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Last year, more than 116 million people – nearly two percent of the people on earth – participated in "Stand Up and Take Action" at events around the globe to demand that world leaders keep their promises to end poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. The MDGs are a set of 8 goals to eradicate extreme poverty and its root causes that 189 world leaders pledged to achieve in the year 2000.
After breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest mobilization of human beings in recorded history last year, we plan to make "Stand Up, Take Action, End Poverty Now" bigger and better than ever before this year. Nearly 2% of the world's population stood with us in 2008, and with your continued help and support we can grow that figure.
Today we are launching a brand new and very exciting "Stand Up, Take Action, End Poverty Now" song and video. You can stream them instantly or download them to your computer.
What is even more exciting is that this year we are launching a unique online component to "Stand Up" where by taking a specific e-action you can be a part of the "Stand Up" world record.
We encourage you to check out the song and video, share it with your friends via our new Facebook page and follow us on all your favorite social media sites.
Stand Up Events
With less than 80 days left until "Stand Up, Take Action, End Poverty Now" in 2009, the excitement and energy behind this global anti-poverty movement is building rapidly. From Uganda to Canada and Poland to Nepal, people all over the world are sharing their stories and creativity with us, telling us about the incredible events that they have planned for "Stand Up" this year.
World leaders will hear the "Stand Up" pledge echoing from the highest point in the world when anti-poverty campaigners climb to the top of Mount Everest. Some incredible people in Nepal are planning this high-profile mobilization. In neighboring India, there are plans to host a creative writing competition around "Stand Up" for young people in Patna. A short boat ride across the Indian Ocean in Uganda, there are plans to host 5,000 students at a public debate about the MDGs — along with a music concert with gospel singers and prominent speakers at an event for over 15,000 people. Continents away in Edmonton, Canada, a very enthusiastic group of college students are coordinating a campus-wide initiative wrapping hundreds of trees in white 'Make Poverty History' bands and with their University President delivering the "Stand Up" pledge. A member of the Canadian parliament will speak at the event on behalf of the Canadian Government. Down south in sunny California, 1,200 people are ready to parade onto a soccer field where they intend to form a large peace sign with their bodies prior to 'Standing Up'. This will be followed by a number of youngsters staging a Kite Fair (based on the book The Kite Runner) to raise funds for impoverished students in Afghanistan and in support of women entrepreneurs in Guatemala. In Europe, an MDG lecture series at colleges will lead up to two prominent Polish musicians taking the stage in Warsaw to anchor a large "Stand Up" event.
Stand Up events and actions are coming to us from all over the world in all shapes, colors and sizes. Share your ideas and plans with us. Let us know how you are doing your part to call out to politicians and ask them to bring an end to extreme poverty. Find out more on www.standagainstpoverty.org.
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