38.7 Million in 110 Countries!

In India all over the country people of all ages were standing up. In Madhya Pradesh, a state in central India, five million people participated. DAV Schools, the largest public school system of the country, reported 500,000 voices against poverty and at Kashmir University, 35,000 students stood up.  Also in Delhi, one of four Women’s Tribunals on Poverty gathered 400 women from 20 states to debate how gender exclusion and discrimination impede development in poor countries.

In Bangladesh just under 850,000 people stood up with the main event held at Dhaka City office and led by the Mayor followed by a high profile concert. People called for cancellation of debt servicing to eradicate poverty and at the end 1000 candles were lit to express solidarity with the GCAP movement.

In South Africa, children in Pretoria stood up and the residents of the Big Brother Africa House joined the call lighting a bonfire against poverty which burned for the 24 hour period (see www.mnetafrica.com/bigbrother/videogallery.asp).   In Malawi children were asked to bring a blade of grass to a local football match, the sum of which was their total of 15,584 participants.

In The Philippines, a massive 7+million people were mobilised at events involving faith groups and at the Anti Poverty fair. Campaigners called on the Arroyo government to change their position regarding the worsening condition of millions of Filipinos trapped in poverty.

Pakistani campaigners mobilised over 3.5 million including thousands who helped unfurl a 10km-long banner, In Bahawalpur carrying one million written messages.  Pakistan was one of 25 countries across the world using giant banners to form a white band, the symbol of the global anti-poverty movement.

Palestinian children throughout the Occupied West Bank and Gaza spoke out saying no to poverty.  The activities organized jointly with the Palestinian Ministry of Education took place for the first time in public and private schools, as well as UNWRA schools.

In Ramallah, a choir from the University performed a new musical work “The Poverty Requiem” as one of a global chain of 20 performances that took place on every continent. A high school choir also performed the piece at the UN Headquarters in New York.

In Egypt, Cairo the “Sailing the Nile” initiative saw over a million participants.  

Civil Society delegations to government were organised in an unprecedented coordinated global lobby against poverty.  Somalia was one of 35 countries where civil society representatives organised a group to present demands for pro-poor policy change directly to their politicians. 

In The Hague, the national anti poverty campaign displayed 200 uniquely created life-size “Avatars” whilst in London the UN Deputy Secretary General stood up with key women leaders in front of city hall.

In Rwanda, youth groups organized a Stand Up soccer tournament with 20 primary schools and in Bangladesh 10,000 young people blocked a busy crossroads with a human chain.

Faith leaders Stand Up and Speak Out - At papal mass at The Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI sent a message of support urging increased efforts to eliminate poverty. Indian spiritual leader his holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar mobilized 30,000 people at his ashram in Bangalore and millions more across the globe to raise their voices through the Art of Living Foundation. Micah Challenge, the global Christian campaign took part and In the US, Canada and Europe Episcopal and Lutheran churches made the MDGs their top social justice priority by appointing an MDG-focused organizer in every diocese.

Visit http://www.standagainstpoverty.org/ for full list of events from around the world

Over 38 Million People break Guinness World Record for Stand Up Speak Out on International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

New York 18/10/07: Over 38.7 million people, in 110 countries have broken the Guinness World Record - set last year at 23.5 million - for the largest number of people to “STAND UP AGAINST POVERTY” in 24 hours.

The “Stand Up and Speak Out” record attempt took place over 16th and 17th October and was jointly organised by the United Nations Millennium Campaign (UNMC) and the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) with a wide range of other partners. The challenge saw millions of people physically and intentionally standing up against poverty, inequality and in support of the Millennium Development Goals. They spoke out to demand a more urgent political response to the growing crisis of global poverty. United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, who led a stand up action at UN Headquarters in New York, said “Today tens of millions of people are making their voices heard by standing up and speaking out against poverty and for the Millennium Development Goals. They are sending messages that call on their leaders to keep their promises. They are calling for the actions of citizens to be matched by the actions of Governments, in developing and developed countries alike, to demonstrate the political will required to end the scourge of poverty once and for all.”

