International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

Poverty has many faces, whether it be starving children in Africa or India or whether it be a struggling single Mother crying in the supermarket as her children look on confused. The examples of poverty range from extreme to almost imperceptible and the UN has declared Fighting Poverty to be one of the cores of their Millennium Development Goals.

The complexity of poverty is now better understood due to increased cultural awareness and sympathy with true connection and motion towards a solution. The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is observed to promote and acknowledge the effort and struggle of those living in poverty. The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty also gives people living in poverty a specific opportunity to make their concerns and thoughts heard, recognizing that they are the first to fight against poverty.

The very first observance of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty can be pinpointed as the 17th of October in 1987. On that Saturday in fall more than a hundred thousand people congregated at the Trocadéro in Paris, France. It was there that the Declaration of Human Rights was signed by the United Nations in 1948, in order to honor the victims of extreme poverty, violence and hunger. The central principles expressed in the declaration were carved in a commemorative stone, which was unveiled at the signing of the Declaration of Human Rights in 1987.