Articles - Miscellaneous

MakePovertyHistory

Very early on the morning of Saturday 2nd July several people from St Edmund's and neighbouring churches boarded two specially chartered trains to travel to Edinburgh. Others travelled by special coaches and some people from Leeds got there by cycle or rickshaw. In The Meadows we joined thousands of other campaigners mostly dressed in white to symbolise the MakePovertyHistory campaign. It was a beautiful day and we soaked up the carnival atmosphere, looking at all the placards and colourful banners as people got ready to march through the streets of Edinburgh to from a human white band round the city. At 3pm a minute's silence was held and we were asked to remember the children that would die - 1 every three seconds - during that minute. This was followed by a terrific noise - whistles, drums, horns…..

It was estimated that a staggering 225,000 people were in Edinburgh and the sheer volume of campaigners meant that some of us had to wait several hours to join the march. This hugh display of support shows that the MakePovertyHistory campaign has really made an impact this year.

Whether you have bought a white band, sent an email, signed a vote card or took part in St Edmund's All Age Worship Service on MakePovertyHistory, the fact that global poverty was at the top of this year's G8 agenda is thanks to you and ordinary people like you. In the event the G8 leaders failed to respond fully to the challenge that we placed before them but there will be opportunities to keep up the pressure later this year. Watch out for details.

1st Roundhay Brownies were extremeley busy one Wednesday evening making MakePovertyHistory paper chains. We joined enough white paper chains to go all around the Scout & Guide Headquarters and the ends did eventually meet! However we failed to count how many chains we actually made.

© St Edmund's Church, Roundhay - Charity Number 1131904