Soul Sisters Summit in Berlin

At Oxfam Deutschland’s “Sister Soul” concert ahead of the G8 Summit, stars Angelique Kidjo, Laura Lopez Castro, Diane and China from Pink Martini, sign the “Your Voice Against Poverty” banner. Credit: Craig Owen / Oxfam.

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Becks Gowland is a Campaigns Officer for Oxfam specialising in climate change and is working as part of the G8 campaigns team in Rostock, Germany.

I’ve been working in the UK on the G8 for about four months now and yesterday I finally arrived in Germany with my colleague Emma. We’re here to work on Oxfam events around the Summit . I really didn’t know what to expect from Germany , but I never imagined myself being so enthused by work on the first night.

We were given tickets to ‘Sister Soul Summit’ – a concert of leading female artists (Angelique Kidjo, Pink Martini, and Laura Lopez Castro to name a few), put on by Oxfam Germany . The gig was incredible, and it ended with a rousing call from Angelique Kidjo for us all to do more in the fight to end poverty.

I watched Angelique speak with fervour at a press conference about an hour before the gig started. Oddly enough, my friend Emma appeared half way through the conference dressed as Angela Merkel, wearing Oxfam’s own ‘Merkel Big Head’, and stirred up a photographic frenzy. Angelique spoke to “Merkel” and expressed a faith in the leader and her ability to influence the other G8 leaders to make sure they keep their promises on poverty.

Later in the evening – after dancing away to Pink Martini – Angelique appeared on stage and we had an hour of incredible song. What moved me the most was how she talked to the audience. She reminded us that we can all make a difference in the world and before leaving said, “seeing you here tonight gives me more power to keep fighting for a better world”.

It was so good to be there on the first night of my ‘G8 life’, and to be reminded of our shared aims. And it was inspiring to see so many others committed to the same issues. It’s going to be an interesting 10 days – let’s hope we can make change happen, and that the G8 takes bigger steps in the fight to end poverty.