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The Elton John AIDS Foundation is an international non-profit organization funding prevention education programs and direct patient care services worldwide. The charity was established in 1992 by Elton John, who serves as its Chairman. In 1993, the North American-based Elton John AIDS Foundation established a collaborative effort with the National AIDS Fund, a Washington, DC based organization with Community Partnerships all across the United States. This collaboration was established in order to facilitate nationwide distribution of grants to communities and populations most impacted by HIV/AIDS. These grants are issues as a challenge to the National AIDS Fund's local Community Partnerships, which use the grants to leverage an additional 2 dollars of local money for every dollar provided by the Elton John AIDS Foundation - significantly increasing the impact of the Foundation's investment. Today, this represent 60% of the Foundation's grant-making. The new affiliation between the National AIDS Fund and the University of California San Francisco - AIDS Research Institute will raise the visibilty and reach of the Elton John AIDS Foundation both domestically and internationally. Funding from the Elton John AIDS Foundation encompasses a broad spectrum of services supporting men, women, young adults, children, infants, minorities and entire families living with or at risk for HIV/AIDS. Grants support programs and services ranging from education outreach programs, harm reduction models, early testing and treatment advocacy, legal aid, buddy programs, food banks, meal delivery programs, hospice care and adoption services for children orphaned and/or living with HIV. Meryl's kisses were part of an online e-card promotion to raise awareness -- and make a difference.
AIDS Project Los Angeles
3550 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 300
Los Angeles, CA 90010
www.apla.org
Proceeds help fund services that AIDS Project Los Angeles provides to men, women and children living with HIV and AIDS. For more information on the Agency, visit their website by following this link, or call 213.201.1600.
The Academy of American Poets
www.poets.org
On April 6, 2004, in New York City, Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Diane Sawyer, Wynton Marsalis, Mary-Louise Parker, Tony Kushner, Vanessa Redgrave, Louis Menand, Cynthia Rowley, and Ted Kennedy read their favorite poems by some of America's best-loved poets on Tuesday, April 6, 2004, at 6:30 p.m. as part of Poetry & The Creative Mind, the second annual benefit for the Academy of American Poets. Poetry & The Creative Mind was held at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City. Meryl Streep served as Honorary Benefit Chair, along with Co-Chairs Rose Styron, activist and Academy Board member, and Jorie Graham, former Academy Chancellor and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet. "These readings are testimony to the pure power of poetry," said the Academy's Executive Director, Tree Swenson. "We are delighted that people who are so well-known in other fields are so eager to acknowledge and celebrate the influence that poetry has had on their own careers as well as in their private lives." Poetry & The Creative Mind also kicks off the ninth annual National Poetry Month (April), which was established by the Academy in 1996 and is now the largest literary celebration in the world. Among the readers at the Academy's first benefit in April 2003 were Meryl Streep, Jessye Norman, Mark Morris, Natalie Portman, Kitty Carlisle Hart, William Styron, Laurie Anderson, Frank McCourt, Caroline Kennedy, Zadie Smith, and the late George Plimpton. The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit organization founded in 1934 to foster appreciation for contemporary poetry and to support American poets at all stages of their careers. For more information on the Academy and its programs, visit their website.
AMERICANS FOR THE ARTS
One East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
T: 212.223.2787
F: 212.980.4857
www.artsusa.org
""Like the air we breathe, the cultural winds in America blow across state lines and county boundaries. It's vitally important that all Americans have access to a common language in art and music; it helps mend the broken social contract and brings us together in appreciation of the best that human beings can do." —Meryl Streep
The Arts and Children: A Success Story: Video and Tool Kit: An arts education advocacy video featuring actress Meryl Streep. This video is the perfect advocacy tool for arts groups and others who want to demonstrate how the arts help students succeed in school, work and life. Introduced by actress Meryl Streep, this video captures both the intrinsic value of studying the arts and their role in building the skills and commitment for mastering other school subjects. The video is accompanied by a working tool kit that includes reproducible handouts summarizing research, national policies and legislation, tips on how to use the video in a public awareness campaign, and the Eloquent Evidence brochure. "Young people who learn the arts do better in every phase of their lives," says Meryl Streep, who hosts this 12-minute piece created for the Goals 2000 Arts Education Partnership. The Partnership is a national coalition of business, education, arts and government groups committed to maintaining and enhancing arts education in the nation's schools. 12 min, VHS (1996) $19.95; Order No.: 100036
Arts for ACT
(Abuse Counseling and Treatment, Inc.)
