wfn.org | KEEP DEBT CANCELLATION FOR IMPOVERISHED COUNTRIES ON THE TABLE

["Jenny Shields" <JShields@afsc.org>]

QUAKER ORGANIZATION LAUNCHES LETTER WRITING CAMPAIGN TO TREASURY
SECRETARY

KEEP 100% DEBT CANCELLATION FOR IMPOVERISHED COUNTRIES ON THE
NEGOTIATING TABLE AT THE UPCOMING G8 SUMMIT

Contact: Janis D. Shields, Director Media and Public Relations
(215)	241-7060 AFTER HOURS: (302) 545-6596

PHILADELPHIA, PA., May 6 - Imagine: clean, drinkable water; primary
education for girls; and access to life saving drugs for millions of
impoverished Africans.

Today, we are closer to debt cancellation for impoverished African
nations than anytime in the past 20 years, but it could slip through our
finger tips if Secretary Snow continues to backtrack on his commitments.

Debt cancellation works! Limited relief from debt payments has resulted
in increased health or education spending in Uganda, Tanzania, Benin,
and Mozambique.

Because the group of eight wealthiest nations (G8) could not agree on
how to finance debt cancellation by the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), they took the debt owed to the IMF off the negotiating table
during the April meetings. And the countries continue to argue over
other aspects of the deal, including the list of eligible countries,
which has shrunk from a possible 62 to just 27 or less.

We are at a political moment when we may finally achieve 100% debt
cancellation for all impoverished nations, but only if sufficient
pressure is applied to the G8, encouraging them to finish the deal they
began in November 2004.

You can help make this vision real. Send a letter to U.S. Treasury
Secretary John W. Snow. Find out how by visiting the American Friends
Service Committee (AFSC) website:  www.afsc.org/africa/new-Africa.
Please join us today.

We need your letter by June 15. Letters will be delivered on June 23 as
part of  AFSC's National Africa Lobby Day during the Bill Sutherland
Institute for Africa Advocates, which explores issues of economic
inequality and associated conflict in Africa. This year's event focuses
through a gender lens, looking specifically at the ways in which women
and girls in Africa are differentially affected. This event is organized
by the American Friends Service Committee's Africa Programs and its
Nationwide Women's Program, 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19012.
For information contact us via e-mail at africa@afsc.org or call (215)
241-7168.

# # #

The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization that
includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice,
peace and humanitarian service. Its work is based on the belief in the
worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome
violence and injustice.