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“I would like to share with you some of my personal inspirations; luminaries from the many fields of global development. I have had the privilege to hear them deliver their messages; messages that they have tirelessly campaigned for,
and passionately for most of their lives…. I have had the privilege to be touched by their powers to transform perceptions, to save and improve lives and to captivate the aspirations of others with the utmost humility.... I have also had the privilege to share Fortune Forum’s story with them…”
Renu
Renu with
Sir Bob Geldof, 30th November, 2007
Sir Bob Geldof is an Irish singer, songwriter, actor
and political activist. Geldof,
after reacting to a news report about starving children
in Ethiopia mobilised the
pop world and released a single (‘Do They Know it’s
Christmas’) which became
the UK’s fastest selling record of all time. He
organised LiveAid, a mammoth
musical event staged simultaneously in London, UK and
John F. Kennedy
stadium in Philadelphia, USA and it raised $100 million
for famine relief. In
2004, Tony Blair appointed him for the Commission for
Africa which took a year
long study of Africa’s problem and came to the
conclusion that Africa needed to
change; to improve its governance and combat corruption
so that the rich world
needed to support that change in new ways. That meant
doubling aid, delivering
debt cancellation, and reforming trade rules.
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Renu meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, 19th November,
2007
Gordon Brown is the Prime Minister of the UK. Prior to which
he was the Chancellor of the Exchequer for 10 years, the longest
serving chancellor of the 20th century. Among his achievements
in particular are presiding over "the longest ever period of
growth",
making the Bank of England independent. His moral voice has
galvanized
action on tackling poverty, especially child poverty, addressing
climate
change in Africa and the developing world. His bold plan to
tackle these
issues ahead of the G8 Summit in 2005 in Scotland where he
called
for a doubling of European aid by 2010 and 100% debt relief, as
well as an end to many trade subsidies was an heroic effort.
Renu meeting with Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, 13th
November, 2007
Tony Blair was the Prime Minister of the UK from
1997-2007 and presided
over three election victories, and became the Labour
Party’s longest serving
prime minister. Blair is credited for moving the Labour
Party towards the
centre of British politics, using the term New Labour.
His contribution
towards assisting the Northern Ireland Peace Process by
helping to
negotiate the Good Friday Agreement after 30 years of
conflict is widely
recognised. Tony Blair set up the Africa Commission,
which provided the
intellectual framework for a ‘big push’ on Africa. It
recommended doubling
aid by 2010, from $50bn to $100bn, of which an extra
$25bn for Africa, along
with a deal on debt and agreement on trade and
universal access to
treatment for HIV/AIDS and Malaria.
Renu meeting with Mairaed Corrigan, Nobel Peace Laureate with
Vijay Mehta,
5th October, 2007
Mairaed Corrigan co-founded with Betty Williams an organisation
of the Community of Peace People, in Northern Ireland. She
became a peace
activist after three of her sisters children were killed by a
car driven by an IRA
hitman. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976, along with
Betty Williams,
for their efforts to bring peace between Republican and loyalist
factions.
Corrigan believes the most effective way to end violence was not
violence
but re-education.
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Renu
meeting Dr. Mohammed Yunus, Nobel Peace Laureate, 28th March, 2007
Professor Muhamamd Yunus is internationally recognized for his pioneering
work in poverty alleviation and the empowerment of poor women that has
inspired a global microcredit movement. He founded the Grameen Bank
which today lends out half a billion dollars a year, to the poorest of the poor,
including beggars, while maintaining a repayment rate of 99% of poor women in
all five continents, in poor countries as well as rich. He received the 2006 Nobel
Peace Prize.
Renu
meeting Prof. Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Laureate,
10th February, 2007
In 1976, she introduced the idea of planting trees with
communities. She established the Green Belt Movement (GBM) in
1977, initially to address deforestation. Later the issues of
community empowerment and
environmental conservation were
incorporated. To date, over 30 million
trees have been planted,
primarily by women, across Kenya. In addition,
GBM has been
responsible for bringing the environmental agenda into
mainstream politics. She and the GBM received the 2004 Nobel
Peace Prize.
Renu
meeting The Hon. Al Gore, Nobel Peace Laureate, 8th December, 2006
Former Vice President Al Gore has been the leading
advocate for confronting
the threat of global
warming. His pioneering efforts were outlined in
his best-
selling book Earth in the Balance:
Ecology and the Human Spirit (1992) and
later in ‘An
Inconvenient Truth’, and the subject of the movie of the same
title.
