Multi Grammy Award-Winning Artist Jason Mraz to Perform at Historic
MTV Exit Concert in Yangon, Myanmar to Raise Awareness of Human
Trafficking
YANGON, Myanmar, November 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --
First
ever international concert to be held in Myanmar in front of iconic Shwedagon pagoda on
December 16
Concert
to air in more than a half-billion homes as a special edition of
"MTV World Stage"
MTV EXIT (End Exploitation and Trafficking) today announces a
historic live concert in Myanmar
to be held on December
16th to raise awareness and increase prevention
of human trafficking. The free live concert will be held at the
Yangon People's Square, which lies at the base of the magnificent
2600 year-old Shwedagon Pagoda, one of the most iconic and
auspicious sites in the country.
Multi GRAMMY award-winning singer songwriter Jason Mraz will headline the event becoming the
first international artist ever to perform at an open-air concert
in Myanmar. Also performing are
Myanmar's top artists including
Phyu Phyu Kyaw Thein and R Zarni. Sharing the stage at the free
concert will be speakers from the anti-trafficking sector,
government and donor community who work to fight human trafficking
in Myanmar.
In addition, MTV EXIT today launches a contest giving fans a
chance to win a trip to see Jason
Mraz live in Myanmar. Contest details are at
http://www.mtvexit.org.
MTV EXIT Live in Myanmar
will be broadcast in Myanmar on
national television and will air across MTV's international network
in early 2013 as a special edition of "MTV World Stage," MTV's
weekly live music series. Available in more than a half-billion
homes, the program will feature performances, interviews and key
educational information about human trafficking.
The event is funded by the Australian Government's Agency
for International Development (AusAID), the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID) and Walk Free, a
global movement to end modern-day slavery; and produced in
partnership with the Government of the Republic of the Union of
Myanmar, the United Nations
Inter-Agency Project Against Human Trafficking (UNIAP) and
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Jason Mraz has taken his musical
journey from coffee houses to stadiums globally and now has two
GRAMMY awards and six GRAMMY nominations to his credit. In
2008, his third album, We Sing We Dance We Steal Things, featured
the hit "I'm Yours," which sold more than 21 million units
worldwide and the GRAMMY-winning songs "Make It Mine" and "Lucky."
Most recently, Mraz released Love Is A Four Letter Word,
which features the chart-topping song, "I Won't Give Up."
Mraz has been a longtime advocate against human trafficking,
engaging with anti-trafficking organizations in Ghana and The
Philippines. The Californian singer last performed to
capacity crowds in Asia in
June 2012 as part of the Tour Is A
Four Letter Word world tour.
Human trafficking is a tragic crime that enslaves and exploits
its victims, the majority of which are women and children. There
are more than 20 million people living in slavery around the world
with Myanmar and Southeast Asia particularly affected. The
concert forms part of a wider initiative that seeks to educate and
train youth through innovative television programming, digital
content, capacity building workshops and community-based events.
MTV EXIT Live in Myanmar
follows the production of two Myanmar MTV EXIT documentaries on
human trafficking, which were broadcast in 2010 and 2012 on
national television to educate the public about the dangers of
trafficking.
MTV EXIT is also proud to partner with Edelman, the world's
largest public relations firm. Further details on the concert
including how to obtain free tickets will be released soon. For
more information, visit http://www.mtvexit.org or follow MTV
EXIT on the following social media platforms: Twitter
@mtvexit and Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/mtvexit.
