What: A Group Photographic Exhibition

Where: Hart House, The University Of Toronto

When: August 1—31, 2006

Opening Reception: Friday 11 August , 2006

NEW YORK—For millions of impoverished young people living all over the world, freedom from want is the stuff that only dreams are made of. CHASING THE DREAM: YOUTH FACES OF THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS, is a one-of-a-kind photo exhibit that features the lives of eight young people told in their own words. The traveling exhibit arrives in Toronto, August 1 and will be on display at the University Of Toronto’s Hart House until 31 August. The aim of the exhibit is to bring international attention to the impact of poverty on young people between the ages of 10 and 24—who comprise up to one third of the population worldwide, with 85 per cent now living in developing countries.

On Friday, 11 August, from 8.00pm-10.00pm in the Great Hall, Hart House, University of Toronto, a Gala Opening will celebrate the resilience, ingenuity and hopes of these young people. Speakers include acclaimed medical journalist Laurie Garrett, the only author ever to win all three of journalism’s Big "Ps": The Peabody, The Polk and The Pulitzer (twice). Garrett is also the best-selling author of The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance and Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health. Also featured will be entertainment provided by the Montreal-based band The Stills and The Positive Voice Theatre Troupe, a community based non-profit organization led by, and for, women living with HIV/AIDS. Other speakers include United Nations Population Fund HIV/AIDS Branch chief Steven Kraus, and Jason Richards, one of the young people profiled in the exhibit.

The exhibit also includes the work of World Press Photo Jury head, and New Journalism Award winner Argentine photographer Diego Goldberg, who profiled eight young people in a series of photo essays and journalist Roberto Guareschi, former editor-in-chief of Clarin, who tells their stories in simple, but evocative language.

"The point of this exhibition, is to remind ourselves that there are millions of young people who desperately need to be given a chance,” says Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNFPA, United Nations Population Fund.

CHASING THE DREAM: YOUTH FACES OF THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS is free and open to the public from 8.00 a.m. until 8.00 p.m. It is located in the Map Room, Hart House, and University of Toronto—St. George Campus 7 Hart House Circle. The month-long exhibit is made possible through the generous support of Hart House, The Centre for International Health, and the University of Toronto Student Affairs.

CHASING THE DREAM is a United Nations Interagency initiative undertaken with the support of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation, United Nations Population Fund, United Nations Millennium Campaign, World Bank and Youth Employment Network, with funding from the Government of Finland. CHASING THE DREAM features photographs (taken with disposable cameras) and essays written by young people living in Brazil, Cambodia, India, Jamaica, Morocco, the Kyangwali refugee settlement in North Uganda and the Ukraine. CHASING THE DREAM was originally launched in New York and is now traveling around the world with stops in Geneva, Germany and Ghana.

For more information, please go to www.chasingdream.org or contact:

Patricia Leidl

Email: leidl@unfpa.org
Tel: +1 212-297-5088
Mobile: +1 917-535-9508

Martine Mangion

Email: mangion@unfpa.org
Tel: +1 212 297 5107