The film received an Oscar for best documentary in 2007.
He is the architect of
Live Earth; 7 concerts are to be
simultaneously staged on all 7 continents on
07/07/07 to raise international awareness.
Renu meeting Cherie Booth QC, 6th December, 2006
Cherie Booth QC is a barrister and the wife of the British Prime
Minister
Tony
Blair. Cherie actively endorses many charitable organisations and in
doing
so
has championed women's rights, children, medical, legal, arts &
culture, religious and
racial equality issues amongst others. Cherie Booth is an
internationally renowned human rights campaigner
and is Patron of Rights and Humanity. She is
pictured here with the President
of Rights and Humanity, Julia Häusermann at 10 Downing Street .
Renu meeting Professor Jeffrey Sachs, 13th
November, 2006
Professor
Jeffrey D. Sachs is the Director of The Earth Institute, Director of
the
UN Millennium Project and Special Advisor to United Nations
Secretary-General
on the Millennium Development Goals. He advises
governments around the
world on economic reform and works with
international agencies to promote
poverty reduction, disease control
and debt reduction. He is author of hundreds
of scholarly articles
and many books. He is pictured here at Columbia
University.
Renu visits the Geneva headquarters of the
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement on 1st June,
2007
 
"Visiting The Red Cross Museum was, for me, itself an historic humanitarian experience; an experience that encapsulated many of history's misfortunes. It narrated how, in order to surmount some of the very cruellest of challenges, a truly great organisation was born. The power of this experience was held in the sequence of Nation upon Nation joining this movement to follow man's common ideals whilst transcending cultural bridges to become, what is today, a super 185 nation member organisation.
The Red Cross global composition goes much deeper to a local level that comprises of an intricate
structure which delivers both aid relief and development work. In addition to their work to ensure humanitarian protection, first aid and assistance for victims of war and armed conflict, it carries out relief operations to assist the victims of disasters and works to strengthen the capacities whilst promoting humanitarian values.
The Red Cross have led the way to provide vital life saving initiatives and long-term solutions to tackle global poverty, climate change and diseases; HIV/Aids and Malaria, the very areas in which Fortune Forum was set up to address. In working with The British Red Cross, we aim to highlight these development initiatives to not only contribute to these efforts, but to express why Fortune Forum feels so extremely proud to be working with The Red Cross Movement - the largest humanitarian organisation in the world."
Renu
The Red Cross Museum & History Highlights
The museum displays the history of the Red Cross Movement up until the present day. Using documents of the era, a panoramic slide show reconstructs the battle of Solferino in 1859 in which 40,000 men were killed or wounded in a single day as the French and Peidmontese
drove the Austrians out of the north of Italy. Arriving at the aftermath of the battle, Henry Dunant, a businessman from Geneva, was horrified to
find the wounded soldiers lying abandoned on the field and he mobilised the local population to provide relief.
On his return from Geneva, Henry Dunant wrote "A Memory of Solferino", in which he proposed that states should "formulate some international principle, sanctioned by a convention, inviolate in character, which, once approved and ratified, might serve as the basis for societies for the relief of wounded". The International Committee for the relief of wounded soldiers (precursor to the Red Cross) was established and drew up the First Geneva Convention. The museum displays this original Geneva Convention and the first ever Red Cross flag (pictured
above).
During the First World War, the Red Cross worked to protect prisoners of war. A display of case upon case of seven million card files powerfully demonstrates the efforts of the Red Cross to find prisoners of war and maintain contact with their families. During the Second World War the Red Cross delivered 120 million messages between families separated by conflict.
It was hard not to be deeply affected by the representations of the current activities of the Red Cross around the world, including orthopaedic rehabilitation centres for the victims of landmines and a display of walls of photographs of children separated from their parents in Rwanda. 90% of these unaccompanied were subsequently united with their parents.
A series of inscriptions runs the entire length of the of the museum wall, marking every year from the foundation of the Red Cross. Beneath every single year a long list of wars, disasters and epidemics were recorded. The wall served as a moving and stark reminder of why the
work of the Red Cross is as relevant today as it has been for the last 150 years. Since the founding of the Red Cross there have been just six
days of peace.
For more information on the history and origin of the Red Cross Movement visit www.redcross.org.uk/standard.asp?id=40164&cachefixer=
Renu addressed the Oxford Union on 29th May, 2007. She joined a distinguished panel which sparked a lively debate with many philanthropists to-be and a growing number of students embarking on social-enterprise careers within the audience. Renu's address below
preceded a number of stimulating questions from the floor directed to the panel.
