Ottawa, Ontario — The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty has been observed every year since 1993, when the United Nations General Assembly designated a day to promote awareness of the need to eradicate poverty and destitution worldwide, particularly in developing countries – a need that has become a development priority.

“Unfortunately we still cannot speak of poverty in the past tense,” said the MP for Miramichi, Tilly O’Neill Gordon.  “It is with us in the present and will be in the future, because eradicating it is a huge challenge, and one that is everybody’s responsibility.  On this International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, I urge each and every one of you to think about that challenge.  Together we can make a difference and put an end to poverty.”

This year’s theme for the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is “Working together out of poverty”.  It was chosen to highlight the need for a truly global anti-poverty alliance, one in which both developed and developing countries participate.

“Over and above the statistics, don’t forget that what matters are people:  young people who have to work instead of attending school, children whose parents have been taken from them by AIDS or other preventable illnesses, mothers who die in childbirth, communities struggling with toxic environments.  These may not be our realities here in the riding of Miramichi and in Canada,” Mrs O’Neill Gordon concluded, “but we cannot close our eyes and forget that they are all too real elsewhere in the world.”

On October 16, 17 and 18, millions of people around the world will unite to show global solidarity, break a world record for the largest coordinated mobilization of civil society.  You can still be counted by going online! On October 16, 17 or 18, take action on Make Poverty History’s STAND UP widget and be counted for the official Guinness World Record attempt by visiting http://www.makepovertyhistory.ca/standup/act-online or http://www.dignityforall.ca/.