LONDON, November 15 /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 of 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

    Source: The Listen Campaign