Debate topic: "Fortune Forum - Is business intervention
the most effective solution to poverty?"
Speakers:
Renu Mehta – Fortune Forum
Sir Tom Hunter – Hunter Foundation
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou – Easy Group
Craig Sams – Green & Blacks
Dr. R.S. Ram – Wings of Hope
Smruti Sriram – Treasurer Oxford Union
Renu is pictured here with her inspiration and author of
the Fortune Forum Code Book, her father, Vijay Mehta
"I am privileged to be here and for the Fortune Forum to have been chosen as the inspiration of this debate.
President and members of the Oxford Union, I am sure that my fellow speakers would all agree that this subject that we are about to discuss is of the utmost importance not only to the shareholders and customers of businesses but to the global conscience at large.
We live in moral poverty if we cannot free the needs of the poor.
It is especially appropriate, I think, that such a discussion takes place before the Oxford Union, an audience of tomorrow’s leaders and visionaries who are able to create and implement ethical standards into what would surely become tomorrow’s norm.
I am not speaking here today as a campaigner.
Activists, NGO campaigns and media attention have long held companies to account and this has pushed government regulation so we have surpassed the sphere of campaigning. Rather this has now become a global issue that needs to be dealt with by, not only the government, but corporations and consumers alike.
We in the West are seeing some great advances in technology, innovation and communication. However, the disparity between the rich and the poor has increased to the most disproportionate levels in history, not because the rich are getting richer but because sadly the poor are getting poorer. In many regions of the world, women walk for miles and hours each day to collect this - water, water which comes to us, each and everyone one of us,… on tap.
For those barely surviving, as half the world’s population does on less than $2 per day, face the grim problem of existence against disease and hunger. Only an out-of-touch corporation would deny the hopes of the thousands of children who die each day. This is not just a problem for humanity, but for businesses at least enlightened enough to see their own self- interest in developing wealth in the 3rd world. To change the world rests not only on the corporations shoulders but rests on the collaboration between philanthropy, development agencies and public and private sectors alike.
I am not speaking here today as a campaigner but rather as a convener.
Fortune Forum brings together global leaders, influential entrepreneurs, heads of foundations, high net worth individuals and NGO’s to bring their ideas, influence and resources together to tackle the interrelated issues of global poverty, climate change and deadly diseases.
So, in a line, Fortune Forum is about the fortunate helping the unfortunate.
 We too have responded by setting up a hybrid model that has the financial
prospects of business but has philanthropy interwoven in it. I am delighted to
publicly announce here today at this Oxford Union address, the launch of ICE
Circle, International Clean Energy Circle; an initiative to deepen our commitment
towards tackling climate change. We will present for-profit and not-for profit
initiatives to both entrepreneurs and philanthropists alike. In doing so, they can
expect a financial return as well as make an environmental impact.
The people who will be most affected by climate change are those living in the
developing world. 2 billion people currently do not have access to energy
services. We will provide investment opportunity which address environmental
problems at both the global and local level.
For example, we have partnered with a carbon offsetting organisation,
Envirotrade based in Mozambique. Whilst corporations make their carbon
offsets, they can also address issues of poverty and bio-diversity
simultaneously, as the money from sales of these carbon credits gets
ploughed back to help some of the poorest communities
Africa. ICE Circle and
Envirotrade are two
examples of altruism and capitalism co-existing."
“I recently made
a visit to Ethiopia to see the type of work that is
being
implemented by WaterAid; the type of projects that will be
funded by
Fortune Forum’s donors around the globe. This visit
left me with a profound sense of purpose and a renewed spirit to
re-address the
issues related, not only to water shortages but to
the inter-related
issues of hunger and disease. I hope that you
we will be moved as
much as I have been, after reading my
diary piece…. to do more…….”
Renu
CLEAN WATER FOR ALL
by Renu Mehta
Departing from Heathrow, I shifted my delirium of the Fortune Forum launch event to the back and glamorous part of my mind.
In September 2006, Former US President Bill Clinton, actor and UN Messenger for Peace, Michael Douglas and the spiritual guru, Deepak Chopra all participated with the legendary Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens), performing his first major live performance in over 28 years,
launched Fortune Forum. At the event, the interdependent issues of global poverty, climate change and deadly diseases were highlighted by showcasing the work of WaterAid, The British Red Cross, African Renaissance, Alliance for a New Humanity
and Small Kindness all on a shared platform.
