Bono to check up on progress in Africa

[BlackWolf]

Bono will jet out to Africa next week to compile a report on the progress the continent has - or hasn't - made, close to a year after the Make Povery History campaign successfully influenced world leaders to cancel third world debt.

The high-profile activist, who appeared with Bob Geldof at Live 8 in London on July 8th, will visit countries including Lesotho, Rwanda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Mali and Ghana, to discover if the funds put aside to raise living conditions had reached the people most affected.

"We're going to look at foreign assistance working on the ground in Africa and see what is working and what is not," Jamie Drummond, director of Bono's charity agency Debt Aids Trade Africa (DATA) told press "Effective aid backing good African leadership can get results, so let's do more of it. Why would you not do more of it?

"The timing of this is extremely important, not just because you can see all the results on the ground, but because at this very moment top policymakers in all of the G8 countries are looking at whether they can afford to keep their promises - whether in Germany, Canada, Italy, or France, and above all in the US Congress."


By: News Desk

[solo1]

He's the guest editor for the London Independent next Tuesday. Here's hoping he doesn't screw it up too much.

[Jeff]

nah... can you post anything from that...especially anything he has a direct influence on.

[BlackWolf]

A little update for you:

ARUSHA, Tanzania - Bono said Saturday that Africa must keep working to stop malaria, which kills more than 1 million people a year — many of them young children on the continent.
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"In the 21st century, we have Africans using modern technology to find its own solutions to deadly malaria," the U2 frontman said during a visit to A to Z Textile Mills, which makes insecticide-treated bed nets to keep mosquitoes away.

He also urged more wealthy corporations to help "save lives of the poor people."

The 46-year-old Irish rocker, who has long complained that Africa's problems get little attention in the news, is on a 10-day tour of Africa that's already taken him to South Africa, Rwanda and Lesotho. He also planned stops in Nigeria, Mali and Ghana.

Malaria is spread by mosquitoes and causes wracking pain, fever and, if left untreated, death. It is one of the leading communicable diseases in this East African country.