At mid-day on Saturday July 8th Market Street, Stourbridge was ringing with the sounds of drum beats from Senegal and shoppers passing by wondered what was going on! Over 30 local drummers of all ages drummed in determination to persuade politicians to go on “Making Poverty History”.

Local campaigners for a fairer deal for third world farmers gathered in the community garden outside St Thomas’s Church as part of a nationwide world record attempt to have the largest simultaneous drumming event in the UK. It was all part of Christian Aid’s ‘The Beat Goes On’ campaign. This campaign asks the UK government to cut funding to two international organisations – the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) – until they deal differently and more fairly with developing countries.

Christian Aid argues that in return for loans and debt cancellation the World Bank and IMF force poor countries to open their markets to imports before they are ready. This devastates the livelihoods of poor people. Christian Aid reports that 85,000 farmers and workers in Haitii were hit by the closure of local sugar factories after the IMF pushed their government to reduce sugar tariffs from 50% to 3% and to abolish import licences. Cheap imports flooded in and production in Haitii fell by almost 50%.

In 2005 the UK government announced that it would stop forcing conditions on loans to poor countries and Christian Aid wants the World Bank and IMF to stop as well.

‘Many of us from Stourbridge and the West Midlands travelled to Edinburgh in July 2005 and one year on we are determined to hold these international organisations to account,’ said Jane Williamson, Secretary of Stourbridge Churches Together.

Local campaigner, Virginia Williams, thanked the drummers for joining in saying : “The drum beat came from Senegal reminding us that we have to keep up a noisy pressure on world governments to make changes that really give poor countries the chance to work their way out of poverty. If readers want to know more, please visit the Christian Aid website at www.christian-aid.org or phone the Christian Aid office in Birmingham on 0121-200-2283”.