Africa launches anti-poverty drive
On June 16, the day of the African Child, civil society and the public around Africa will join hands with the rest of the continent and the world to give a “Thumbs Down to Poverty” as part of a global anti-poverty campaign. The various African events are being held two weeks prior to the G8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, and will signal the launch of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) campaign in Africa. This will be Africa’s first ‘White Band Day’, in which everyone is asked to where a simple white band to show their solidarity with the campaign. The aim is to send a clear message to G8 leadership that Africa will no longer silently wait for others to fight for it.
Africa launches first global anti-poverty
‘White Band Day’ on June 16
On June 16, the day of the African Child, civil society and the public around Africa will join hands with the rest of the continent and the world to give a “Thumbs Down to Poverty” as part of a global anti-poverty campaign.
The various African events are being held two weeks prior to the G8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, and will signal the launch of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) campaign in Africa. This will be Africa’s first ‘White Band Day’, in which everyone is asked to where a simple white band to show their solidarity with the campaign. The aim is to send a clear message to G8 leadership that Africa will no longer silently wait for others to fight for it.
The GCAP or ‘White Band’ campaign is an international network of civil society organisations and citizens that is campaigning to end poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Rich country campaigns are focusing on quality of aid, debt cancellation and trade justice, while national campaigns in poor countries are focusing on eliminating poverty and achieving the MDGs in a way that is sustainable and implemented in a way that is democratic, transparent, and accountable to citizens.
The South African events will include a full-day of presentations on education, aid, trade and debt and of soccer matches, music, dance poetry, at Hector Pietersen Memorial and Museum and Chiawelo, Soweto. They will be hosted by South African Non-Governmental Organisation Coalition (SANGOCO), the Soweto Mountain of Hope (SOMOHO), the South African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC), Oxfam SA and the Environmental Justice Networking Forum (EGNF)
“As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest,” said Nelson R. Mandela, a patron of the GCAP campaign at the campaign launch in London in February 2005.
The Soweto events will be followed by a media cocktail party to officially launch the SMS Say to 2 Poverty campaign and the ‘Snap-ad’ of African celebrities showing their support for GCAP.
ENDS
For more information please contact:
Soweto Mountain of Hope, Tel: 011 984 8396
South African NGO Coalition, Tel: 011 403 7746 www.sangoco.org.za
Environmental Justice Networking Forum - Tel: 011 - 403 8978
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, Tel: 011 833 59 59 www.civicus.org
Global Call to Action Against Poverty website www.whiteband.org