Stand Up, Take Action, End Poverty Now event on Saturday

Help end poverty by being part of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on Saturday, Oct. 17, at York.

The End Poverty Now – Stand Up event will take place in the McLaughlin Junior Common Room, 014 McLaughlin College, Keele campus. The event will start with a groups fair and refreshments at 1pm, followed by a presentation and workshop from 1:30 to 3:30pm.

Millions will be standing up around the globe. Come and stand up and learn how everyone’s actions can help end poverty with RESULTS Canada, a non-profit organization that empowers ordinary people to become extraordinary voices for health care, education and economic opportunity for all.

In 2007, 47 million people stood up. In 2008, 116 million people stood up. Now it’s 2009 and the goal is to break last year’s record.

RESULTS Canada volunteer activists in over 100 communities are taking part in the Stand Up, Take Action, End Poverty Now event, and are being joined, via conference call, by internationally renowned AIDS advocate Dr. Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health and the subject of the book Mountains Beyond Mountains.

The event is hosted by the Human Rights Participatory Growth Program (York University’s Poverty Project), which conducts research and works to create awareness about issues of global poverty and international development. The program is designed to get young people involved, along with scholars, in social issues, especially in poverty eradication and to help provide quality of life to unprivileged sections of the population.

The aim is to harness the energy and enthusiasm of youth to make use of action research work produced by scholars, and to mobilize knowledge and seek cooperation of the non-governmental organization sector for its professional skills and practical experience at the grassroots level.