ACTION AID AT READING

Dishing out justice for the hungry at Reading (from a disco shed!)

Wednesday August 15 2007: Thousands of empty plates will be dished out during Reading  when music fans will be asked to join an international charity campaign to halve world hunger by 2015.

Anti poverty charity ActionAid is taking ‘Bollocks to Poverty On Tour’ to Reading for the sixth year running from Friday August 24 to 26, giving people the opportunity to support its HungerFREE campaign and demand justice for the 850 million people who go hungry every day – that’s more then the combined population of the UK, Brazil, USA, Canada and Japan.

In 2000 the world’s governments made a commitment to halve hunger by 2015 as part of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals. Yet halfway towards this intended date they’ve done little to improve the situation and 24 people are dying from hunger every minute despite there being enough food to feed everyone on the planet twice over.

At ActionAid’s tent punters can sign a plate, take a snap of themselves with it and send a photo message to the United Nations, demanding action on hunger.
ActionAid will dish out the plates to world leaders when they meet at the next UN General Assembly in New York in September.
                                                         

Festival goers across the world will be targeted at venues ranging from folk-rock concerts in Kathamdu to reggae gigs in Nairobi.

Anella Wickenden, ActionAid’s Youth Campaigns Manager said: “When a person gets to the point of having nothing to eat, it is because everything else has been denied – access to land, jobs, living wages and their human rights.

“But by joining thousands of people around the world festival goers can make a noise about the scandal of global poverty and hunger and demand change through their passion for music.

“The crowds at Reading  have always been hugely supportive of Bollocks to Poverty On Tour in the past and I’m sure this year will be no exception!”

Bollocks to Poverty On Tour is now a festival regular at Reading and ActionAid will be bringing their tent alive with a kitsch garden hangout, complete with the amazing Disco Shed, in which shed creators, DJs PeepShow Paddy, Count Skylarkin and resident DJ Del Gazebo will be playing their eclectic sets till 3am every night. ActionAid will also be offering the unwashed masses a place to chill out, relax on comfy beanbags and play giant games of Jenga, fussball and ping pong.
 

Visit Action Aid website for more information.