Campaigners wish upon a G8 star

CAFOD's Maria Elena Arana hands in campaigners' wishes for a better world at 10 Downing Street before 2008's G8 meeting. [Crispin Hughes, Oxfam]

A worldwide wish petition signed by 60,000 people in the UK, including CAFOD supporters, was handed in to Downing Street for the attention of Gordon Brown

The wishes were collected part of a Global Call to Action Against Poverty campaign that has attracted more than half a million supporters across the globe.

The wishes call on the G8 leaders, meeting in Japan from 7-9 July, to take collective action to help overcome poverty.

Every year on July 7, people in Japan celebrate the Tanabata star festival, and make wishes for the year ahead, writing them onto colourful paper and tying them to a bamboo tree.

Campaigners around the world are using this format to send their wishes about poverty reduction to leaders in the G8 countries.

Determined action

Like many wishes that we all make every day, these wishes require determined action to come true.

The wishes call on the G8 to do four things to help overcome poverty:

• increase and make aid more effective
• support public health care
• assist free education in the developing world
• endorse a strong global deal to reduce the impacts of climate change and help poor people deal with the devastating impact of rising global temperatures

We can prevent poverty

A letter from CAFOD, Oxfam and World Vision, which accompanies the petition, urges the G8 to take stronger action to meet the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals to tackle poverty.

The letter affirmed that these goals are “realistic targets that, with concerted action, can and should be reached – and in fact exceeded – in order to banish extreme poverty to the history books".

Maria Elena Arana, CAFOD campaigns co-ordinator, took part in the petition hand-in. She says: “No one has to be poor in 2008.

"We can take action to prevent poverty. Increased and improved aid, among other measures, can make a huge difference to poor communities.

"In 2005, the G8 promised to increase annual aid provision by $50 billion by 2010. It’s a serious disappointment to campaigners that on current trends they will miss their own target by a massive $30 billion.

“That's why we're here - to represent thousands of people across the UK who are calling on the G8 leaders to keep their promises, and take further action to combat poverty and injustice.”