www.actabuse.com
On August 23, 2003, Meryl Streep served as auctioneer to help sell artwork to benefit survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. She took the stage before a crowd of about 1,500 at Harborside Event Center Saturday for the black-tie benefit for Arts for ACT, the annual auction for Abuse Counseling and Treatment. "I don't want you stand up. I want you to raise your hands all night long," Meryl said, urging the audience to bid on the 76 pieces featured in the voice auction. Among the artists in that category was her husband, sculptor Don Gummer, whose work is sold through Eckert Fine Art-Naples. "I'm going to try and do two things: sell a lot of art and try not to embarrass him," she said. Some of the first winning bids were more modest - $200 and $300 - but auctioneer Scott Robertson quickened the pace, leading bidders through a rapid-fire succession of numbers. At one point, Streep offered to shake the winning bidder's hand if the sales price on a piece was at least $500. On the laser print "Jarros," Streep sweetened the pot. "Maybe a kiss. Maybe a French kiss," she told the crowd. The bids jumped until the gavel finally fell at $3,500. Streep was good on her word, delivering an appreciative kiss to the buyer. By the time the auction was over, the group raised $296,795. Including the sale of tickets and silent auction works, the fundraiser exceeded its $400,000 mark, said ACT's executive director Jennifer Benton.
Big Sisters L.A.
www.bigsistersla.org
At the One True Thing premiere party, before the screening at Cineplex Odeon Century City, among the 1,000 guests gaining a new appreciation of mom (and raising over $120,000 for Big Sisters of Los Angeles) were director Carl Franklin and his stars Meryl Streep and Renee Zellweger. For more information on how you can help Big Sisters L.A., please visit their website.
The Hartford Food System
191 Franklin Avenue
Hartford, CT 06114
(860) 296-9325
www.hartfordfood.org
Established in 1978, the Hartford Food System (HFS) is a private, non-profit organization working to create an equitable and sustainable food system that addresses the underlying causes of hunger and poor nutrition facing lower-income and elderly Connecticut residents. HFS has developed dozens of projects, initiatives, and coalitions that tackle a wide range of food cost, access, and nutrition problems. In more recent years, the organization has extended its reach to develop food projects and to provide training and technical assistance throughout Connecticut as well as to communities across the country. This work includes active participation in a number of public policy initiatives at the local, state, and federal government levels that affect community-based food systems. HFS relies on a collaborative approach, engaging the talents of farmers, government policy makers, local non-profit organizations, local communities, chefs, educators, and the commercial food sector. HFS directs its efforts at four major food system components: production, distribution, education and training, and public policy.
Children's Health Environmental Coalition
{ CHEC }
www.checnet.org
"I am really proud of the achievements of Children's Health Environmental Coalition (CHEC)," says Meryl Streep. "And of Mothers and Others, which is the organization I formed, with my friends in Connecticut 20 years ago, in response to the National Resources Defense Council report on pesticides on fruits and vegetables and their effects on children." Founded by Nancy and Jim Chuda, CHEC's mission is to educate parents about the preventable health problems that can be caused by exposure to toxins in our environment. Olivia Newton John, who has been the CHEC spokesperson for a decade, recently named Kelly Preston her successor. At the CHEC fundraiser in Los Angeles, Streep, Nell Newman, and biochemist Lawrie Mott were all honored for their work in environmental health. The star-studded guest list included Preston and husband John Travolta, Tracey Ullman, and Christian Slater. Olivia Newton John, Melissa Etheridge, and Sheryl Crow serenaded the event that raised nearly half a million dollars toward helping CHEC increase awareness about environmental toxins.
Streep has a wealth of experience with exactly this issue. In 1989 the actress inspired American moms to demand that the chemical Alar be withdrawn from use on foods like apples. "Before the Alar drama of 1989," says Streep, "I would say that most mainstream moms had no idea that a healthy diet of fruits and vegetables might contain certain substances that could cross the placenta and have an effect on their unborn children; or that once the child was born that toxins would enter their bodies through their breast milk; or that, once weaned, those little bodies taking in gallons of apple juice and mashed bananas and everything else might contain substances that might prove problematic later on in their lives."
