Two days ago saw the Global Poverty Project UK, with the aid of Bill Gates, Hans Rosling and The Co-operative, launch one of its most ambitious and exciting initiatives to date. Yet, whilst Bill was reading his Annual Letter to the captive audience, a small group of students at university campuses across the country were quietly making a stand against extreme poverty.
The centrepiece of The Global Poverty Project is 1.4 Billion Reasons, a ground-breaking presentation that powerfully communicates the challenges and opportunities around tackling extreme poverty, working as a platform to inspire and enable individuals to become actively involved in ending poverty; it is this vision that drives everything we do.
Since its UK launch in 2010, over 36,000 people in the country have seen the presentation, many of which have been university students. Its success would not have been possible without the amazing hosts who have worked tirelessly to promote the presentation as well as continuing the momentum long after by campaigning on the key issues raised in 1.4 Billion Reasons.
Wanting to find a way to repay our gracious hosts and engage them further in our fight to end extreme poverty - Lunch Below the Line was born.
Lunch Below the Line enabled hosts to have a platform to promote and raise awareness of the great work they do but also to incorporate the message of The Global Poverty Project’s upcoming campaign: Live Below the Line.
What’s 33p got to do with extreme poverty?
Most of us wouldn’t bat an eyelid at spending over £15 every day on food. But can you imagine reducing your food and drink spend to just 33p for one meal? On Wednesday hundreds of people across the UK chose to do just that - they ate Lunch Below the Line.
Wednesday’s event kicked off 4 months of campaigning for Live Below the Line, which challenges the British public to cut their spending on food and drink to just £1 a day for five days in May. The campaign aims to increase awareness of the 1.4 billion people around the world currently living in extreme poverty who must survive on less than £1 each day for all their needs.
Lunch Below the Line occurred simultaneously at 5 university campuses nationwide and saw the students serve the 33p meals, which are representative of what someone living in extreme poverty may eat. The event was a great success and caused a buzz and excitement around the campaign.
Whether it is a small team of people selling 33p meals or Bill Gates encouraging a mass audience to take action in ending extreme poverty, to see that people are so committed, passionate and determined to be part of the grassroots movement to end extreme poverty is truly inspiring.
Thank you to Amnesty International at the University of Hertfordshire?, Engineers Without Borders at the University of Birmingham, Friends of MSF at Oxford University and the University of Sussex, and Medsin at Newcastle University for your amazing work running Lunch Below the Line and helping to raise awareness about extreme poverty.
To sign up for the Live Below the Line challenge or to receive more information about the campaign, please visit www.livebelowtheline.org.uk.
Bill, who is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will share his vision for tackling extreme poverty by discussing his Annual Letter with an audience of students, international development experts, and Global Poverty Ambassadors.
We are thrilled that Bill Gates has chosen the launch of the Global Poverty Ambassadors to deliver his annual letter. His vision and commitment is an inspiration for these Ambassadors who will mobilise their own communities in the fight to end extreme poverty.
Since the beginning of 2010, we have been taking the story of progress fighting extreme poverty to schools, conferences, communities and universities around the UK.
It's an inspiring story and 2012, we will identify, train and mobilise more than 100 Global Poverty Ambassadors to take this story even further across the UK.
These remarkable individuals are leaders in their communities – from universities, schools, businesses, faith group and communities. We’ve been searching high and low across the UK to identify these leaders to be selected as an Ambassador. They are an incredible, passionate and diverse group of people who will be champions in the movement against extreme poverty in 2012; school teachers, faith leaders, students, businesspeople and many more.
They will be trained to tell the story of success and raise awareness of the reality of extreme poverty through delivering a series of 1.4 Billion Reasons presentations and campaigning actions.
We’ve already had more than 200 applications, and the first 75 selected Ambassadors will be seeing Bill Gates and Hans Rosling on Wednesday.
Becoming a Global Poverty Ambassador is a fantastic opportunity for people from all walks of life to get involved in raising awareness for the 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty. If you’re in the UK and you would like to become an Ambassador, recommend an Ambassador or book an Ambassador to come and speak at your business, group or school, you can do so here. Applications will be closing on 10 February 2012.
We’re thrilled to have partnered with The Co-operative in making the Global Poverty Ambassador initiative possible, especially during the UN International Year of Co-operatives. We’ve been working with the team at The Co-operative in developing the program, and it’s great to see that they are doing more than ever to help tackle global poverty, through co-operative support, ethical trade, ethical finance and campaigning.
