CAMPAIGNERS in Bradford on Avon are working hard to support the Make Poverty History campaign and are planning a Make Poverty History Day on May 7 when there will a packed programme of events in Westbury Gardens and Town Trail with interactive displays

On the same weekend Bradford's first Health and Wellbeing event is being held so there will be lots in town to do and see.

Before that, however, those that care about world poverty will have another chance to make their voices heard in the general election campaign.

We want world poverty to become a priority for this election. Activists have already won cross-party consensus for Britain to spend 0.7 per cent of its national income on foreign aid. The current figure is a little more than 0.3 per cent.

Campaigners from Wiltshire will be travelling to the G8 in Scotland when rich nations meet to discuss the plight of Africa and climate change. We need action not more promises.

Trade could offer hope but injustice denies it. Unfair trade deprives poor countries of £1.3 billion a day. For every £1 provided in aid to poor countries £13 is paid back in debt repayments. Poverty is writing its own history in Africa, the only continent to get poorer in the last decade.

But change is possible. In the UK sales of Fairtrade products are booming (Bradford on Avon is a Fairtrade town).

In Uganda, debt relief led to 2.2 million people gaining access to water and in Tanzania enabled 31,000 new classrooms to be built. Governments realise that these issues can now influence voting.

The Make Poverty History campaign seeks to build a secure, just and sustainable planet. You as the reader of this letter can make history in 2005, ask your candidates about these issues, wear the white band, visit the website, come to the G8, look at the website www.makepovertyhistory.org

R QUANTRILL

Newtown

Bradford on Avon