"The thing that I came away with from the Alar controversy was that I realized I am not an activist," adds Streep, who later learned that the science behind the anti-Alar initiative was controversial. "I can play one, but the lawsuits that followed me, the irate growers, the people who broke into my home — I was really very intimidated by all that. I'm really more like Julia Roberts than Erin Brockovich." As irony would have it, Streep could not deny her advocacy role. "But I realized I really am an activist," says Streep. "We are all activists every day that we make a purchase. We vote daily with our credit cards; we demonstrate with our dollars. Americans, mostly women, demonstrated that they cared what is on our food. We made the connection between what is on our food and our children's health long before Congress enacted new regulations to protect our kids from pesticide residues."
"When you become a parent, you start to notice what they're eating, what they're breathing, and children are like canaries in the mine," says Meryl Streep. "CHEC is a place where parents can find out information about toxins that might be invisible to them in their environment."
Related article: Meryl Streep takes lead in environmental health, USA Today 10/18/2002
Center for Health and the Global Environment
at Harvard Medical School
visit their website
For more information, e-mail Kathleen Frith
or call 617-384-8591
Actresses Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver hosted a benefit in New York City aimed at bringing attention to the ways in which today’s globally changing environment affects human health. The fundraiser—a gourmet dinner held at Blue Hill, the acclaimed New York restaurant—was to provide support for the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School. The meal featured organically-grown vegetables, seafood from sustainable sources, responsibly-raised livestock, organic wine, and organic, free-trade coffee. "I am delighted to bring attention to the work of the Center," says Meryl Streep. "Our health depends on a healthy environment, and I believe that people will preserve the health of the natural world once they realize how directly it affects them."
The Center for Health and the Global Environment was created to educate policy makers, future medical practitioners, and the general public on the connection between human health and the health of the natural environment. It is the first center of its kind at a medical school. The Center’s many programs include an annual, two day intensive course on the environment and human health for the U.S. Congress, regular congressional briefings, a major research study on how (and to what extent) global climate change will lead to human injury, illness, and death in coming years, the creation of an exhibit, intended for aquariums, illustrating the link between human health and the marine environment, a major study on biodiversity’s importance to human health (under the auspices of the World Health Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme), and a Harvard Medical School course called "Human Health and Global Environmental Change", which is also available, free of charge, on the internet.
"It’s wonderful to involve such celebrated actors as Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver in our mission," says Dr. Eric Chivian, Director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment and co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 for his work with Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (pictured above, with Meryl). "Not only do they bring a great deal of attention to our cause, but they are both dedicated environmentalists and informed messengers of today’s environmental threats and solutions."
Related article: Grist Magazine Article on the event
Christopher Reeve Foundation
636 Morris Turnpike Suite 3A
Short Hills, NJ 07078
(800) 225-0292
www.christopherreeve.org
Christopher Reeve: A Celebration of Hope originally aired February 1, 1998 on ABC. Circle of Friends was part of the American Paralysis Association (APA), a non-profit organization founded in 1982 to encourage and support research to find a cure for paralysis caused by spinal cord injury and other central nervous system disorders.
New York, NY – November 18, 2005 – Christopher Reeve Foundation Chairman Dana Reeve presented Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas with the Christopher Reeve Spirit of Courage Award at A Magical Evening presented by the Christopher Reeve Foundation. Special guests and supporters of the Christopher Reeve Foundation who attended the event last night at the Marriott Marquis in New York City included host Uma Thurman, Paul Newman, Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Robin Williams, Diane Sawyer, Mike Nichols, Joan Collins, Star Jones Reynolds, Miss USA Chelsea Cooley and Cody Unser.
Dance on a Moonbeam
features Meryl Streep, Dawn Upshaw, Frederica von Stade
Entire Proceeds to Children's Charities
www.danceonamoonbeam.org
Bill Crofut, the charismatic musician whose career spanned a half century, encompassing folk, jazz and classical music in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the White House and Tanglewood, made his last recording from his bed just days before succumbing to cancer in January 1999. Crofut's vision was to create a recording of his best children's music to benefit children's causes.
This enchanting collection of traditional songs is interspersed with snippets of Shakespeare passages read by the inimitable Meryl Streep. The recording features an all-star cast of Bill Crofut's recording partners including singers Dawn Upshaw, Julianne Baird, Ben Luxon and Frederica von Stade, as well as the London Symphony Orchestra, Chorus Angelicus, and instrumentalist, Chris Brubeck. The CD is available ($15.95, call 1-800-833-8668) online at http://www.danceonamoonbeam.org. The CD booklet includes comments by Streep and fanciful illustrations by Crofut's daughter, Erika.
