MUMBAI: As part of the international anti-poverty agency, ActionAid’s, HungerFREE campaign, Bollywood star Shabana Azmi will join Hollywood’s Tim Meadows, and Nollywood (Nigerian cinema) star, Hilda Dokubo, to protest the plight of the world’s hungry on 25 September at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, New York City.

ActionAid is an international anti-poverty agency working in over 40 countries, taking sides with poor people to end poverty and injustice together. The agency is calling for all United Nations countries to support the right to food resolution to be adopted at the General Assembly. The United States is the only country that has consistently opposed it.

Azmi commented, “India’s economy is booming, but not for the poorest where one in four people go to bed hungry every night.”

She added, “There are 854 million hungry people in the world today — 54 million more than when the world leaders pledged to halve hunger in 2000. I am here in New York to join the ActionAid HungerFREE campaign to make sure that the world leaders attending the United Nations assembly are not allowed to ignore this failure.”

Actor/comedian Tim Meadows, best known for his starring roles on Saturday Night Live and TBS’ The Bill Engvall Show, said: “I am very proud to be part of ActionAid’s HungerFREE campaign — calling for world action to end hunger.”

Hilda Dokubo, an award-winning Nigerian actress and social activist with over one hundred and twenty movies to her credit, stated: “We are here to demand our leaders take urgent action to start delivering on their commitment to halve hunger by 2015. I have already met with the Nigerian mission here in New York, and the campaign has met with over 35 other countries’ missions. We will be keeping the pressure up until we have a world free of hunger.”