More Information:
MTV EXIT
The MTV EXIT (End Exploitation and Trafficking) campaign is an
award-winning multimedia initiative to raise awareness and
increase prevention of human trafficking and exploitation. MTV EXIT
was launched in Europe in 2004 and
expanded across Asia with USAID in
2007. To date MTV EXIT has produced an extensive catalogue of
powerful TV programming to promote awareness about human
trafficking. MTV documentaries include Sold: An MTV EXIT Special
presented by Lara Dutta; Traffic: An
MTV EXIT Special, presented by Lucy
Liu; and Inhuman Traffic, presented by Angelina Jolie; each of which have been
translated into a dozen local language versions presented by Asian
celebrities such as Rain of Korea and Phyu Phyu Kyaw Thein and R
Zarni in Myanmar. Further MTV EXIT
programming also includes short films, public service
announcements, animated drama and music videos. MTV EXIT and
Radiohead collaborated on an anti-exploitation video for their song
All I Need, which premiered across MTV's global network with
similar collaborations with The Killers, MUSE, The Click Five, etc.
MTV EXIT has also established partnerships with over 100
non-governmental organizations, distributed hundreds of thousands
of anti-trafficking brochures in over 25 languages, and reached out
to millions of young people through anti-trafficking messages at
concerts and music festivals featuring R.E.M., Radiohead, The White
Stripes, The Hives, Thievery Corporation, Placebo, Jason Mraz and hundreds of other international
and local artists. For more information visit
http://www.mtvexit.org
USAID
USAID, the United States Agency for International Development,
is an independent U.S. Government agency that operates under the
foreign-policy direction of the U.S. Secretary of State.
Since 1961, USAID has been the principal U.S. Government
agency extending assistance to countries worldwide recovering from
disaster, trying to escape poverty, and engaging in democratic
reforms. USAID's Regional Development Mission for
Asia, based in Bangkok, oversees a broad portfolio of
regional and transnational programs, and also provides support to
several USAID bilateral missions in Asia as well as manages programs in countries
in which it does not have a permanent presence. Its regional
approach addresses problems that cross national boundaries, such as
human and wildlife trafficking, HIV/AIDS, natural resources
conservation, trade, and political and economic conflict.
Please see http://www.usaid.gov for more information.
AusAID
AusAID is the Australian Agency for International Development.
Australia's development assistance
is guided by the Millennium Development Goals, the internationally
agreed targets for poverty reduction, and by the Australian aid
program's objective to assist developing nations to reduce poverty
and achieve sustainable development. Australia works with NGOs, multilateral
institutions and volunteers, as well as directly with national
governments. Australia's support
to the MTV EXIT Campaign complements other anti-trafficking work
AusAID is undertaking in the region. These projects include the
Asia Regional Trafficking in Persons (ARTIP) Project, which aims to
strengthen the capacity of criminal justice agencies in
South East Asia to respond to
human trafficking; Project TRIANGLE, which works with governments
in the region to improve the living and working conditions of
migrants; and Project Childhood, which seeks to better protect
children from child sex tourism and improve government systems to
put the perpetrators of this crime behind bars. See
http://www.ausaid.gov.au for more information.
Walk Free
Walk Free is a new movement of people everywhere working
together to end one of the world's greatest evils: modern slavery.
As we build our community across the world with the powerful tools
of new technologies and social media, we will seek change at local,
national and global levels. Walk Free's aim is to mobilise
citizens, governments, businesses and communities to take action -
so that slavery in all its forms is brought to an end, and people
everywhere can walk free. http://www.walkfree.org
Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN)
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was
established on 8 August 1967. The
Member States of the Association are Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The ASEAN Secretariat is based in
Jakarta, Indonesia. General
information on ASEAN appears on-line at the ASEAN Website:
http://www.asean.org.
Human Trafficking
Human Trafficking is defined by the United Nations as "the
recruitment, transportation, and receipt of a person for sexual or
economical exploitation by force, fraud, coercion, or deception" in
order to make a profit. It is a form of modern-day slavery with the
UN estimating that there are more than 20 million people living in
slavery around the world, with the majority of these victims in
Asia and the Pacific. It is the
second-largest illegal trade after drugs, with criminal traffickers
earning over US$10 billion every year
through the buying and selling of human beings. Often, victims are
young men and women - the MTV demographic - who are guilty only of
wanting a better life.