The 46664 campaign
Give a minute of your life to fight AIDS
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46664 is the Nelson Mandela global campaign to defeat Aids not only as a disease but also as a threat to dignity and to the rights of the people.
466 was the number of the cell in which Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years in Robben Island, South Africa; 64 in the year of his arrest (1964). During his detention he was reduce to be but this, a number.
Once out of prison in 1990, Mandela, strengthened in his spirit by the incredible experience in prison and in the struggle for human dignity, realized that much more could be done to help million of human beings affected by HIV, so that those people could be threaten as human beings.
“A present problem distressing our continent – Mandela said – is Aids. Thirty million people in Africa are actually suffering from HIV, a death sentence for the poor due to the lack of medicines. Since the rising of the disease, twenty years ago, 17 million Africans died”.
On the same subject, at an international conference on Aids held in Paris in 2004, Mandela said: “An unprecedented tragedy is taking place in Africa. Today, Aids is taking away more lives than all together wars, hunger, floods and lethal disease as malaria did. (...) It is necessary to act now for the sake of the world. (...) Aids is not only a disease, it is a problem concerning human rights”.
This ravaging disease keeps spreading despair in many parts of the world and especially among the young people who have lost their parents because of HIV or that are ill not for their fault or that cannot receive the treatment every human being has the right to.
46664 is a global alert campaign, ought to collect funds for the Nelson Mandela Foundation (www.nelsonmandela.org) engaged in the struggle against HIV. The Foundation, worldwide known, deals not only with education, prevention, help and treatment, but it is also continuously engaged to eliminate the mark of degradation connected to Aids.
With the Foundation support many progress are being made mainly in Africa and in other countries in the world, but unfortunately the numbers keep growing and also the necessities. Many things are left to do if we want to free the world from the plague of HIV.
Mandela understood that if you want to contact the hundred of millions of young people around the world, he needed to find a way to communicate with them. Therefore Mandela approached Dave Steward (Eurythmics), Brian May and Roger Taylor (Queen) and Bono (U2) and gave them a name and a number, the one of his cell, 46664, with the task to use the power of music to reach as many young people as possible and, in particular, the more lucky persons in comparison to tens of million men and women infected or contaminated by the virus.
Many world leaders, musicians, actors, sport champions, celebrities, politicians joined the 46664 Campaign. Besides the already mentioned ambassadors of the 46664 Campaign, Dave Steward, Bono and Queen, the following joined the humanitarian campaign:
Brad Pitt,
Will Smith.
Robert De Niro,
Charlize Theron,
Annie Lennox,
Peter Gabriel,
Sir Paul McCartney,
Beyoncé,
Anastacia,
Jimmy Cliff,
Bill Clinton,
Oprah Winfrey,
Zucchero,
Youssou N’Dour,
Angelique Kidjo,
Yusuf Islam,
Katie Melua,
Johnny Clegg,
Baaba Maal,
Bob Geldof,
The Edge,
Robert Plant,
Luis Figo,
Ronaldo,
Josh Groban,
Bongo Maffinm Mafikizolo
and many others...
During the last 3 years, the 46664 has taken on stage 4 concerts and huge awakening campaigns in South Africa, Norway, Spain at the presence of many important ambassadors. The 4 concerts have been broadcasted on TV, radio and internet reaching more than 2 billion people around the world and have already collected 3,5 million € for the Nelson Mandela Foundation for the struggle against HIV in the world and in sub-saharian Africa.
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http://www.46664.com