.
It’s something that I got to grapple with on a trip to Malawi, where early one morning I went out with the World Food Program to see how feeding kids at school was helping to increase attendance. Kids – and adults – who haven’t eaten properly can’t concentrate and learn properly, so the idea made lots of sense, and I wanted to see how things worked on the ground.
There, I met the headmaster of the school, Isaac, who you can see here standing in front of the maize used to feed the kids. He excitedly showed us around the school – through classrooms, toilets and the like – as kids swarmed in from all over the countryside. It was truly phenomenal to see them all, many walking four or five kilometers to get here, with Isaac saying that 98% of kids in the region were enrolled, and that attendance was around 90% - comparable to the USA, UK or Australia.
The challenge though, as Isaac explained it, was that the program had almost been too successful. On the meagre funds that the school had, Issac had been able to hire ten teachers, who took it in turns to share the school’s six classrooms. I asked Isaac where kids learnt if not in classrooms – so he showed me up to the end of the field, to a group of students gathered around a blackboard and teacher lent up by a tree. I asked what happened when it rained – “It doesn’t rain very often,” he said, before laughing, “but when it does, we get wet.”
As I watched the class, I took to counting – this third grade class had 147 students. I asked Isaac how many students there were in the whole school, and he said just under 1500. This was a typical class.
In the three hours I spent with Isaac and his staff, not once did they complain. They were excited that so many students were able to learn – and although they wished for more and better resources to teach with, they were focused on doing the best with what they had. As Isaac put it to me, “These children – they are the future. Most of their parents never went to school, most of their parents never got to learn how to read or write. This – this is not perfect – but it is so much better than nothing, and over time, we are making it better, we are making it so that all the children in our area can help make our country great.”
As I reflected on Isaac’s comments, and on the big picture changes that we’ve seen over the last decade, I’m filled with hope about our potential when it comes to education. There’s so much that has been achieved – but so much to do. There’s the knowledge that efforts at our end – calling for more and better aid to education, buying fair trade and enabling producers’ kids to go to school, raising money for charities who work to improve the quality of education – make a real difference. Above all, I’m left with the knowledge that Isaac, his teachers and his community aren’t waiting for a handout from people like me, they’re working as best they can with what they’ve got. What I, and what all of us can offer is support to do more, to go further and to go faster – and that’s exciting.
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