Press Releases
1.4 Billion Reasons to End Extreme Poverty
Hugh Evans, former Young Australian of the Year and one of the team behind the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY campaign, will be launching the Global Poverty Project initiative 1.4 Billion Reasons in Melbourne on the 2nd July 2009.
With the support of Hugh Jackman, Global Advisor to The Global Poverty Project (GPP) and an expert panel, Hugh and co-founder, Simon Moss, have developed a groundbreaking presentation to catalyse an international movement to end extreme poverty. This presentation aims to deeply communicate the challenges and opportunities of extreme poverty and work as a platform to inspire and facilitate individuals to become actively involved in eradicating poverty.
Inspired by An Inconvenient Truth, the initiative advocates the Eight Millennium Development Goals adopted by 189 nations that were developed in 2000 with the objective of improving the lives of the world's poorest people by 2015. So far, Australia has contributed 0.35% of our gross national income and we are well on track to hitting 0.5% by 2015.
Although progress is being made, the presentation aims to highlight the tragic statistics and harrowing stories of people living in extreme poverty with an estimated 1.4 billion people, or about 20 per cent of the world's population, living on less than $1.25 a day, the World Bank's definition of extreme poverty.
Aussie musicians Lior, Evermore and Missy Higgins have pledged their dedication to the project along with renowned economist, Jeff Sachs (Director of the Earth Institute), Salil Shetty (Director of the Millennium Campaign) and AusAID who are also backing The Global Poverty Project. A feature film is also planned to capture the project’s journey.
Hugh Evans says, “The campaign to end extreme poverty has lost momentum, partly because of the focus on the current GFC”.
“We need to reignite that momentum and inspire Australians to take action against this global issue. There is a misconception that people, especially Aussies, are lazy and unprepared to get involved, but as we’ve witnessed in the past with MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY, by educating young people about the issue we can stamp out extreme poverty”, says Hugh.
“The aim of the GPP is to communicate, in an easy to understand format, that extreme poverty is a global issue, it is the responsibility of all individuals and that it can be eradicated. We hope to do for global poverty what Gore did for climate change”.
The free 90 minute forums will showcase across the Pacific region travelling to Papua New Guinea, the Netherlands the United Kingdom, Canada and the USA.
Media Launch: 11.00am, Thursday 2nd July 2009 at the MCEC
1.4 Billion Reasons is a FREE public presentation, for more information and tour dates visit www.globalpovertyproject.com.
Facts: Extreme Poverty at a Glance
· One in nearly seven people is going hungry, despite the fact that there is more than enough food to feed global population
· 500,000 women die each year from causes related to child birth
· 27,000 children under the age of five die each day from preventable diseases
· 5000 children die from diarrhoea-related diseases every day
· 1.2 billion people in the world do not have a toilet
The Global Poverty Project
The Global Poverty Project is co-founded by Hugh Evans and Simon Moss and is funded by UN Millennium Campaign and AusAid, supported by Google.