Fortune Forum
was founded in 2006 upon being motivated
after learning of the brutal statistics and the horrifying conditions prevalent in the developing world. I first realised the importance of the global water problem when I had seen a WaterAid TV commercial which blatantly stated that 1.1 billion people live without access to safe clean drinking water and 2.6 billion people live without adequate sanitation around the globe.
At the event, clean water had been purchased for 7,000 people - for a lifetime, providing both sanitation and hygiene education. These measurable project lots had been
generously sponsored by some of the participating donors there. So when Paul Hetherington, Communications Director of WaterAid called me to ask if I wanted to join him on a trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to see the type of work that Fortune Forum is helping to address by way of supporting WaterAid’s global efforts, I immediately grabbed a visa.
Whilst I was
initially inspired to act upon merely a broad comprehension of
the ‘paper issues’ so far, my journey had been, no doubt, a
vicarious one. This was an opportunity to put expressions to the
cold facts, and faces to this mystical and ancient civilization.
This voyage would mark my first visit on the ground.
SUNDAY 17TH DECEMBER, 2006
Having checked into the Hilton, Addis, after Paul had stuffed me with all the Ethiopian historical and cultural insights and armed with a suitcase full of Ralph Lauren, I was now ready to step out into Addis. What looked like a winding road to the Sheraton Hotel was a broken one with a view of vast inner city slum areas in the cracks. I wandered off to take a look. Carlos Reyes, the celebrated documentary photographer, pointed his big lens at me to capture the scene.
Juxtaposed between a washing line and sheets and sheets of corrugated iron
that formed the structure of dwelling and shelter for many of Addis’s poor, there was a water pump providing clean water to 500 locals. It is horrifying that 20 litres of water can be purchased (water is not freely available to the poor) for approx 25 cents.
When we ashamedly arrived at the Sheraton hotel for a good lunch, we had discovered that the owner was one of the largest producers of corrugated iron – profiting from both the rich and the poor. I wanted to see past the corrugated iron and discrimination the following day.
MONDAY 18th DECEMBER,
2006
The road out to the water installation project in Gonde felt like a familiar one – it had the semblance of
my native India; similar construction, architecture and the same kind of dust and pollution that was streaming into our Lada. Almost every image was the same, only when our car stopped at the traffic lights, child beggars knocked on the windows with their exquisite features and fine bone structure which displayed the most dignifying smiles, but that of a different heritage.
We arrived at the rural water project at Gonde and then made a short but arduous trek across a sweeping valley hugging a trickle of water drawing us closer to the water source – my journey had taken around 10 minutes. The journey, for me, was a cobbled one that required the dexterity of a tightrope walker. Now try to imagine this – a woman carrying 50lb of water on her head, only her journey would take approx. 7 hours to carry this crushing load of water to her family, robbing her of time away from work and her family.
This water installation means that clean and safe water has literally been brought to 50,000 people by 100km of pipeline which has now been installed. This
now obviates the need for the 7 hours walk which women had made on a daily basis.
TUESDAY 19TH DECEMBER,
2006
I walked into the urban inner city development and
was greeted as if were ‘The lady from Del Monte’.
A central installation of water providing 98,000 people with clean and safe drinking water means that community life is now centred and intrinsically dependant on and around flowing clean water and fresh showers. I struck up a conversation with the water attendant Algarnesh, who told me about the loss of both her son and daughter-in-law to HIV/Aids and that she was bringing up her grandchildren. She pointed out one of her granddaughters Terese, to me with great pride.
I was curious to see what was behind the corrugated iron as up until now I had only a perception.
After accepting a spontaneous invitation into her home, I was
surprised to see that there was ample but modest furniture purchased from her income from being a water attendant . Over a shockingly good cup of coffee, with a view of the adjoining bedroom complete with a wardrobe, she implored me to take her beautiful
granddaughter back with me. Although silently, I was smitten by her angelic smile that belied her rough and torn clothes, I hugged her and said that I hoped that when her daughter becomes a woman, there will be an elegant Ethiopian man waiting, who would tap her on her shoulder but belonging to more affluent times. She gave a wise smile that of a reconciled woman and said thank you for
listening.
This was a profound journey – I had now confronted my comprehension of this beautiful corner of this old but developing world. This was not extreme poverty or shock that I had encountered, but rather I was saddened by the stillness of inequity, inequity that represents almost half of humanity of
people barely living on $2 per day.
On leaving the last water installation, fortified with the determination to do more, there was a cry from the village when the lady from Del Monte proclaimed ‘Clean water for all!’
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