Already their work has benefited millions of people across the developing world. The Co-operative believes that together, their members can help ensure lasting change. You can find out more about the work of The Co-operative in celebrating the International Year of Co-operatives 2012 at http://www.co-operative.coop/2012
Wherever you are in the world, I encourage you to watch the live-stream on Wednesday, join the conversation on Twitter with the #billsletter hashtag, and if you’re in the UK, I hope you apply to become one of our Global Poverty Ambassadors.
Over the past three months Malaria No More UK and the Global Poverty Project have been out and about around the country. We have been working together to raise awareness and inspire action on fighting malaria as part of our joint vision for a world without extreme poverty within a generation.
And those we have spoken to have been inspired!
In the past few months 233 letters have been sent to MPs and more than 700 people have signed our petition calling on the Government to increase its support for the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria. The Fund accounts for almost 70% of all international aid funding for malaria and is vital to helping prevent, diagnose and treat the disease.
Our supporters have passed on letters they have had back from their MPs and also a response from the DFID Minister Stephen O’Brien who has said the Government is committed to increasing its funding to the Global Fund. But he did not giving a firm timetable for doing so. The British government is working with other governments to try achieve an overall increase in funding for the Fund – something we are keen to support.
You still have time to book your own presentation – to learn more about global poverty and about simple, practical actions to end it, including ways students can use their voice to influence national and global policy change and help end extreme poverty.
Our Executive Director Sarah Kline says, “We are thrilled that so many people have written to their MPs – and urge them to keep going! It is important to remind the British Government there is support for increasing funding for malaria, HIV/AIDS and TB through the Global Fund. Our letters also call on MPs to continue to support an overall increase in UK aid. This is vital if we are to help make malaria no more.”
Elisha London, UK Country Director of the Global Poverty Project, says, “Our presenters and supporters have made a real difference in the past few months to helping raise awareness about malaria. They have spread the good news that 1.1 million children’s lives have been saved from malaria in the past decade alone. By writing to your MP and signing the petition you are helping British politicians keep their promises to help end extreme poverty. Thank you.”
January 12th 2010 saw the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere devastated by natural disaster. In the two years that have passed since this horrific day, people from all corners of the world went to Haiti to aid in the disaster relief and recovery efforts. Each person has a story to tell and their own experience from their time there. This is the story of Kelly Smith, a young English woman.
If truth be told, before Haiti was struck by the devastating earthquake I had never heard of this beautiful Caribbean country. However with the ever-advancing technological world that we live in, when disaster strikes it is only a matter of minutes before the world can watch the terror unfold. We all remember watching these images, and I like many others felt a compelling need to help. But what is the best way to help?
‘Donors gave a huge £106m to help people recover from the disaster which affected three million people. About 1.5 million people lost their homes, 300 000 were injured and about 220 000 died.’
The weeks and months that followed saw Haiti become less of a fixture in our media, yet it was images like these that remained in my mind. In the summer of 2010 – six months after the quake - I was given the opportunity to go and work in one of the worst affected areas, Leogane, a seaside town that was at the epicentre of the earthquake.
As excited as I was for the challenge that lay ahead of me I was also extremely apprehensive. I couldn’t help but think what do I have to offer? I have no relevant skills, I cannot build, I am not particularly strong and I have no medical skills. All I did have was the determination and drive to help. But was this enough? Well, All Hands, the organisation I was going to work with certainly thought so.
I had been to developing countries before but never to a country that had so recently been crippled by disaster; my perception of what Haiti would be like was completely different to reality. I envisaged entire areas, villages and towns to have been flattened. It was very harrowing travelling through Port-au-Prince expecting to see the entire city wiped out when in fact many buildings survived with little or no damage then right next door would lie a pancaked building. I found this much more disturbing and upsetting than I could ever have imagined.
The primary focus of All Hands was the removal of rubble and debris which was commonly known amongst the volunteers as “rubbling”. Rubbling enabled families to use the cleared land to erect temporary shelter rather than living in “tent city” before rebuilding their home; these shelters are the overcrowded roadside communities we had all become accustomed to seeing on the 6 o’clock news. It was clear to me that rubbling was the number one priority in Leogane, especially with the impending hurricane season, but unfortunately it did not take priority among the 50+ NGO’s who were based in the seaside town. Instead, setting up orphanages and schools seemed to be the “help” of preference for many organisations. But is this what the Haitians wanted or needed to aid them in their recovery and did anybody even stop to ask?
