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NewsGlobal call to action against povertyJune 1, 2007 More than 1 billion people in the world still live on less than a dollar per day. Every three seconds in the world a child dies of extreme poverty. There is a shortage of one million doctors and nurses in the poorest countries that could save millions of lives of children and their mothers and curb the spread of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, TB, polio and malaria. An estimated 13 million Russians have incomes below the national poverty line. We call on Ms. Angela Merkel and other G8 leaders to take a vigorous action and step up their delivery on commitments to provide more and better aid to the poorest countries during the Heiligendamm summit from 6- 8 June, 2007. One million people have signed GCAP global petition to G8! More than a hundred organizations and individuals in Russia have signed our address to Ms. Merkel. Next week, leaders of G8 will meet in Heiligendamm, where they will be discussing the questions and making decisions that will have impact on the lives of millions of vulnerable people in poor countries worldwide. GCAP Russia is acknowledging the fact that Russian Federation is playing an active and important role in the process of reducing and eradicating poverty in the poorest countries of the world through bilateral agreements and in the framework of HIPC initiative. As the foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, recently announced, Russian government plans to cancel 500 million dollar debt to the poorest African countries. We recognize the commendable effort on the Russian part to contribute to the international efforts to eradicate poverty on the African continent. However, this initiative should be just the first step in the series of actions collectively undertaken by the G8. It should serve as an encouraging sign to other G8 governments to step up their delivery on commitments made in Gleneagles in 2005. Once again, we are reminding, that by fighting poverty not only can we eliminate hunger and help improve living conditions of the poorest people, but moreover, by improving health care systems in fragile countries, we can fight more effectively the spread of such diseases as HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, polio that affect all countries. While recognizing the fact that there are many urgent issues that heads of states have to tackle, we are calling the G8 members to engage vigorously in one of the most humane actions – fight against poverty. That can hardly be postponed or overshadowed by other policy concerns. Fulfilling commitments on Millennium Development Goals and delivering on promises pledged at prior summits is the least that advanced societies can do to alleviate poverty and suffering in the world. Member organizations of Movement Against Poverty (GCAP Russia): • Arkhangelsk Centre of Social Technologies “Garant”, NGO Support and Promotion Centre (Arkhangelsk) • The Independent Non-Profit Organization 'The social help to the homeless' (Vladimir) • Russian branch of international charitable non-governmental development organisation Oxfam GB (Moscow) • Alliance “Civil Society to Children of Russia” (Moscow) • Young Peacemakers and Peace School Movement (Moscow) • Russian Civic Organisation “AIDS – Infoshare’” (Moscow) • Center for Environment and Sustainable Development “ECO –Accord”(Moscow) • Association of Non – Commercial Organisations “Sluzhenye” (Nizhny Novgorod) • Saint – Petersburg Charitable Civil Society Organisation “Centre for Non – Governmental Organisations’ Development”(Saint – Petersburg) • Regional Civil Society Organisation German – Russian Exchange (Saint – Petersburg) • Saint – Petersburg Civil Society Organisation “Doctors to children” (Saint – Petersburg) • Charitable foundation “Korchakovsky centre”(Saint – Petersburg) • St. Petersburg Regional Humanitarian Organisation for Aid to Homeless People “Nochlezhka” (Saint – Petersburg) • St. Petersburg branch of charitable organization EveryChild, (Saint – Petersburg) • Regional Civil Society Organisation “Centre of Women’s Initiatives” (Tosno, Leningrad region) • Autonomous Non – Commercial Organisation “Open Alternative” (Togliatti) • Community Foundation Tyumen, (Tyumen) • Tyumen NGO “Special Child” (Tyumen) • Center for development of voluntary movement (Togliatti) • The foundation “Social investments” (Togliatti) • “Institute of practice lawyers” Autonomous non-profit organization (Togliatti) |
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