#GlobalGoals - Dear World Leaders, This is an Emergency

Dear World Leaders,

This is an emergency.

We are activists for different causes from across the world, writing as one for the first time to demand your immediate action in this critical year…

So starts an unprecedented open letter launched today, signed by 20 leading global activists, calling out world leaders to act faster to end extreme poverty, defeat inequality and fight climate crisis.

This open letter marks the first time that activists fighting for global causes have been united by one single voice. Ranging from ages 10 to 94, the leading gender, climate, environmental, equality, justice and human rights campaigners include Malala Yousafzai, Obiageli Ezekwesili (Bring Back Our Girls, Nigeria), Tarana Burke (Me Too), Patrisse Cullors (Black Lives Matter) and Dr. Jane Goodall. 

The activists’ open letter has also been signed and supported by a network of 2000 campaigners and public figures across the arts, business and philanthropy from over 140 countries, including Emma Watson, Bono, Danny Boyle, Keira Knightley, Christiane Amanpour, Idris Elba, Femi Kuti and Spike Lee.

The letter declares a state of “emergency” for people and planet. It comes one week on from UN Secretary-General António Guterres calling on the international community to make the 2020s the “decade of action” and 2020 the “year of urgency”.

The letter stresses the need for immediate action, including at key 2020 moments, if the world is to meet the Global Goals. These key moments, include COP26, the Gavi replenishment, Generation Equality Forums in Mexico and France, the UN General Assembly and a landmark biodiversity conference in China.

The Global Goals for Sustainable Development are a historic plan adopted at the UN in 2015 to tackle these world problems. 193 countries (yes, including yours) have committed to achieve them by 2030.

Richard Curtis, SDG advocate, screenwriter and co-founder of Project Everyone, says:  “We are in an emergency for people and planet - the solution to which is the Global Goals  - the historic plan to defeat poverty, fix inequality and combat the climate crisis. In 2020, leaders will be watched by people all around the world who expect them to deliver dramatically. It’s also a clear commitment that this diverse and deeply committed group will themselves press hard throughout this crucial year to kickstart a Decade of Action for the Goals.”

The activists demand sustained innovation, financing and action over the crucial decade ahead to 2030. Recent reports underline the need for swift action; at least half the global population does not have access to essential health services, hunger is on the rise after a prolonged decline, and at the current rate of progress, it will take almost 100 years to close the global gender gap. Meanwhile, greenhouse gas emissions are reaching record levels and key ecosystems are on the verge of collapse with one million species in near-term danger of extinction.

The open letter is accompanied by a public campaign asking citizens to show their support by sharing the letter and to join this effort for people and planet by using #GlobalGoals. The full list of signatories can be seen at www.globalgoals.org. A campaign film has also been directed by Richard Curtis.

Please share.

World Leprosy Day 2014 - shining a light on the ‘hidden’ disease

A young woman affected by leprosy in Myanmar (Burma) is benefiting from a new mobile prostheses clinic.
Credit: Leprosy Mission

This Sunday, 26 January, is World Leprosy Day 2014. Few people might take notice; few might even know that leprosy still exits today. But it does.

For me, World Leprosy Day always has a special resonance because when I was very young – just after high school – I worked in a leprosy centre for a few months. It was in Polambakkam in beautiful Tamil Nadu in the south of India.  At the time, the multidrug therapy hadn’t been developed yet and the stigma of the disease was so strong that very few Indian medics wanted to work there, so volunteers like me were brought in to help clean infected wounds and bandage damaged limbs.

Leprosy has now been curable for the past 25 years or so, but is still a global problem, affecting more than 15 million people worldwide  (including 100 in the UK), and each year, at least a quarter of a million new cases are detected - that is almost one person diagnosed every two minutes (World Health Organization). Over half of all newly-reported cases occur in India. And the stigma is still as damaging as it was when I was young.

On World Leprosy Day, the Leprosy Mission England and Wales, an international organization working to eradicate the causes and consequences of the disease, wants to “shine a light on this hidden disease.” Here is their message:

• Did you know there are still leprosy colonies in the world today where people are ‘sent’ or ‘seek refuge’?  There are 850 in India.

• Did you know that stigma surrounding leprosy in many parts of the world today is akin to what it was during Biblical times?  Even beggars begging for their own survival will often shun a leprosy-affected person.

• Did you know that leprosy is completely curable with a simple combination of antibiotics?  Yet 85 per cent of people in Delhi, India - still believe there is no cure.

We’re confident that leprosy rates would be slashed across the world today were it not still shrouded in age-old stigma.  Three million people would not be living with irreversible disabilities as a result of late treatment of the disease.

What other disease sees someone outcast from their family, sacked from their job, thrown off public transport and pushed to the very fringes of society?

The tragedy is when leprosy is ‘hidden’. It damages and disables, slowly destroying each aspect of a person’s life.  If it wasn’t for stigma and misunderstandings surrounding leprosy then people would seek treatment and all healthcare professionals would recognise its symptoms.