"As I spent those few magical hours with Bill in his living room, recording the sounds of Shakespeare, I felt especially honored to be able to participate in this last project of his." -Meryl Streep
Equality Now
www.equalitynow.org
"It is a fantastic group. They work in Afghanistan, Kuwait, Ethiopia. There's a lot of emphasis on things like getting women the right to vote -- it is incredible to me that women are still denied that right in so many countries -- and there's a huge movement to put a stop to female genital mutilation. People can get more information by going to www.equalitynow.org." -meryl streep
Equality Now, an international human rights organization with offices in New York, Nairobi and London, works to protect and promote the human rights of girls and women. Equality Now’s Women’s Action Network counts more than 25,000 groups and individual members in over 160 countries. Equality Now was founded in 1992 to work for the protection and promotion of the human rights of women around the world. Working with national human rights organizations and individual activists, Equality Now documents violence and discrimination against women and adds an international action overlay to support their efforts to advance equality rights and defend individual women who are suffering abuse. Through its Women’s Action Network, Equality Now distributes information about these human rights violations to concerned groups and individuals around the world, along with recommended actions for publicizing and protesting them. The Women’s Action Network is committed to voicing a worldwide call for justice and equality for women. Issues of urgent concern to Equality Now include rape, domestic violence, reproductive rights, trafficking of women, female genital mutilation, and equal access to economic opportunity and political participation.
In December 2004, Equality Now launched a public service announcement (PSA) spot featuring actors Meryl Streep, Sarah Jones and Marisa Tomei, with music by singer/song writer Alanis Morissette. Produced for Equality Now by Lifetime Television, this PSA highlights rape, domestic violence, sex trafficking and female genital mutilation as urgent human rights abuses that must be stopped. The PSA calls on the public to join the work of Equality Now and take action to end violations of women’s rights. Scheduled to premiere on Lifetime Television at the end of December 2004, the PSA also aired on other cable stations throughout 2005.
Global Releaf
www.americanforests.org
Founded in 1875, American Forests is the oldest national nonprofit citizen conservation organization. American Forests is a world leader in planting trees for environmental restoration, a pioneer in the science and practice of urban forestry, and a primary communicator of the benefits of trees and forests. American Forests is on the World Wide Web at www.americanforests.org. Meryl narrated public service announcements for Global Releaf encouraging television viewers to plant trees with AMERICAN FORESTS by visiting www.americanforests.org or by calling the organization’s tree-planting hotline, 1-800-545-TREE. AMERICAN FORESTS’ tree-planting projects help restore a wide range of ecosystems including many that have been scorched by wildfire in recent years. The USDA Forest Service, a partner in the campaign, is currently matching every tree planted for wildfire restoration.
"I support the tree-planting efforts of AMERICAN FORESTS’ Global ReLeaf campaign. The millions of trees being planted this year through Global ReLeaf's ecosystem restoration projects will help clean the water we drink, remove pollutants from the air, and provide habitat for an array of species from salmon to salamanders, bears to bald eagles for generations to come. I encourage everyone to join AMERICAN FORESTS’ Global ReLeaf campaign and plant trees to improve the environment." -Meryl Streep
Hole-in-the-Wall Gang
The Barretstown Gang Camp
In 1988, Paul Newman founded the Hole in the Wall Gang in Connecticut, which every year serves 800 seriously ill children. The camp has been both widely acclaimed and oversubscribed, prompting Newman and others to launch the new programme in Europe. Therapeutic drama is featured in their Creative Expression programme, challenging the children to move beyond their perceived limits and find creative new ways of self-expression. In the Centre they become involved in acting, clowning, puppeteering, singing, dancing, and video, as well as make-up and costume or set design. Each group produces a show here on their final night, and special friends, like actors Meryl Streep, Peter O'Toole and Kenneth Branagh have performed with the children at the annual Benefit Gala- Barretstown's Fantasia. For more information about their programs and to see how you can help, visit their website!
