Emmy award-winning actress Claire Danes joined millions of people who’ve added their thumbprints to a unique petition at Grand Central Terminal this week, led by global humanitarian organization Save the Children.
The thumbprint mosaic was designed by New York-based artist Ian Wright and represents the support of three million people from 40 countries who have taken part in Save the Children’s EVERY ONE campaign. The campaign aims to put pressure on world leaders meeting at the United Nations in New York, to do more to stop children dying needlessly of preventable and treatable causes.
“Every three seconds in the developing world a child dies needlessly due to lack of basic health care and other things we all take for granted,” said Claire Danes, a Save the Children supporter. “I’m here today to add my thumbprint and my support to this cause, just one of three million people from across the globe – from the poorest communities to world leaders – who have signed up to Save the Children’s EVERY ONE campaign.”
The campaign has also been backed by notable people around the globe such as Hugh Laurie, Kevin McKidd, Sally Field, Mark Ruffalo, Laila Rouas, Amanda Holden, Dame Judi Dench, Annie Lennox and Bollywood stars Kunal Kapoor, Sushmita Sen, Shabana Azmi, Gurinder Chadha, Onir and Amrita Raichand.
The thumbprints will be handed over to a high level representative of the United Nations during the summit this week to review progress on the Millennium Development Goals, the internationally agreed targets to tackle poverty. Save the Children is calling for an action plan to be agreed to by all governments, to reach the Millennium Goal of cutting child deaths by two thirds by 2015. Hitting this target would save the lives of 15 million children by 2015, the charity said. It would involve improving children’s access to basic health care, nutrition, water and sanitation and education.
For more information, please visit www.everyone.org for the global EVERY ONE campaign and www.goodgoes.org in the U.S.
