From the circumstances of our birth to the food we eat and education we receive, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) impact upon the most fundamental and intimate aspects of the lives of people in every corner of the globe. In the year 2000, world leaders pledged to achieve these 8 Goals in order to eradicate extreme poverty and its root causes by the year 2015.
As world leaders prepare to gather at the United Nations to review progress on the Goals this September, the MDG Vignettes project sets out to discover how the lives of 10 ordinary people around the world are impacted in profound and powerful ways by the level of progress that their countries have made towards achieving the Goals. The project juxtaposes a series of 2.5 minute vignettes following the lives of men, women and children in Rwanda, Kenya, Egypt, Papua New Guinea, India, the Philippines, Germany, Spain, Canada and the United States. The juxtaposition of these stories powerfully illustrates why the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals is critical to the lives of millions of people across the planet. From Rwanda, where a female Parliamentarian discusses her experience serving her country, to Kenya, where a former political candidate discusses the violence she faced during her campaign, the vignettes show what is really at stake when world leaders deliver on or fail to keep their commitments to MDGs such as women's empowerment. Furthermore, the vignettes capture extraordinary progress on the MDGs in some of the poorest countries and most challenging situations -- making the case that they can be achieved anywhere, if governments simply make the political commitment.
Each participant also addresses why he or she will participate in "Stand Up and Take Action" on September 17-19, 2010 - the annual mobilization where people gather at events across the globe to demand that world leaders keep their promises to achieve the MDGs. This year, Stand Up will take place as world leaders travel to New York for a High-Level Summit to review progress on the Goals. With just five years left until the deadline, the subjects of the film will join with people around the world to make their support for the Goals to loud for governments to ignore.
