Oct. 17: International Day for Overcoming Extreme Poverty

All Together in Dignity (ATD) Fourth World Philippines and National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) invite every one… all organizations, NGOs, companies, academe, students, and private individuals to commemorate October 17, International Day for Overcoming Extreme Poverty.

This year, the commemoration will be held on October 16, 2011 (Sunday) at the Commemorative Stone (near the Japanese Garden) at the Rizal Park.

What is Oct. 17?

On October 17, 1987, upon the appeal of Father Joseph Wresinski (a French Catholic priest and founder of ATD Fourth World Movement),
100,000 people gathered together on the Trocadero in Paris to honor victims of hunger, violence, and ignorance.

A Commemorative Stone in Honor of the Victims of Extreme Poverty, was inaugurated on this occasion on the Plaza of Human Rights and Liberties (formerly Trocadero Plaza), at the place where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948 .

In 1992, the United Nations General Assembly declared October 17 as the International Day for Overcoming Extreme Poverty.

In the Philippines, Former Philippine President Fidel V. Ramos declared it as a National Day in 1993.

Activities

Aside from the main program, ATD will launch its Walking Exhibit: Lakad Laban sa Kahirapan, Mga Larawan ng Pag-Asa. It features sketches of people (families in poverty, ATD volunteers and friends) as drawn by award winning graphic artist and former Probe reporter, Mr. Robert Alejandro.

Other activities… Museo Pambata Mobile Library and Arts & Crafts workshops will be open to all the children.

We will be posting the final program very soon!

If I can’t come, what can I do?

• Share the Oct. 17 message via email & social network (Facebook & Twitter) and writing to media and blog sites. We have prepared some Oct. 17 Facebook messages on "Sharing" which will be available soon.

• Join a commemoration in your community, school, church, and organization.

• Organize a gathering, public walk, or other commemorative event, large or small. Be creative, while respecting the spirit of the day.

• Observe a minute of silence in a significant place or a meeting happening that day.

• Create a cultural event like a concert, play, and art exhibit in your community or school.

• Call on your religious leaders and encourage them to promote times of prayer in recollection of the very poor’s suffering and their initiation of this day.

• Write your own Testimony if you have experienced or seen the injustices of poverty and exclusion and share it to others.

For more information on the Oct. 17, log on to http://overcomingpoverty.org/

To confirm your participation, log to our Facebook Oct 17 Event

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=116533265117941

Come and join us to work together in overcoming extreme poverty!

Message in the Commemorative Stone:
Wherever men and women are condemned to live in extreme poverty, human rights are violated. To come together to ensure that these rights be respected is our solemn duty. " Father Joseph Wresinski