Before the G8 meeting at the beginning of July, those of us giving mission appeals have been asking people in the parishes that we have visited to send postcards to Tony Blair asking that he use his influence to Make Poverty History. Six MMS, 4 from England, 1 from the US and 1 from The Netherlands went to Edinburgh to join the gathering there.
The aim was that we all wear white and form a white band round the city centre to reinforce our demands to the G8. We joined the record crowd of almost a quarter of a million – so many that the white band was formed very quickly and with no room for most of us. However we all contributed to the impressive crowd that was well reported in the media. We speltout messages to the G8 on white sashes and banners.
Before the Edinburgh gathering many members of religious orders, (Catholic and Anglican) of England and Wales held a lobby of parliament in aid of the Make Poverty History goals. Several MMS went to meet our local Member of Parliament to discuss the issues of the campaign.
Thanks to the pressure of public opinion the G7 Finance Ministers agreed to write off the multilateral debt of 18 of the world’s poorest countries at once and later of a further 9. However there is still far to go and now the campaigning is focussed on Trade Justice and protection of the environment. We ask our sisters and friends to write to their MP about these.