Film, Music and Literary Talents Spearhead Annual Global Media Campaign for the World's Most Disadvantaged Children

Film, Music and Literary Talents Spearhead Annual Global Media Campaign for the World's Most Disadvantaged Children

November 15, 2007

    LONDON, Nov. 15 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- 

    -- Eight Film Stars Join Campaign to Help The World's
Most Disadvantaged 
       Children

    -- Funds Raised for 200 Children's Charity Projects
Worldwide Helping 
       400,000 Children Each Year

    -- US$100m Fundraising Target in First Year and US$1bn
Over 10 Years

    -- Campaign Making 500 Million People Aware of
Children's Plight Each Year

    -- Developing a Donor Community of Tens of Millions
Helping Children

    -- Legendary Music Directors Sign Up for Global
Broadcast Event in Los 
       Angeles, June 2008

    -- Acclaimed Authors Donate Short Stories to Campaign

    -- CBS to Broadcast Two Primetime Specials in June
2008: "Why Listen" and 
       "Listen Live"

    Tony Hollingsworth, Executive Producer of The Listen
Campaign, today announced the launch of Listen Campaign 1:
"Listen is an annual, global media campaign bringing
together the finest creative artists in film, music and the
arts to raise awareness and funds for 200 children's charity
projects around the world." Fundraising broadcasts in
60 countries will generate a projected US$100m in Listen's
first year and US$1bn over 10 years.

    Creative artists supporting The Listen Campaign already
include:

    Film: Natalie Portman, Samuel L Jackson, Ashley Judd,
Ben Kingsley, Jessica Lange, Brooke Shields, Kurt Russell,
Goldie Hawn. Literature: Professor Wole Soyinka (Nigeria),
Ishmael Beah (Sierra Leone), Patricia Melo (Brazil), Tim
Lott (UK), Xiaolu Guo (China), Marina Lewycka (Ukraine).
Music Directors: Dave Stewart, Don Was.

    Film stars including Natalie Portman, Goldie Hawn and
Samuel L Jackson have visited children's charity projects
in India, Egypt, Peru, the US and Uganda to be filmed
listening to children's stories. Six short
"webisodes" of these visits are now online at
http://www.listencampaign.com. CBS Television will air
these stories in the first of two primetime specials
entitled "Why Listen" for broadcast in June 2008,
with 48 Hours' Susan Zirinsky overseeing as Executive
Producer.

    Six acclaimed authors -- including African Nobel Prize
Winner Professor Wole Soyinka and Ishmael Beah, author of
New York Times' bestseller "A Long Way Gone" --
are donating short stories to Listen to be featured in
newspapers and magazines around the world as the campaign
unfolds.

    The culmination of the Listen Campaign is "Listen
Live" -- a global broadcast event staged in Los
Angeles in June, which will see music stars collaborating
to perform one-off covers of the world's best known hits.
Dave Stewart of Eurythmics fame and legendary producer Don
Was (Rolling Stones) have already signed up to Music
Director the event and headline artists will be announced
soon.

    Developed by London's Tribute Third Millennium over
seven years with an investment of US$8m, Listen is
carefully designed as an annual campaign using TV, radio,
web, print and mobile to reach a global audience of 500
million in 60 countries. The Listen Campaign's key message
is for people to listen to the rights and needs of the
world's most disadvantaged children. Each annual campaign
includes twenty major news items leading up to the global
broadcast event.

    Listen provides a media platform for creative artists
to use their talents to bring the stories of disadvantaged
children to the world. The public will be provided with a
wealth of music, art, stories, and films, as well as the
down to earth stories of children living with Poverty,
Disease, Natural Disaster, Exploitation, War and AIDS.

    Over seventy world charities nominated 200 children's
projects to benefit from Listen's fundraising. Listen's
fundraising model is unique, based on grass roots research
with donors in many countries. In order that the public
knows exactly where its donations will be used, every one
of the 200 beneficiary projects will be pre-declared before
the public are asked to donate. Listen guarantees that 100%
of donations go directly to the Listen Charity, with none
going to fund the media campaign or broadcast event, and
that 90% of donations will reach projects in the field.
Every donor will receive five feedback reports over two
years on how their money is being used to change children's
lives.

    "Pre-declaring the projects and reporting back on
the effect of the donors' money is a key difference of The
Listen Campaign to other major international fundraising
campaigns," Hollingsworth continued.
"Pre-declaration and impact reporting will build
public trust and the creative artists will generate
interest leading to a sustained community of
supporters."

    Note To Editors: Please end article with
http://www.listencampaign.com .

    PHOTOGRAPHS

    -- Stills of all stars available upon request.
    -- EPK available on the work of film stars and music
directors.

    MORE INFO ON LISTEN at http://www.listencampaign.com

    More info on Tribute at http://www.tribute3ml.com

    More info on Tony Hollingsworth
http://www.tonyhollingsworth.com


    For more information, please contact:

     The Listen Campaign PR contact: 
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]