population-we™: I Heart Celebrity Causes Highlights Hugh Jackman's Global Poverty Project

As a society we like our celebrities and tend to support the causes they endorse with this status. Our celebrities are those that entertain and inspire us such as those that act in the movies, on television and the stage, our favorite musicians, athletes from our favorite teams or provide national pride representing at the Olympics, the authors of our favorite literary works and those that provide contributions in the world of art. Each month in this new population-we™ (pop-we) series, I Heart Celebrity Causes, a celebrity will be chosen and the cause that they promote will be looked at.

I Heart Celebrity Causes!

This month in the fifth installment of I Heart Celebrity Causes the focus is on Hugh Jackman and Global Poverty Project. Jackman is an award winning actor whose talents span a wide range of roles from Wolverine in X-Men to his Golden Globe winning performance as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables. He also took his talents to Broadway where he won a Tony Award for the role of Peter Allen in The Boy from Oz.

The Global Poverty Project was founded by Hugh Evans and Simon Moss in 2008 with the goal to promote the movement of ending extreme poverty within a generation. They set 2030 as the target date. Their three primary campaigns to advance that message are 1.4 Billion Reasons, The End of Polio and Live Below the Line. Jackman first become involved with the Global Poverty Project in 2009 and became the public face for Live Below the Line in 2011.

Live Below the Line is a campaign that challenges people to live for five days on the extreme poverty line which is $1.25 per day. The purpose of the campaign is to change the way people think about poverty. The participants often advance the message by posting articles, blogs and videos about their experience during the challenge. To date, more than 50,000 people in 70 countries have participated and sparked conversations on extreme poverty. As a result, $10 million U.S. dollars have been raised for 90 charities around the world. More information about the Live Below the Line campaign can be found on their site.

The End of Polio is a campaign to work with partners to make the final push through funding and political actions to eradicate this disease forever. This campaign is a proud partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. The Global Poverty Project supports the efforts through high level advocacy, public communications, grassroots advocacy and media engagement. Activities have included The End of Polio Concert, India vs Australia Cricket Series, Speaking Tours and the film production of several short films of which one featured Hugh Jackman. More information on The End of Polio campaign can be found on their site.

The 1.4 Billion Reasons campaign started in 2009 as a multimedia presentation that explains the issues that contribute to extreme poverty. The presentations were customized to 45 to 90 minute versions as they are presented in schools, universities, workplaces, faith groups, community groups and at conferences. The five main points addressed in each presentation were: what is extreme poverty?, Can we do anything about it?, What are the barriers to ending extreme poverty? Why should we care?, What can I do? This campaign was retired in 2014.

Most importantly, Bravo to pop-we I Heart Celebrity Causes--Hugh Jackman--for his Global Poverty Project!

-population-we™ blog post by John Bohan

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