For 24 hours from 9pm GMT on the 16th of October people around the world from all walks of life came together in their schools, streets, market places, in front of government buildings and local councils, in workplaces and houses of worship, at sports and cultural events and at public landmarks to demonstrate their frustration that we still live in a world where 50,000 people die daily from preventable causes. The mass mobilisation provided a platform for global civil society seeking more active involvement in the current aid architecture debate, debt cancellation processes, trade negotiations and public accountability monitoring. The largest numbers of people who took part in this mobilisation came from developing countries.

Kumi Naidoo, Chair of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty said: “The confirmation of the new Guinness record coupled with the political dimension to this year’s action, tells us we are a growing movement of people holding our leaders to account for tackling global poverty and inequality. The impressive efforts of our brothers and sisters in developing countries through new lobbying actions like delegations to politicians on this date, shows the poor are watching how resources are allocated and want to have a say how policies are made. It now falls on rich countries to fulfil their side of the bargain too.”

The UN Millennium Campaign’s Executive Coordinator Eveline Herfkens said: “Together we have broken the incredible record for the largest number of people standing up to demand action on poverty. But the record we really want to break is the world’s record of breaking promises and ignoring the poor. We don’t want to record numbers of people dying of poverty every year. This is the great issue of our times, let us become great by dealing with it decisively.”

2. ‘Stand Up’ regional overview of World record numbers

Africa: 7,473,057
Arab Region: 2,546,885
Asia: 27,612,061
Europe: 144,931
Latin America & Caribbean: 734,105
North America: 109,828
Oceania: 117,333

For further details and country breakdowns please visit www.standagainstpoverty.org/press

Across Singapore, more than 3000 people Stood Up yesterday to demand a world without poverty and abundance for all. The biggest turnouts locally were at Raffles Girls School and Hwa Chong Junior College. At the M Hotel, 72 passionate individuals Stood Up to call on world leaders to honour their commitments to end poverty within a generation.

One participant writes: “I have been in Singapore sixteen years and almost always been associated with overseas groups, but your get together was inspiring for me because it told me that people here are ready to think globally and that was very special.” Another participant, who promotes the rights of migrant workers, described the M Hotel Stand Up as “heartwarming”.

The official Guinness results for Stand Up and Speak Out Against Poverty will be announced online this evening at 10pm local time. You can join the online press conference by logging on to: http://standagainstpoverty.org/press/conference . The press conference will take the form of a live audio feed and journalists questions will be submitted via a chat interface on the web page. No password is necessary to join, you will need Adobe Flash Player. Among the speakers - Mary Robinson, the former President of Ireland.

Also tune in to 93.8 Live or Radio Singapore International at 8:45 PM tonight for a 5-minute feature interview about Stand Up and the movement to Make Poverty History.

Look for a photo of the Stand Up event at Raffles Girls School in the Home section of today’s Straits Times. We’ve uploaded a few photos from last night’s event to the standagainstpoverty section of Flickr. We’ll be uploading more soon to ONE (SINGAPORE)’s website and Flickr page.

Stand Up is not just about breaking a record - its about creating the largest movement of people the world has ever seen and demanding that political leaders honour their promises and act to end poverty and inequality. It’s also about creating awareness not only of what is happening in our world but about what you can do to change it.

We are not asking you to just stand up on one day - we are asking you to stand up EVERY day. Be part of the growing movement of people who are taking action in their every day lives to end extreme poverty.

What can you do? Here are 7 suggestions:

* Encourage your friends, family and colleagues to join ONE (SINGAPORE)
* Start a chapter of ONE (SINGAPORE) in your school, church, temple, mosque . . .
* Persuade your company to adopt one of the Millennium Development Goals
* Wear the white band, the international symbol of the Make Poverty Movement
* Educate yourself. Explore www.onesingapore.org, www.whiteband.org, www.millenniumcampaign.org
* Give a little more, consume a little less
* Be compassionate

ONE by ONE . . . by ONE, we WILL Make Poverty History.

