Gold Star is managed by WCVA on behalf of the Wales MDGs Task Force and BUILD, and funded by the Welsh Assembly Government 'Wales for Africa' scheme.
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First Minister Launches Gold Star Communities Project
19 Oct 2007Media Release
Gold Star Communities Project Launch, 16 October 2007
National Assembly Senedd Chamber, Cardiff Bay
Welsh communities 'going for gold' on World Poverty Day
The eve of World Poverty Day on 17 October sees the launch of a groundbreaking project placing Wales at the forefront of a global pilot programme building community development and twinning links with Sub-Saharan Africa.
Hosted by First Minister Rhodri Morgan, the event will highlight the contribution being made by people in Brecon, Brynycwm, Crymych, Hay-on-Wye and Pontypridd, the five towns successfully selected to pilot the linking scheme with their African partners, who will be joined at the Senedd by representatives from across Wales looking to join the new Gold Star network to develop links with Africa.
Together they will contribute to creation of a ‘Gold Star’ framework of standards and good practise in linking, aligned to the UN’s Millennium Development Goals on poverty reduction. The Wales pilot is being developed with the support of the UN, to produce a model for recognising and spreading quality community partnerships that address issues such as fair and just trade, climate change and the environment, children’s rights and social inclusion.
Funded by the Welsh Assembly Government’s Wales for Africa Framework and managed by Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA) on behalf of the Wales Civil Society Millennium Development Goals Task Force – which includes organisations such as Oxfam Cymru and the TUC – the Gold Star project is expected to reflect considerable benefits to Welsh communities as well as to Africa.
Gold Star Project Manager Craig Owen said: ‘This is about making real the seemingly distant challenge of global development by enabling communities in Wales and sub-Saharan Africa to connect, to share ideas and beliefs, tackle stereotypes and solve mutual challenges.’
Dr. Geoff Lloyd, Chair of PONT, the Pontypridd – Mbale (Uganda) Link, said: ‘The Link has been a life-changing experience for over 120 people from different walks of life – doctors, teachers, engineers, churches, business people - who have been involved in exchanges with Uganda, providing opportunities for professional development, skills exchanges and education here in Rhondda Cynon Taff.
‘It has also allowed us to see a direct impact on poverty through training health workers, providing malaria nets and setting up a Coalition Against Poverty in both communities - making a real difference to the the lives of people and friends who we see as equals. We have as much to learn from them, as they do from us.’
Peter Davies, Co-ordinator of the Millennium Development Goals Task Force, said Wales’s long relationship with developing countries made it the obvious starting point for such an initiative. ‘This will be recognition for years of hard work on the part of extremely committed and dedicated communities,’ he added.
First Minister, Rhodri Morgan said the people of Wales were renowned for their "internationalist outlook and their desire to help those elsewhere in the world less fortunate than us living in Wales".
He added: ‘Devolution has strengthened that interest in the great big world outside Wales. I am pleased to say that this groundbreaking project is testament to that interest in the rest of the world. All over Wales, thousands of people are active in their own way to support international development. Through the ‘Wales for Africa’ framework, the Welsh Assembly Government is giving those people in Wales with an interest in poor continents a real chance to get involved and to have the right professional back-up.
‘More than a billion people in the world live in on less than $1 a day, and in a world of growing wealth, such levels of human suffering and wasted potential are unacceptable. In linking Welsh and African communities in this way and helping to develop education and poverty reduction schemes we are bringing the global community closer and closer together. It also helps us realise that getting rid of poverty will make for a better world for everybody.
‘This wonderful programme will help to make sure there’s a welcome in hillside in both the Welsh valleys and Africa’s Great Rift Valley.’
The launch will also feature music from Cardiff based group ‘Love Africa’ and speeches from the First Minister, WCVA Chief Executive Graham Benfield, OBE, Gold Star Project Manager Craig Owen and Director ABESU, the Wales – Zambia Link, Mutale Nyoni.
The Gold Star project has been endorsed by South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. ‘The work you’re doing in communities in Wales and Africa on the Millennium Development Goals is marvellous,’ he said. ‘Keep your passion going, and you will change the world!’
For more information please contact Lynne Reynolds or Craig Owen on 029 2043 1700 / 07841 603664
Notes to editors:
· WCVA is the voice of the voluntary sector in Wales, with more than 1,800 members including a wide range of organisations working on issues such as housing, economic regeneration, childcare, community development, transport, the environment and health.
· The Gold Star Project is a pilot between the Wales Civil Society MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) Task Force (membership below) and BUILD UK (Building Understanding through International Links in Development), funded by the Assembly Government’s Wales for Africa framework, managed by and delivered through WCVA (Wales Council for Voluntary Action).
· MDGs Task Force active participants include the British Council, ContinYou, Dolen Cymru Wales – Lesotho Link, Network of Development Researchers, Oxfam Cymru, Save The Children Wales, TUC Wales, Wales Somaliland Link, Wales Association of County Voluntary Councils, the Welsh Centre for International Affairs and Welsh Refugee Council.
· Pilot communities for the Gold Star Project are: Brecon – Molo (Kenya), Brynycwm (Abergavenny area) – Yirgacheffe (Ethiopia), Crymych (Pembrokeshire) – Hlotse (Lesotho), Hay on Wye – Timbuktu (Mali), Pontypridd – Mbale (Uganda).
· Associate Projects include: Blaenau Gwent – Endonisidai (Kenya), Cardiff and Vale Health Link – N’djamena (Chad), Conwy – Mafia Island (Tanzania), Powys MDGs Network, Somaliland – Wales Link, St David’s – Mafeteng (Lesotho), Swansea - Paynesville (Liberia), Swansea – Swaziland, Torfaen / Newport – Masvingo (Zimbabwe), Ynys Mon – Matsieng (Lesotho).
· The Gold Star Project will be launching online from Wednesday, 17 October at www.goldstarcommunities.org.uk. For further information contact Project Manager Craig Owen at WCVA on 029 2043 1700 or email cowen@wcva.org.uk.
