For information only - not an official document

UNIS/INF/387
16 September 2010

Citizens' Voices Against Poverty will be Heard Around the World

Citizens will Make their Expectations that Governments Achieve the Millennium Development Goals Too Loud to Ignore:
Events planned in Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia and Hungary on 17-19 September

VIENNA, 16 September (UN Information Service) - From 17 to 19 September, people across the globe will turn up the volume on their call for Heads of State gathering at the United Nations on 20-22 September to demonstrate leadership in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Citizens will gather at events across continents to amplify their support for the eight MDGs, a set of targets to eradicate extreme poverty and its root causes by 2015 that marks its tenth anniversary this week. They will be singing, chanting, blowing whistles, playing drums, blowing vuvuzelas, banging pots and pans and setting off alarm clocks. The sounds of these noises emanating from villages, towns and cities around the world as part of the three day mobilization "Stand Up, Take Action, Make Noise for the MDGs" will make citizens' commitments to track and support their countries' achievement of the Goals visible, vocal and impossible to ignore.

At a Teachers Forum hosted by UNIS Vienna in cooperation with the Vienna School Board and the Bratislava Region earlier this week, close to 60 teachers from Austria and Slovakia came together to prepare Stand Up events at their schools. The events that are being planned at schools in Vienna and the Bratislava region range from a primary school action art project, essays, graphic design and posters, to synchronized mobile phone ringing as well as an MDG march by the students. Providing for a learning experience on the MDGs for the participating school children and an exchange between them were important considerations besides contributing to the larger event.

"Stand Up" events being organized across the globe include:

"The Secretary General's recent report on the Millennium Development Goals has made it clear that with only five years until the deadline by which world leaders have promised to eradicate extreme poverty and its root causes, the active partnership of citizens and governments is more important than ever," said Corinne Woods, Director of the UN Millennium Campaign.

Last year, more than 173 million people participated in "Stand Up," setting a new Guinness World Record. "Stand Up and Take Action" is organized globally by the United Nations Millennium Campaign, in collaboration with a wide range of partners, including the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP).

For event listings, photos, sounds from Stand Up events and more information, visit www.standagainstpoverty.org

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Media Contact for b-roll, interviews and further information:

Kara Alaimo
Telephone: (+1-212) 906-6399
Email: kara.alaimo@undp.org

or

Regina Rohrbach
Associate Information Officer
United Nations Information Service (UNIS) Vienna
Telephone: (+43-1) 26060-3898
Mobile: (+43-699) 1459-3898
Email: regina.rohrbach@unvienna.org