News story

18th May 2004

Call for Change on World Debt Day

Members of Thornbury Churches Together and other local congregations present debt cancellation action cards to Thornbury Town Mayor, Alan Jones and Steve Webb MP for World Debt Day.
Credit: Christian Aid/Nigel Quarrell

 

Local MP Steve Webb joined with churchgoers from all seven churches in Thornbury, and others from Alveston and Frampton Cotterell, to mark World Debt Day on 16 May.  They signed “Call for Change” cards produced by the Jubilee Debt Campaign, as part of a
chain of actions continuing the Jubilee 2000 campaign to cancel the unpayable debts of the world’s poorest countries. The Jubilee Debt Campaign is a coalition of agencies such as Christian Aid, Traidcraft and Oxfam all of whom are well supported in South Gloucestershire.

Local Jubilee Debt Campaigners handed the cards to Thornbury Town Mayor, Alan Jones who then presented them to Steve Webb MP.  Mr Webb agreed to deliver them
to Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, asking that the UK cancel its share of the remaining unpayable debt of the 42 poorest countries.

For Thornbury Churches Together, St Mary’s Curate Julian Perkins explained, “Debt Relief works. In the countries that have benefited the most so far, there has been a 70% increase in health spending. Also, primary school fees have been abolished in Uganda, Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania. Recent visitors from Thornbury to our link in Bufumbo, Uganda have seen the improvements there.”

Robin Pencavel, from the local Jubilee Debt Campaign group added, “We believe that, as a matter of justice and an essential step towards meeting the UN's 2015 Millennium development goals, all unpayable poor country debt should be written off as a matter of urgency.”