Palestinian schoolchildren stand up against their own poverty – UN agency

The United Nations agency charged with assisting Palestinian refugees reported that almost 500,000 schoolchildren across Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza stood up against poverty, marking the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) organized activities in schools across the region yesterday to give children an opportunity to discuss and protest their own poverty as part of the global “Stand Up and Take Action against Poverty” campaign.

“Our message is clear. We must simply lift the blockade to ensure a respectful life for Gaza’s people in order for them to exercise basic human rights,” said John Ging, UNRWA Director of Operations in Gaza, where thousands of students stood up and shouted “No to poverty.”

The UN Millennium Campaign, responsible for initiating the annual Stand Up events, estimated that some 67 million people – or about 1 per cent of the world’s population – participated in over 2,000 events across more than 100 countries this weekend.

The “Stand Up and Take Action against Poverty” campaign is aimed at mobilizing support to fight against poverty and call on world leaders to deliver their commitments to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the internationally agreed targets to halve extreme poverty and address other social ills by 2015.