On October 17th, 2008 from 11:00 am- 12:00 PM the cast of the Broadway production of A TALE OF TWO CITIES will perform at the United Nations lawn near the peace bell.
In a global call to action, participants will ‘Stand Up Against Poverty and for the Millennium Development Goals’ at UN Headquarters as a symbol of their commitment to the fight against poverty. The event will include performances by the cast of the Broadway musical, “A Tale of Two Cities,” based on Charles Dickens’ novel about poverty and inequality in pre-Revolutionary France.
The STAND UP initiative, led by the UN Millennium Campaign in partnership with the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, is now in its third year. In 2007, more than 900 people took part in the UN Headquarters event, led by the Secretary-General. Around the world, 43 million people from 127 countries participated in ‘Stand Up’ last year, sending a clear message of support for the Millennium Development Goals and breaking the Guinness World Record. This weekend, from 17-19 October, 1 per cent of the world’s population, more than 67 million people, are expected to Stand Up and Take Action to express their commitment to a more urgent response to inequality and global poverty. The UN Headquarters event is co-organized by the UN Department of Public Information and the Millennium Campaign. Further information is available on the campaign website: http://www.standagainstpoverty.org
“This October 17-19, world leaders will hear directly from their people that they will no longer stand by while 50,000 people die of preventable causes each day,” said Salil Shetty, Director of the Millennium Campaign. “Today, the Broadway community is joining a powerful coalition of more than one percent of the people on Earth who are demanding that world leaders keep their promises to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.”
The Millennium Development Goals, formally adopted by 189 countries in the year 2000, are a bold promise made in our names which commit rich and poor countries to work together to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, ensure all boys and girls complete primary school, promote gender equality, improve the health of mothers and children, reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, protect the environment, and create a global partnership for development by ensuring rich countries give more and better aid, debt relief and trade opportunities to poorer countries by 2015. We are halfway to that deadline and still almost a billion people worldwide struggle to survive on less than a dollar a day. It doesn’t have to be this way.
In 2000, Secretary General Kofi Annan created the Millennium Campaign to supports citizens’ efforts to hold their governments accountable for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. In 2006, the Millennium Campaign and the Global Call to Action Against Poverty launched the first “Stand Up and Take Action” events around the globe, where 23 million people Stood Up to demand that world leaders achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Last year, more than 43 million people Stood Against Poverty. This year, on October 17-19, the number is expected to double, and more than one percent of the people on Earth are expected to Stand Up.
The global movement in support of the Millennium Development Goals is growing. We are the first generation with the power to end poverty, and we refuse to miss this opportunity. We will no longer stay seated in the face of poverty and the broken promises to end it.
