UNIFEM World Poverty Day October 17th

UNIFEM has a joint initiative with the Women’s Funding Network (an umbrella for some 120 women’s funds worldwide) for World Poverty Day on October 17th. JoAnne Sandler, Executive Director, ai, has asked us to reach out to our networks to mobilize as many people as possible and help raise awareness on the fact that women are not only deeply affected by poverty, but also hold enormous potential to help overcome it. To channel the call to overcome women’s poverty into the campaign, UNIFEM and WFN have developed a small website through which we will encourage people to stand up online and get informed on the issue of women and poverty. The site has just been launched in English, French and Spanish at: www.womenfightpoverty.org.


On the site, you will find UNIFEM's key messages and arguments, along with pertinent statistics to inform on the issue of women and poverty. The web site also alerts visitors to the United Nations’ Millennium Campaign “Stand Up Campaign” against poverty and for the Millennium Development Goals, and will on 16/17 October provide the opportunity to join the campaign online. Joining the Stand Up campaign through this web site with a specific call to overcome women’s poverty is at the heart of UNIFEM's activities and I would like to encourage you once again to mobilize your networks and show that there is an extensive worldwide movement in support of eradicating women’s poverty. Last year, Stand Up set a Guinness Book record with almost 24 million people participating worldwide; the aim is to set a new world record this year, and we all hope that in support of the call by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon we will actively contribute. Please note that there is a strict 24 hour timeframe to be counted for the record, between 16 October 9 pm GMT - 17 October 9 pm GMT.