Lister

By Morten Grønborg
Translation: Rasmus Ovesen

If you give your bottles and cans to the turquoise staff members in the camping area - or if you put your empty beer cups in the boxes visible on the festival site - you will be helping the African country Congo.

Behind the initiative is Folkekirkens Nødhjælp (DanChurchAid) who - this year - have entered into a working relationship with Roskilde Festival for goal-oriented help.

Remove the mines

"The initiative should contribute to the safety of population of Congo by clearing mines. The country has been through many years of war and continues to be plagued by land mines", explains head of the deposit bottle-collection, Lærke Nielsen.

She is a member of the so-called humantohuman group and is coordinating the 180 industrious deposit bottle-collectors, who can be seen throughout the camping areas and at the concerts. Thursday evening they had collected close to 250,000 deposit-kroner for Congo, which according to Lærke Nielsen is "a really good result". She stresses, however, that the goal is even higher, because funds are needed critically.

Fair telephony

This year, the Humantohuman group also brings telephony into focus under the headline "Fair Phone - Fair Future". The aim is to raise awareness that we all indirectly contribute to the unfair methods employed in the Congolese mining industry - because cobalt from the Congolese mines end up in mobile phones in our parts of the world.   

So, the country is not only plagued by landmines and many years of war, but also from exploitation of the workers who extract the raw materials. Their salaries and working conditions are terrible.

"Deaths in the mines because of cave-ins are, for instance, not uncommon and we therefore have a double-aim with our presence this year", says Lærke Nielsen.

As a festival guest you can support the campaign for fair telephony by sending a text message to the mobile phone companies demanding fair phones - and thereby a better future for the population in Congo. The number is 25646464.