Friday, November 09, 2007

Big name stars in Montreal Friday for Millennium Summit on child poverty

from The Canadian Press

MONTREAL - Organizer Daniel Germain isn't afraid to admit that he only invited celebrities like Michael Douglas and Mia Farrow to his Montreal Millennium Summit to attract attention to the lot of the world's children.

He says the overall goal of the two-day international summit that started Thursday is "to bring to one place all of the people who are already working at finding solutions to poverty."

Germain, who also founded Quebec Breakfast Clubs to feed poor school children, says most of "the big names" that will address the summit on Friday won't be paid, but they will receive donations for their foundations.

In addition to Douglas and Farrow, Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu and former prime minister Paul Martin are scheduled to speak.

"That's their role . .they need to stand (up against) poverty," he said in an interview.

"The majority of the world is hungry, is poor, and we need to look at that situation."

Youth was the focus of the summit Thursday, including the child victims of armed conflict.

Ishmael Beah, who lost his mother, father and two brothers in civil wars in Sierre Leone in the 1990s, said he was driven to become a child soldier when he was just 13.

"I was very lucky to survive it," said Beah, who has written an award-winning book about his experience.

The United Nations estimates that about 250,000 children younger than 18 years old are involved in about a dozen conflicts.

Beah said if the world could stop poverty, it would prevent a lot of the senseless use of children as soldiers.

He said the summit is important "because people become empowered" and realize there's something they can do about poverty.

"People meet other people who are doing concrete work on the ground," Beah said.

He also said he hoped the summit would "push the buttons" of politicians and get more heads of states involved.

Another afternoon session brought together 500 young people for a rock concert and forum on the world's most impoverished and "the means young people have to bring about changes."

Among the young activists gathered for the summit is Marc Kielburger, whose Free The Children organization collects funds in schools to help build schools in Third World countries.

"Building a school can end poverty for 40 kids," Kielburger said.

"It's a question of engaging kids because I think, to be really honest, a lot of adults don't take the actions necessary to make fundamental changes that we need in society."

Germain said the summit is tied in with a United Nations project that has set a target date of 2015 to halve extreme poverty in the world, halt the spread of HIV/AIDS and provide universal education.

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