Related Link:
www.barretstowngc.ie
42nd & Vine . . . Hollywood Hits Broadway
Benefit for the Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health
Stars from Broadway and Hollywood will take part in a one-night-only event to raise money to create the Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health at New York Presbyterian Hospital, which is estimated to cost $9 million. The evening - organized by the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) and Katie Couric, wife of the late Jay Monahan - is entitled "42nd & Vine . . . Hollywood Hits Broadway" and will be held at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Tuesday, November 12, 2002. The many performers will offer selections from Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's award-winning West Side Story, including Kelsey Grammer of "Frasier" fame who will offer "Something's Coming"; Bette Midler, Rita Moreno and Chita Rivera will belt out "America"; Amy Grant and Vince Gill will duet on "One Hand, One Heart"; and Rebecca Luker will lend her acclaimed soprano to "Tonight." Others taking part in the event include Robin Williams, Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon, (pictured at right) Kevin Kline, Tony Danza and many others. In a statement, Katie Couric said, "It's rare that I'm speechless, but that's how I feel about the incredible array of stars - from film, television, Broadway and the music industry -- who will perform to benefit the Monahan Center. I can't begin to express how grateful and touched I am by the entertainment industry's generosity - both the Foundation's help and the personal commitment of each and every person who will participate in Hollywood Hits Broadway. November 12th is really going to be an amazing night. Knowing that all the proceeds will go to a great cause will make it even more so." The "Today Show" co-host also spoke about her late husband - who died of colon cancer in 1998 - and the Center that will be named in his honor: "EIF has been an extraordinary partner in the work I've been doing to raise awareness and research dollars for the fight against colon cancer since losing my husband Jay to the disease in 1998. I am thrilled to have EIF's support as we establish the Monahan Center here in New York City. I know from personal experience what an enormous help the Center will be to families dealing with the devastating diagnoses of a variety of gastrointestinal cancers." The Jay Monahan Center - scheduled to open in early 2004 - will be located in the Stich building on the New York Weill Cornell campus of the New York Presbyterian Hospital.
Related Link:
EIF Special Events Website
It All Starts With Newspapers
www.naa.org
Meryl joined this campaign featuring celebrities talking about why newspaper reading and literacy, particularly among children, are important to them personally. Download the clip by clicking play on the screen at right. (598 kb)
"Acting requires a lot of preparation. You've got to understand the person that you're playing, and to do that, you've got to understand yourself and the world around you. And the best way to learn that is by reading. I'm Meryl Streep. And whether you want to be an actor, or an athlete or an architect, reading is vital. Especially newspapers. Newspapers let you know what's happening like nothing else can, and reading will help you become a star, in the most important role of all: life." -Meryl Streep
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Visit their website
Meryl is an Honorary Committee Member of The Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, which supports the development and presentation of the most promising new works by playwrights and regional non-profit theaters nationwide.
The Charlie Foundation
1223 Wilshire Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(800) 367-5386
More information about the Ketogenic Diet and the film ". . . First Do No Harm" may be found here at MSO by following this link.
Mothers & Others
(co-Founder)
First organized in 1989 by Meryl Streep and her Connecticut neighbors as a project of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Mothers & Others was born out of the concern that children were being exposed to unsafe pesticide levels in the food supply and that individuals had a right and a role to play in securing safer, ecologically sustainable food sources. Together, they brought essential public attention to this important food safety issue, stimulating the passage in 1996 of the Food Quality Protection Act to protect children from unsafe pesticide levels in food. Their efforts on behalf of children's environmental health, more broadly, also stimulated the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to announce in 1997 its National Agenda to Protect Children from Environmental Threats. Most important, Mothers and Others leads the effort to open supermarket shelves to foods and other products that are safe and sustainably produced, demonstrating the effective power of focused consumer demand.
National Endowment for the Arts
http://arts.endow.gov/
SAVE THE MUSIC CONCERT
The "Save the Music" concert (October 23, 1999) was sponsored by the VH1 cable music channel and the National Endowment for the Arts to spark interest in raising money to buy instruments and sponsor music education in public schools. This concert brought stars of rock, soul, blues and country music to a giant tent on the White House lawn to support the cause of bringing music back to cash-starved chools around the country. The concert was a testimonial to the power of music to transform young lives. The more than two-hour concert, a reprise of popular hits as the 20th century ends, was performed by a roster of the stars of American music. They included: Eric Clapton, Lenny Kravitz, Sheryl Crow, B.B. King, Garth Brooks, Gloria Estefan, John Fogerty, Al Green, and John Mellencamp. The stars who did the introducing involved another roster of stars: Meryl Streep, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey, Keri Russell, Angela Bassett, Sarah Jessica Parker, Calista Flockhart and Robert Deniro.