My experience in Haiti was certainly an eye opener to the field of post disaster relief. I have always been aware of the lack of accountability for international NGO’s but in my naivety
I didn’t think this would be the case in disaster zones. This raises the question: is all aid good aid – and it’s one of the reasons I’ve become a supporter of the Global Poverty Project.
I saw some amazing aid in Haiti, but I also some bad aid. I saw NGO’s competing without listening to what locals wanted or needed, I saw groups giving out goods that had been donated that just didn’t seem like priorities.
Despite this, with the help of international aid Haiti is making some amazing progress. There are many projects that are really making a difference. Working with and not for local communities; helping them to rebuild their lives, become stronger and more resilient. With the upcoming anniversary of the quake all eyes will once again be on Haiti. I hope this landmark will be used in a positive light; an opportunity to move forward and reflect on the progress that has been made.
December 3rd is the International Day of People with Disabilities. Lucy Daniel, Policy Officer from CBM Australia, talks about how this day can make a difference in your life and in the lives of others.
One day can make a big difference. A single event or decision can change the direction of your life from that time on.
One of my big “days that made a difference” came when I decided to stop being a family lawyer and work with CBM Australia, advocating for the rights of people with disabilities in developing countries. This led to whole lot more change, as I began hearing many more stories of people who have experienced much bigger changes in their lives than my right-hand career path turn.
One such person is Edwin Kuki.
Edwin Kuki was born in the Solomon Islands in 1942. A big day that made a difference for him was in 1952, when he contracted polio. This left him unable to walk—meaning that for nearly sixty years, Edwin has faced all sorts of challenges, and innovated ways to overcome these.
Hearing this made a big difference for me. Firstly, it showed me how important it is to fight polio – the Global Poverty Project’s campaign to eradicate the disease is absolutely essential to preventing disability.
It also showed me how people with disabilities are often excluded from society, such as when other people discriminate against them because of incorrect assumptions about what they can or can’t achieve. Or when other people simply don’t think about the effect that things they are doing have on people with disabilities—like when the village planned to put a water pipe far away so that Edwin would not be able to access it.
Hearing about this exclusion that Edwin has experienced is all the more powerful when he also describes how the village changed their plans and brought the water pipe close to his house so that he could access it, and how the children help him to the health care centre whenever he asks. This showed me that people with disabilities should not and do not have to be excluded from society– so long as we all think about how the things that we’re doing effect people with disabilities, and make an effort to include them.
This is what International Day of People with Disabilities on 3 December is all about: raising awareness of the experiences of people with disabilities—both good and bad—and celebrating all that they achieve and contribute to society.
One day can make a big difference. And that’s what I’m challenging you to do this International Day of People with Disabilities: Watch Edwin’s story. Find out more about the experiences of people with disabilities in developing countries, and the cycle of poverty and disability. Add your voice to the growing number of people signing the pledge to stand up with people with disabilities for their rights to end this cycle.
Make International Day of People with Disabilities make a difference in your life and in the lives of others.
If you would like to find out more about disability, poverty and development issues, you can visit and sign the pledge at www.endthecycle.org.au or follow @endthecycleaus on Twitter.
Global Poverty Project is an endorsing partner of the End the Cycle campaign.
Lunch Below the Line enabled hosts to have a platform to promote and raise awareness of the great work they do but also to incorporate the message of The Global Poverty Project’s upcoming campaign: .png)
campaigning for Live Below the Line, which challenges the British public to cut their spending on food and drink to just £1 a day for five days in May. The campaign aims to increase awareness of the 1.4 billion people around the world currently living in extreme poverty who must survive on less than £1 each day for all their needs.
The weeks and months that followed saw Haiti become less of a fixture in our media, yet it was images like these that remained in my mind. In the summer of 2010 – six months after the quake - I was given the opportunity to go and work in one of the worst affected areas, Leogane, a seaside town that was at the epicentre of the earthquake.
was commonly known amongst the volunteers as “rubbling”. Rubbling enabled families to use the cleared land to erect temporary shelter rather than living in “tent city” before rebuilding their home; these shelters are the overcrowded roadside communities we had all become accustomed to seeing on the 6 o’clock news. It was clear to me that rubbling was the number one priority in Leogane, especially with the impending hurricane season, but unfortunately it did not take priority among the 50+ NGO’s who were based in the seaside town. Instead, setting up orphanages and schools seemed to be the “help” of preference for many organisations. But is this what the Haitians wanted or needed to aid them in their recovery and did anybody even stop to ask?