Michael

MAKE POVERTY HISTORY.SG ONLINE FORUM

Jared Tham has set up an online forum for people and organizations interested in eradicating poverty at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MakePovertyHistorySG/.
This is an excellent opportunity to network and brainstorm on ways in which civil society groups and charities can collaborate on the issues that are central to our mission to Make Poverty History. We will open the Yahoo! Group up to a wider audience after some initial discussion (and possibly a physical networking meeting) by the groups involved.

Stay tuned for more details.

Dear ONE (SINGAPORE) Members and Friends,

The next few months are a busy period for ONE (SINGAPORE). There are lots of volunteer opportunities and ways to become involved. Please read on and then let us know the role that YOU would like to play.

1. “STAND UP AND SPEAK OUT AGAINST POVERTY” - Planning Meeting on Saturday 1 September, 10am.
17 October is Int’l Day for the Eradication of Poverty. It is also an international whiteband day. The theme is “Stand Up and Speak Out Against Poverty”. We are going to collaborate with a student group from SMU to plan our Stand Up event. If you would like to join the planning committee, please contact me at switow AT onesingapore.org. Our first meeting is this Saturday at a home near the Tanah Merah MRT.

Regardless of whether you help with the logistics, we hope you will join us on Wed. 17 October to stand up and be counted. Last year, 23.5 million people participated in this event, a Guinness World Record for the most number of people to join a social mobilisation. Organisers this year are hoping to double that number.

2. THE TUNNEL PARTY AT THE SUBSTATION - Sat. 22 Sept. 3 - 10 pm
ONE (SINGAPORE) will have a booth at this civil society / arts event. We need volunteers to help set up and run the booth. You don’t have to commit to the whole afternoon, just a couple hours. If you would like to help, please contact Martino at martinotan AT gmail.com.

3. BOOK DRIVE - NEED TO SORT BOOKS - Saturday 15 September, 2 - 5 pm.
Task : To do stock take of 1500 books and categorise them by language, age group, etc
Venue : Nee Soon Central Constituency Office
Address : Blk 749 Yishun Street 72, #01-138 Singapore 760749
Purpose : to determine the quantity and type of books that we have on hand in order to facilitate the distribution to charities and needy recipients.
If you can help, please contact Swee Cheng at sweecheng_tan AT yahoo.com.sg

4. GES 2007 - GLOBAL EDUCATION SEMINAR - Saturday 27 October at NUS
This seminar series organised by the United Nations Youth Association of Singapore will teach some 200 secondary-level students about the Millennium Development Goals. ONE (S) will conduct a Make Poverty History “Banquet” as well as presentations about MDG 1 (halve extreme poverty by 2015 and eliminate it by 2025) We’ll also have a booth at the event. If you would like to volunteer to help, please contact Martino at martinotan AT gmail.com.

5. PHOTO CONTEST - “THE OTHER SIDE OF GREEN” - Volunteers needed for planning committee
While there May not exist extreme poverty in Singapore, there are lives almost forgotten who live by the day and may have fallen out of the system. What is the day and night like for them? Where would the path they take be leading them? Who is walking by their side? This photo competition intends to make us more aware of those that may be a little behind and are reaching out for a hand to bring them forward. We must never forget or worse, take for granted, the “greener pastures” that we live in.

Volunteers are needed for the planning committee, specifically to identify a venue for the exhibition, enlist sponsors, create marketing collateral, promote the competition and invite guests to the exhibition. If you would like to be involved in this project please email izuan AT onesingapore.org and cc switow AT onesingapore.org

6. ONE (FOOTBALL) 2007
A 24-hour football match to publicize how we can end poverty, encourage community participation for disabled and disadvantaged players and to raise funds for a designated charity. The date has not been set, but it will likely be in late November, early December. If you would like to help plan and organise ONE (FOOTBALL), please contact zubi AT onesingapore.org