Isle of Man campaigners led by local teacher and Global Poverty Ambassador Kristina Crawford launched their Point 1 campaign with a campaign video and petition at Mannifest music festival last weekend and was met with the support of thousands of festival goers. Supported by Hugh Davidson of the H & S Davidson Trust, the Point 1 campaign is asking the Isle of Man to do more to invest in overseas aid and raise spending to 0.1% of the island’s income from the 0.07% level it is currently at.
The campaign has already gathered over 1000 signatures from people on the island and across the weekend had the visible support of even more as people took part in facepainting and photos in support of the campaign. It has also already seen support from diverse sectors of the community, including Andy North lead singer of The Fecktones, and chair of the overseas aid committee Phil Gawne.
Teams of volunteers roamed Mannifest all weekend with a petition asking the public to support the increase as the island currently spends less than ?21 from the taxes of an average earner on overseas aid - a smaller percentage than Jersey, Guernsey, Greece or Ireland. The campaign calls on overseas aid to be used strategically to not just help some of the world’s poorest people but to act as an investment for the island’s own economy.
Kristina Crawford said:
“I’m proud that Manx overseas aid has directly helped over 4.3 million people since 2008, lifting people out of extreme poverty, often giving vital aid in a time of extreme need. I’m proud of what we have done, but we have the opportunity to do more, and the proposed increase would still leave us 99.9% of our income to spend at home.”
Andy North, local teacher and lead singer of The Fecktones:
“I’m proud of our support for child health by supporting vaccines, saving lives of the most vulnerable, and giving them a chance at education.”
Phil Gawne MHK and chair of the Overseas Aid committee said:
“Overseas Aid can give the Isle of Man visibility in rapidly growing countries, and shows we are a nation committed to helping those in need. Overseas aid gives us a chance to help some of the worlds poorest people for less than ?30 per person.”
You can watch the campaign video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3awNjh67J0 and find out more about the campaign and sign the petition on http://tny.im/iompoint1.
