Australians acting to Make Poverty History in 2007
It has been an exciting year of campaigning for Make Poverty History and Micah Challenge. There have been many opportunities for Australians to show their passion for eradicating global poverty, and you have risen to the challenge. Spurred on by Australians like you, our politicians also took action., but more is needed. So what happened in 2007?
Real policy change
Face Up to Poverty
Voices Of Justice
Make Poverty History Roadtrip
Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Community Forums
Stand Up
What can one person do?
Banners Against Poverty
But there’s more...
Real policy change
There were several significant changes in policy over the year from both sides of politics.
In the May budget, the Coalition announced a plan to increase overseas aid funding for basic education. It is likely that Australian aid for education will triple from 2004 to 2010.
In July the Australian Labor Party (ALP) announced that they would increase overseas aid to 0.5% of GNI by 2015.
The Coalition announced support for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria would increase to $47 million a year.
The ALP will support an additional $300 million to improve access to water and sanitation for people in developing countries by 2010-2011.
Both parties had different climate change initiatives. The Coalition committed $164 million over 5 years to support a forests and climate initiative
and the ALP has promised $150 million over 3 years to help our neighbours prepare and adapt to the effects of climate change.
The ALP has also committed to swap $75 million of Indonesia's debt to Australia for Indonesian health programs to fight Tuberculosis (TB) and focus the aid program on helping to achieve the MDG’s.
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Face Up to Poverty
June – October 2007, 7 July 2007, Halfway point to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
At the halfway point to the MDGs, Make Poverty History launched the Face Up to Poverty campaign in Sydney. The Face Up to Poverty campaign encouraged Australians to show their support for people living in poverty by adding their faces to a photo petition.
In a world first, the faces of Australians who want to take action to eradicate poverty were projected onto the sails of the Sydney Opera House.
The campaign encouraged Australians of all ages to show their support for people living in poverty by adding their face to a photo petition. So far, over 27,000 Australians have joined the call.
We’ve made maps of Australians faces and presented them to MPs around the country to remind them that there are many Australians who care and take action. So far presentations have been made to 12 sitting members and candidates around the country.
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Voices of Justice
June 2007, Canberra
Over 160 Christians from around Australia participated in the second annual Voices for Justice conference in Canberra organized by Micah Challenge.
85,000 Australian Christians have signed the Micah Call.
In September, 14,000 postcards, which asked the Australian Government to support the Millennium Development Goals, were presented to Prime Minister at Parliament House.
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Make Poverty History Roadtrip
In July, over 700 young Australians traveled around the country spreading the Make Poverty History message through the Face Up campaign, participating in community activities and staging concerts. Over 10,000 people around Australian heard the message. The trip culminated in a concert at the Sydney Opera House on July 6.
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Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Community Forums
August-October 2007
Make Poverty History hosted a series of political debates that allowed members of the community to both be informed and show their concern. So far, over 800 supporters attended 15 MDG forums around Australia. These forums are continuing.
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Stand Up
International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, 17 October 2007
Every year more people around the globe got involved in Stand Up. This year over 43 million people stood up for poverty worldwide. In Australia, over 103,000 people participated, up from 91,987 in 2006.
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What can one person do?
October 2007
South Australian MPH supporter Helen Gilies, recently approached the Prime Minister and asked him why children had to die because of poverty. She really challenged him about what the Australian Government are doing to help eradicate global poverty. Well done Helen!
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Banners Against Poverty
27 October 2007
The Banners Against Poverty Project invited people from all over the world to make banners that creatively express people’s demands for the world to take action to end extreme poverty. The banners were an expression of the “white band”, the global symbol for call to action against poverty.
Over 30 countries from every region of the world created banners that were displayed on October 17, 2007, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and the Global White Band Day.
In Australia, school students, faith groups, community groups, trade unions and all members of civil society made banners with slogans, signatures, political messages, hand prints and drawings. We joined together over 1.5km of banners with 150,000 signatures on them. The Banners were unfurled at Federation Square on Saturday 27th October, in front of a crowd of 5,000 people.
We are now sending some of the banner to Johannesburg to be joined with other segments of national banners from around the world for the creation of a Global Banner Against Poverty.
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But there’s more...
10,000 supporters sent emails to MPs.
45,000 people now keep up to date with issues and actions via Make Poverty History e-newsletters.
Over 3,000 Make Poverty History supporters emailed Kevin Rudd to thank him for this announcement and encourage him to reach the target of 0.7% of GNI.
Well done to everyone who has supported MPH this year. We look forward to an even bigger year with more action in 2008.
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