Wednesday, April 06, 2011

A Colorful Attempt To Make Poverty History


A group of local youth from the upper North Shore in Australia found a new way to raise awareness for the Millennium Development Goals to end poverty. They gathered at Wahroonga over the weekend to paint themselves up and pose for photos to craete a visual representation of each goal.

The Millennium Development Goals are eight goals that all United Nations members are committed to achieve by spending 0.7% of their gross national income on Official Development Assistance by 2015. These goals include halving poverty and hunger, assuring universal primary education, creating gender equality, decreasing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability, and developing a global partnership for development.

As organiser Catharina Simmonds said, “We’re here to make the movement to end poverty louder,” after the event three members from this group participated in the Make Poverty History Action Lab that was held in the CBD, where over 100 youths around Australia came together to learn how to campaign at a local level.

For those who are still wondering what they are doing in the picture, they are spelling out the word "Humanity", which is the basic quality you have to have to make a change in the world for better.

-Nisha Noor