ONE final push
As leaders gathered in France today for the G20 Summit of wealthy nations, they brought with them the voice of hundreds of thousands of ONE members.
We’ve been campaigning hard this month to highlight the food crisis in the Horn of Africa and call on world leaders to ensure they break the cycle of famine. Our petition has had a phenomenal response now totalling over 400,000 signatures. So we wanted to make sure our members’ voices were heard loud and clear in the corridors of power.
On Monday as President Sarkozy prepared to leave Paris to host the G20 Summit in the south of France, we broadcast a huge video projection on the side of the city’s iconic Hotel De Ville. The film loop included the powerful celebrity F-word video “famine is the real obscenity”, the message that by then, over 360,000 ONE members had called on leaders to take action, and a scrolling list of members who had signed the petition. Strong media coverage of the event ensured the message was seen far and wide across France.
On Tuesday a group of ONE members joined our European Director delivering the campaign to the UK Government. With the G20 looming and a surge in the number of people signing up, the petition total had jumped to a staggering 400,000 by that afternoon – requiring a large trolley to deliver it!
On Wednesday ONE’s team in Berlin, pictured here in their “Nicht Mehr Hungrig” (“Hungry No More”) t-shirts outside the Chancellery Building, handed in the petition to the German Government. Along with pressure from our staff and members across the United States, this ensured the leading G20 powers have felt the pressure to act going in to today’s Summit.
We’ll be updating here about the Summit’s progresses, and stay tuned for a post early next week giving an overall assessment.
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About the Blog
The International ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, with guest contributions from ONE volunteers, members and allies.
The content of each post and each comment represents the views of that author and does not necessarily reflect the views of ONE. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any post expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
03/11/2011 at 6:23 pm
Did you really print out 400,000 signatures? That seems like a big waste of paper when you could have delivered the petition on CD.
One of the reasons why there is a problem is East Africa is because of climate change and printing 5 boxes of paper seems very hypocritical.
03/11/2011 at 7:33 pm
Hey Henry, you might be right but I guess being able to see the bulk that is 400,000 signatures is probably more effective than skimming through a digital list…plus they could always recycle the paper!
03/11/2011 at 7:49 pm
A great effort by the team and ONE members.
04/11/2011 at 9:43 am
Great work guys, let’s keep going!
I think we should campaign to stop food speculation.
If investors don’t have wheat and rice etc to speculate with then it can be made more easily available for people to serve its actual purpose – sustain life.
09/11/2011 at 2:18 am
Excelente Trabalho da equipe e excelente campanha!!!
Como brasileira e por possuir uma raiz africana, tenho orgulho de ter assinado a petição e contribuído nos 400.000 assinaturas. Vamos na luta, sem desistir para acabar de vez com a fome que assola o mundo!!
Abraços!!