Leprosy is a disease.  Those affected deserve dignity not discrimination. Please spread the word.

For more information, click here.

World Leprosy Day 2013: breaking the cycle of poverty and stigma

Evelina Juba, Leprosy Village, South Sudan

This Sunday is World Leprosy Day 2013, but few people are likely to take notice. Few might even know that leprosy still exists today.  But it does: it affects more than 15 million people across the world and each year nearly a quarter of a million new cases are detected: that is almost one person diagnosed every two minutes. Over half of all newly-reported cases occur in India. 

It might be the oldest disease known to mankind, but it is very much a disease of our time - a disease of poverty caused by a bacillus called Mycobacterium Leprae (a distant relative of the TB bacillus). Most people are naturally immune and the disease is easily cured with multi-drug therapy, but the majority of people affected live in developing countries where resources are scarce and poverty is widespread.

South Sudan is a case in point. Unofficial data points to the UN’s newest member state as having the world’s highest prevalence of leprosy.  After decades of civil war, South Sudan became an independent country in 2011.  But nearly two years after its independence, its people face a daily struggle for survival with severe food shortages. Recent field trips made by The Leprosy Mission England and Wales revealed a woeful lack of healthcare available to those affected by this devastating disease.

The charity’s head of programmes coordination, Sian Arulanantham, said: “I witnessed such abject poverty in South Sudan and there is a real humanitarian crisis within this new nation.  Leprosy is thriving in the squalid conditions in which people are forced to live and there are insubstantial health services available to diagnosis and treat what becomes an extremely debilitating disease.”  The charity is working with the government of South Sudan to try to alleviate some of the suffering people with leprosy have to endure.

While leprosy is not very contagious, the fear and stigma associated with it are – and that’s what makes it such a difficult disease to eradicate. Bible-old stigma and discrimination are still prevalent today and see entire families having their job opportunities, education, marriage prospects and dreams shattered.

Fear fuels a vicious circle which begins with people hiding the first telltale patches on their skin in order to avoid being shunned by their families and driven to the fringes of society. Since 1982, leprosy is easily cured with a simple course of antibiotics, but if left untreated, it can cause irreversible disabilities. The antibiotics can halt the progression of the disease, but cannot undo the damage.  Leprosy causes nerve problems, which can lead to a loss of sensation in the hands and feet, meaning everyday activities are fraught with danger.  Burns go unrecognized and stones in shoes unnoticed, causing ulcers and bone resorption.  The resulting disability can lead to the amputation of limbs.  Leprosy also damages nerves in the face causing problems with blinking, eventually leading to blindness.

On World Leprosy Day 2013, The Leprosy Mission of England and Wales is urging government and people to “concentrate on breaking the cycle of poverty which, along with stigma, sees leprosy remain a 21^st century disease.” 

Poverty in the UK – Save the Children launches first domestic appeal

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Save the Children is best known for its work with starving children in Africa or Asia, but this time, the international aid charity is turning its attention to the UK – the world’s sixth richest country.   

The charity is launching “It Shouldn’t Happen Here”,  its first-ever domestic appeal to help children across the UK have hot meals, adequate shoes, winter clothes and other necessities they cannot afford because their parents have been hit hard by budget cuts and the recession.

The charity is hoping to raise £500,000  - a modest goal compared to its international humanitarian appeals – but its symbolic impact is huge. It shows the failure of the coalition government to tackle mounting poverty and inequality in the UK.

 "It is shocking to think that in the UK in 2012, families are being forced to miss out on essentials like food or take on crippling debts just to meet everyday living costs,” says Chris Wellings, Save the Children's UK head of policy.  "Poverty in the UK is different to some of the poorer countries in the world. It is more nuanced and poses different problems. But it does not mean that we cannot stand up for children's rights in the UK."

According to a survey of 5,000 UK adults commissioned by Save the Children:

• Nearly two thirds of parents in poverty (61%) say they have cut back on food and over a quarter (26%) say they have skipped meals in the past year.

• One in five parents in poverty says they cannot afford to replace their children's worn-out shoes, while 80% of parents in poverty say they have had to borrow money to pay for food and clothes over the past 12 months.

• Some 44% of families in poverty say that "every week they are short of money", while 29% say they have "nothing left to cut back on".

Not surprisingly, financial worries are taking a toll on parents’ physical and mental well-being, triggering arguments and other signs of family stress, the survey indicates. 

Save the Children is calling on the government to stick to its 2020 child poverty targets, to encourage more employers to give the current living wage of £7.20 to  £8.30 an hour, provide extra childcare support for low-income parents and allow parents to keep more of their earnings before benefits are withdrawn. 

The charity's Shouldn't Happen Here report is the second high-profile study by an international aid charity to focus on domestic poverty in recent months. Oxfam's Perfect Storm, published in June, said that cuts and rising living costs were threatening to return the UK to levels of inequality not seen since Victorian times.