About 130,000 of UNRWA school students and their teachers in Jordan and some Jordanian universities will literally stand up in support of the eradication of extreme poverty.  Together they will plea “ًًWe stand here proudly as members of the generation that intends to defeat extreme poverty”.

They will call on world leaders of both – the wealthy countries and the poorer countries- to act and keep their promise to bring poverty to an end when they adopted the Millennium Development Goals at the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000. 

The Stand Up Pledge ends with “We are six billion voices.  We want justice now. No more excuses.  We will not stand for them.”

The event is a symbolic action that aims to mobilize the world and the political will to fight poverty and with the hope that all countries not only achieve the Millennium Development Goals, but also exceed them. 

Participants in the Stand Up will be counted as part of an official Guinness World Record for the biggest ever gathering to simultaneously stand up against poverty within 24 hours starting from 10 a.m. GMT of Sunday 15 October to 10 a.m GMT Monday 16 October.

The major event will take place today Sunday, in New York on Times Square in which the Secretary-General Kofi Annan will participate in person.  The final results of the Stand UP record will be available online at www.millenniumcampaign.org.

In 1992, the General Assembly, declared that 17 October is the date for the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (resolution 47/196 of 22 December). The observance aims to promote awareness of the need to eradicate poverty and destitution in all countries, particularly in developing countries -- a need that has become a development priority.