As tens of thousands of people gathered at London’s Hyde Park for the Big IF on Saturday, June 8, world leaders at the Hunger Summit a few miles away pledged money that will save 1.7 million children’s lives.
In a major success for the Enough Food for Everyone IF campaign – which has seen more than 200 organisations join together – rich countries committed more than $4 billion to tackle hunger and malnutrition when world leaders met at the Gobal Hunger Summit.
And 45,000 people gathered in London’s Hyde Park to demand action to tackle the causes of hunger.
At the Big IF rally, Danny Boyle – Artistic Director of London 2012 – made an impassioned plea for G8 leaders to end world hunger. He was joined on stage by philanthropist Bill Gates. The crowd also heard messages of support from David Beckham and Eddie Izzard.
Celebrities and the public alike helped to create a huge visual petition at the event to demonstrate the scale of public support for the IF campaign. The petition was made up of 250,000 spinning flowers, their petals representing the millions of children who die because of malnutrition each year – lives that can be saved if world leaders take action at the G8.
The focus of the IF campaign now moves to the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland on 17-18 June and the issue of global tax dodging by some multinational companies. Every year the world’s poorest countries lose billions in tax revenues – money that could spent to feed their children and their families.
Play your part in ending the injustice of corporate tax dodging: Sign up to Enough Food for Everyone IF.
Speaking in Hyde Park, Bill Gates said, "The great travesty of our time is that one in eight people do not have enough to eat. If babies do not get the right nutrition in the first 1000 days of their life, they will never be able to achieve their full potential.
“Providing developing countries with the means to feed their people is a vital part of lifting these communities out of the cycle of hunger and poverty,” he added. “This is particularly critical as we await the G8 later this month.”
Danny Boyle told the crowd, "Anyone who says that we can’t crack the hunger crisis is wrong. This is my dream – it’s a passionate dream – that in Olympics to come there will be no one dying of hunger in any of the countries whose wonderful flags wave in the wind. And it is a fight that will be won.
“We expect our government and other world leaders to fight with all the energy and cunning and determination of Chris Hoy and Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis and Bradley Wiggins – to fight and fight and fight to end hunger until they win," he added.
Source: Save the Children UK