NetAid.org
www.NetAid.org
NetAid.org uses the Internet to empower people to take action on extreme poverty around the world. Visit their website at www.NetAid.org to learn more. The following excerpt is from Meryl's RealAudio segment on the Bolivia Hunger Zone: "Hello, I'm Meryl Streep. When we think of hunger, we recall images of those suffering from famine or starvation. But hunger takes many forms. In Bolivia, two-thirds of the people suffer from chronic malnutrition . . . Since the mid-1970's, the world has produced enough food to provide everyone with an adequate diet, yet more than 800 million people are chronically undernourished. Poverty is the main cause of hunger. In rural areas of Bolivia, poverty is nearly 90 percent . . . Victor Estrada is one person who is making a difference -- a farmer, his sense of community and tradition inspired him to remain in rural Bolivia and assist his neighbors in increasing their crop production and their standard of living. Chronic malnutrition is the contemporary definition of hunger. A staggering one-fifth of the world's population suffers from this condition. Go to the NetAid website: www.NetAid.org to find out what Victor Estrada is doing to feed his community, and what each of us can do to end hunger."
The Pediatric AIDS Foundation
2407 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 613
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(213) 395-9501
Meryl performs Gartan Mother's Lullaby on "For Our Children." All proceeds from this collection of traditional and original children's songs benefit the Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
Reading is Fundamental
www.rif.org
Learn more about the national, non-profit organization devoted to children's literacy. Meryl was featured in their Celebrity Storyteller Series advertisments, People Magazine, December 1997.
Scenic Hudson
scenichudson.org
Meryl Streep has spoken at several Scenic Hudson gatherings on the need to stop the proposed construction of the St. Lawrence Cement plant, mine and riverfront transport facility in the City of Hudson and Town of Greenport in Columbia County, New York. The Hudson Valley Preservation Coalition (HVPC) is waging a campaign opposing the construction of the St. Lawrence Cement (SLC) plant and are collaborating with Friends of Hudson and The Olana Partnership in their opposition. The Hudson Valley was named a National Heritage Area and the Hudson River itself an American Heritage River, a recognition of the definitive role this region plays in our nation's cultural, political, economic and artistic history. More recently, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named the Hudson Valley one of the most endangered historic places in America due to sprawl and inappropriate industrial development. Volunteers are needed to give our beautiful shoreline along the Hudson River a spring cleaning. Beginning Saturday and continuing through April 24, Scenic Hudson in Poughkeepsie is organizing the annual "river sweep.'' To coordinate a cleanup in your community or to join one already organized, visit www.GreatRiverSweep.org. Jay Burgess, director, has enlisted support from award-winning actress Meryl Streep and Nobel laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison. "Scenic Hudson's greatest strength is uniting people in protecting and enjoying the magnificent river that flows through our lives,'' said Streep in a press release. "The Great River Sweep represents humanity at its noblest,'' said Morrison. For information, call 473-4440.
Stolen Childhoods
www.stolenchildhoods.org
www.iabolish.com
Documentary Narrated by Meryl Streep
Stolen Childhoods is told primarily in the words of laboring children, who live on four different continents across the globe, but who share a common fate. It also hears the voices of their parents, people working daily to help them, policy makers and government officials. Children are shown working in dumps, quarries, brick kilns, making charcoal, on fishing platforms, picking tobacco, coffee or vegetables, working in sweatshops, as domestics, making rugs, and selling their bodies on the street. The film places these children’s stories in the broader context of the worldwide struggle against child labor. Stolen Childhoods provides an understanding of the causes of child labor, what it costs the global community, how it contributes to global insecurity and what it will take to eliminate it. Shot in 7 countries; Brazil, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal and the United States, the film includes slave and bonded labor footage never seen before. It has framing interviews with US Senator Tom Harkin (the leading legislative advocate for global action to eliminate child labor) and includes human rights advocates for children; Bruce Harris, Pharis Harvey, Inderjit Khurana, Wangari Mathai and Kailash Satyarthi. The film shows best practice programs that remove children from work and put them in school. The programs range from efforts to save migrant children from toxic exposure to pesticides, to Bolsa Escola, a model Brazilian educational subsidy, now in place in seven other countries, that reimburses families for wages lost when children go to school. In the words of the children, we see the effects of public policy, poverty, prejudice and multinational profit on the lives of our most helpless and exploited global work force. The film chronicles both stolen childhoods and the lucky former child laborers who can teach us how to create a more equitable world.