McFly Join Up to the Global Campaign for Education

PRLog (Press Release) - Jun 04, 2007 -
There are over 80 million children globally who are missing out on school.  Two thirds of them are girls.  46 million of them are in Sub-Saharan Africa.  The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) is working to change this. The campaign aims to put pressure on world leaders to keep the promise they made in 2000 of free basic education of good quality for all children. The GCE is asking people to Join Up and add their voice by signing an online petition. Over 130,000 people from around the world have joined this already, including hugely successful music-makers McFly.

McFly have given their time and energy to the campaign, and have visited Uganda twice to learn more about the issues addressed by the campaign at first hand. They’ve also made an exclusive video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT8hW_zNwmA ) for their new single, Baby’s Coming Back, to show their support for the campaign and to encourage their fans in the UK and abroad to Join Up too. Tom Fletcher from McFly said: ‘’World leaders made a promise to give everyone an education. Let’s hold them to it. Promises to kids are the worst kind of promises to break.’’

Once fans have watched the video, they can join the chain (http://www.sendmyfriend.org/mcfly/ ) and download their own kit to add to their mobile phones and publicly show their support for the campaign.

The petition calls on world leaders to keep their promises, and it is due to be presented to them before the G8 summit meeting (http://www.sendmyfriend.org/kids/get_info/what_guide.php#... ) in Germany which starts on 6th June 2007. The summit will be chaired by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and key discussions will take place there. By Joining Up, people can show their support for the campaign and show the G8 leaders that their promises must be kept.

About The Global Campaign for Education

The GCE (http://www.sendmyfriend.org/ ) is a coalition of NGOs, teachers’ unions and charities in more than 100 countries worldwide. In the UK alone this includes Comic Relief, Oxfam, VSO, Action Aid, Sightsavers, all UK teachers’ unions and over 10,000 schools. It believes that quality education for all is achievable, and that the immense costs of failure far outweigh any cost. For instance, getting every child through primary school would cut HIV/AIDS infections by half.

For information on the GCE’s Join Up campaign go to www.sendmyfriend.org.

Global Campaign for Education PR Contact:
Sophie King
Comic Relief
5th Floor
89 Albert Embankment
London
SE1 7TP
0207 820 6942