Latest news with #MakePovertyHistory
Time Magazine
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Magazine
Richard Curtis and Lenny Henry
After witnessing firsthand the devastation of the famine in Ethiopia in the 1980s, British screenwriter and producer Richard Curtis returned home with an idea to use comedy to raise funds to help those in need. Fonted by beloved British comedian Lenny Henry and a plethora of other famous faces, what started out as a live stage show has become an annual fundraising event—Red Nose Day—and telethon that are still going strong. 'We took a big gamble in believing that people can take tragedy and comedy on the same night,' says Curtis, who also co-founded the Make Poverty History campaign in 2004. That gamble has paid off. Comic Relief has raised over $2 billion for charity projects tackling poverty and injustice, supporting more than 100 million people globally. To date, Comic Relief U.S., which operates Red Nose Day, has raised more than $436 million. Earlier this month, Curtis and Henry were honored with a Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy Catalyst Award for their philanthropic work with Comic Relief, which is now in its 40th year. Henry credits the success of Comic Relief to its ability to appeal to the public's will to do 'the right thing.' He says: 'I think it is really important in terms of citizenship, that we know when it's our turn to do something, and we have the energy and the wherewithal to do it.'
Telegraph
27-02-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Richard Curtis's green investing campaign shuts down after collapse in donations
A green investing campaign group co-founded by film director Richard Curtis is to close after a slump in donations. Make My Money Matter, which aimed to pressure banks and pension funds to stop funding fossil fuels, said it will be closing next month after five years in operation. It was launched by the Love Actually director in 2020 and had received public support from celebrities and campaigners including Stephen Fry, Chris Packham, and Caroline Lucas. 'As a non-profit, we've relied on philanthropic donations that have declined in recent years and it is not possible for us to continue our work,' the group said. In an email to its supporters, Make My Money Matter added that it will stop campaigning on March 7 and fully close by the end of next month. The email said: 'We have relied on philanthropic donations that have declined in recent years, and it has not been possible to continue.' It comes amid a major backlash against environmental, social and governance (ESG) focused investing which has intensified since Donald Trump entered office in January. A downturn in profits from the renewables industry and sharp increases in returns from the world's largest oil and gas companies has made the situation for ESG funds worse. Make My Money Matter had called on investors to pull all money out of any companies that financed new fossil fuel projects. Mr Curtis is known for launching high-profile campaigns including Comic Relief and Make Poverty History, as well as for directing influential British films including Notting Hill and Four Weddings and a Funeral. He said: 'It's been a roller-coaster ride – getting funding for campaigning is always hard – but the basic argument has always been the same: money makes the world go round – but it also has the potential to destroy it.' The British film maker launched Make My Money Matter alongside Jo Corlett, a former advisor to David Cameron in Downing Street. Tony Burdon, a former civil servant and Oxfam aid worker, acted as the pressure group's chief executive. When it first launched in June 2020, the campaign group said it was 'calling for the trillions invested through our pensions to help build a better world.' It subsequently led campaigns against leading British banks including Barclays, NatWest and HSBC while encouraging investors to put their money into accounts with lenders including Nationwide, Metro Bank and the Co-operative Bank. Make My Money Matter also published reports in partnerships with pensions giants including Phoenix Group and Scottish Widows. A spokesman for the pressure group said: 'The global economic situation is having an impact on funding for many non-profits.' The spokesman said the campaign group does not comment on its donors.
The Guardian
13-02-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
How Nelson Mandela's Trafalgar Square speech still resonates, 20 years on
Nelson Mandela's face once again lit up Trafalgar Square this week, projected on to Nelson's column while the sound of his voice echoed out, calling for a 'great generation' to end poverty – 20 years after he delivered that impassioned call to an audience of 22,000. It was a message that resonated with the public, who began wearing white 'Make Poverty History' wristbands, hit the front pages of newspapers and helped spur governments into expanding anti-poverty campaigns and agreeing to offer $50bn debt relief to Africa. Rekindling Mandela's energy was the goal of this week's 'light the way' event, which brought together schoolchildren, charity sector leaders, and politicians who renewed their pledge to defeat poverty. 'We need more hope and political drive today – more than we needed 20 years ago,' said Serah Makka, Africa executive director for the ONE campaign, the anti-poverty group that helped organise Mandela's original speech and this week's events. 'To look around the world today you can feel like it's stagnating or regressing. It makes sense because we have this ambition to see more transformation in the world, and sometimes the incrementality [in changes] you see, just doesn't give you enough energy,' said Makka. 'But we need to resist the temptation because we need hope.' The battle to tackle hunger and poverty has faltered in recent years after a series of shocks from the pandemic, the climate crisis and an increase in conflicts. An already bleak atmosphere caused by aid budget cuts by countries such as the UK has only been made worse by US president Donald Trump suddenly halting the work of USAid. But Makka reminded the audience that there has been progress in the past 20 years, and that needs to be celebrated. She highlighted that the number of people living on under $1 (80p) a day has fallen from 20% to 8.5% and there have also been reductions in the number of people living without safe sanitation and electricity. 'Days like today provide a much-needed opportunity to look back and consider what progress actually has been made. While much needs to be done, we must also recognise that hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty,' said Dr Sania Nishtar, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The commemoration during the day took place in Central Hall Westminster, where charity leaders and decision makers gathered to remember Mandela's address and its impact, while in the evening, music and fragments of his words played out in Trafalgar Square in celebration of the moment. When Mandela came out of retirement to deliver the speech in 2005, wrapped up against the cold and leaning on a walking stick, he called for aid, fairer trade and the lifting of debt imposed on impoverished countries to end the 'social evil' of poverty he said ranked alongside apartheid and slavery. Despite a reduction in poverty levels, the fact that acute hunger persists and a new debt crisis faces low-income countries means those goals have not yet been met. So it was in the spirit of an 'imvuselelo' – a revival ceremony – that South African-born poet Nomakhwezi Becker switched between gentle singing in isiZulu and firmly delivered poetry in English. 'There was no way for me not to sing, and call on the spirits of all those who walked before us to boldly enter spaces of change and regeneration with me, as we replenish and remind those in this ongoing fight how needed their efforts and dreams are in order to sustain the aliveness of others,' said Becker. 'While there is so much exhaustion from the daily onslaught of difficult news and things that seem to be regressing around the world, there are so many of us rowing boats against the current to change this and events like this one are needed to remind us of this and shout out the names of those people so they are encouraged and visible enough to be rallied around.' Although the UK government has yet to set a date to restore the country's aid commitment from 0.5% of GDP, introduced by then chancellor Rishi Sunak in 2020, to the 0.7% goal set by the UN, the ONE campaign said a recent survey shows three-quarters of the British public believe the country has a responsibility to tackle global challenges such as poverty. Among gen Z, 37% believed the country should be doing more. Adrian Lovett, the ONE campaign's UK executive director, who spoke alongside Mandela in 2005, said these numbers were promising at a time when there do not appear to be public figures who can offer the same moral leadership that Mandela did. 'There is a quiet majority in this country that wants to see Britain do right by not only its own citizens, but by others around the world,' he said. That sense of commitment to change was shared by some of the students invited to the commemoration from east London's Langdon academy – from which students had stood on stage and spoken alongside Mandela in 2005. 'I can't comment on 20 years ago because I didn't exist but I can say that in maybe 10 or 20 years from now we can say we made poverty history because of Nelson Mandela,' a student said to a cheering audience.
