‘You can show that you care. On your own you can’t make as much difference but together you can do it!’
Wise words from ten-year-old Caitlin. She speaks through the stripes of Tearfund’s face paint and is fidgety with excitement, along with siblings Thomas, nine, and Niamh, six.
Her family braved the converging crowds from 800 coaches, packed trains and motorway-jams, to travel up from Wilford in Nottingham to be part of the heartbeat of the MPH campaign.
Niamh, Thomas and Caitlin get ready for the Edinburgh rally.
While pop stars emptied their lungs in Hyde Park and Gordon Brown told campaigners that they had achieved more than politicians could in 100 years, the family became part of a gigantic wave of people who peacefully filled the Edinburgh streets to call for justice.
Clued up
Caitlin’s first rally proves that you’re never too young to campaign. She’s clued up and convinced that, this week, the world’s eight most powerful leaders can change the lives of the world’s poorest people.
‘We want the G8 to relieve debt, so that money can be spent on education and things that people really need,’ says Caitlin. ‘We want them to increase aid from rich countries and have fairer trading rules.’
Across the globe
More than 3 billion people across the world tuned in or turned up in person to be part of the Make Poverty History campaign on Saturday.
Elinata Kasanga
Tanzanian mother Joyce Mbwilo’s message for the G8 ‘to step into our shoes’ rang out loud and clear from the main stage at the Edinburgh rally. As featured on the BBC website, Joyce said to the world leaders, ‘Imagine yourselves in our shoes…walking long distances to collect water, and not able to send your children to primary school,. If you do that, it will lead you to the right decisions.’
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And for another African woman, Elinata, a subsistence farmer in Zambia, her moment was to come four days later. On Wednesday, Elinata spoke to Chancellor Gordon Brown via video phone, on the morning that the G8 summit opened in Gleneagles.
Click here to watch their conversation in full.