Parliament receives 11,000 pledges to tackle global poverty

The handwritten pledges were made by churchgoers in Britain who stood alongside an estimated 60 million Christians worldwide on the 10.10.10 campaign day last year to remember the poor.

The day of prayer was spearheaded by the Micah Challenge coalition of Christian organisations and challenged Christians with the question: ‘What’s Your Promise?’

The pledges were handed over by the director of Micah Challenge International, Joel Edwards, and other supporters.

He said: “The fact that 60 million Christians made promises shows that the global church is one of the most powerful and readied agents for change on poverty the world has ever seen.”

Receiving the pledges on behalf of the Government was Stephen O’Brien, Undersecretary of State for International Development.

He said: “It’s heartening to see the church working with MPs to see the Millennium Development Goals met by 2015.”

The presentation marked the culmination of a yearlong campaign to remind the country’s leaders of the Millennium Development Goals they signed up to a decade ago, the first of which is halving extreme global poverty.

The campaign challenged people to step up their support by making a personal promise to act on poverty. Promises included giving more to charity, lobbying Parliament, buying more Fairtrade products and praying more.

Andrew George MP, who received pledges during the campaign, said: “These promises have given me a clearer picture of the work that needs to be done if the Government is to meet the MDGs in the next four years.

“The Christian maxim that ‘charity begins at home’ means what it says. Charity begins at home, it doesn’t end there.”