On the opening day of the G8 Summit, Chancellor Gordon Brown told Elinata Kasanga, a subsistence farmer in Zambia, that governments must take action ‘at Gleneagles and beyond’ to end the scourge of poverty.
Speaking with Elinata, a mother of six, live by a video link organised by Tearfund and provided by Cellhire, the Chancellor said “you and your family is one of the reasons why we must take action.”
Elinata had just told the Chancellor that her two eldest children could not go to secondary school and that her family was denied adequate healthcare because the costs were prohibitive.
However, Elinata, who last spoke to the Chancellor via satellite six years ago on the eve of the G8 Summit in Cologne, said there had been some improvements since their last conversation. She told the Chancellor she was pleased that her youngest children could now attend primary school because fees had been dropped due to Zambia’s debt cancellation. But, she added, without secondary education, the children would struggle to get the jobs they wanted.
