People all over the world broke a Guinness record for the largest number of people opposing world poverty.

The largest number of people to Stand Up Against Poverty broke a world record in a 24-hour period.

There were over 38.8 million people in 110 countries standing up and speaking out against poverty. The United Nations Millennium Campaign (UNMC) and the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) as well as many other participants organized the event, which took place on October 16th and 17th.

• Everyone needs to stand up to remind governments to keep their promises.

• 50,000 people die a day as a result of poverty. The gaps between rich and poor are getting wider and will not improve without more help in making a stand.

People are standing up for these eight Millennium Development Goals:

1. Reduce Hunger: The goal is to reduce by half the people who are living on less than a dollar a day.

2. Universal Education: Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling. One of the biggest factors contributing to people’s disadvantaged position is lack of quality schooling.

3. Gender Equality: Promote gender equality and empower women. A humanitarian organization that has helped many women and children get out of poverty is CARE. They fight global poverty by focusing on women in communities to improve education, prevent the spread of AIDS and provide food.

4. Child Health: Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five.

5. Maternal Health: Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio.

6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases: Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

7. Environmental Sustainability: Achieving sustained development is necessary because so many vulnerable people are being hurt by damage to our environment. Country policies and programs are being implemented so that the loss of environmental resources can be reversed.

Other goals:

• Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015.
• Improve lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.

8. Global Partnership: More non-discriminatory financial systems need to be developed with government support to achieve poverty reduction. Supporting fair trade is one of the ways people around the world can support developing countries and assist them in getting out of poverty.

Many countries have other special needs that should be addressed such as:

• Providing access to affordable drugs by cooperating with pharmaceutical companies.

• Providing access to new technologies and decent wages to more people.

All of these goals need to be addressed to effectively reduce poverty because they are all interrelated. For example without access to clean water, people cannot stay healthy so are more likely to become diseased and die. Even if they do then have access to clean water, if they do not have access to affordable drugs to treat illnesses, affordable education for their children and decent wages, they will remain in poverty.

• 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.”

For a full listing of Stand Up Against Poverty events and more information from around the world visit Stand Up Against Poverty