“Stand Up, Take Action, End Poverty Now!” begins today. Over 100 mil­lion peo­ple will stand up and be counted as sup­port­ing the Mil­len­nium Devel­op­ment Goals and will call on world lead­ers to help meet them.

From this press release that we found at the Mil­le­nium Cam­paign web­site, is this round up the “Stand Up” events tak­ing place this weekend.

In Nairobi, Kenya, an anti– hunger con­cert dubbed Free the Hun­gry Bil­lion, Stand Up and Take Action, will bring together development-conscious musi­cians from across the African con­ti­nent, includ­ing Oliver Mutukudzi (Zim­babwe), Susan Owiyo (Kenya), Pro­fes­sor Jay (Tan­za­nia), Didier Awadi (Sene­gal), Ntsiki Mazwai (South Africa), Car­lou D (Sene­gal), Name­less (Kenya) and Wahu (Kenya). Food dona­tions will be col­lected from attendees.

Also in Kenya, thou­sands of peo­ple are expected to attend the West­ern Kenya Uta­maduni Fes­ti­val to cel­e­brate the region’s cul­ture through music, drama and bull-fighting per­for­mances and advo­cate for pro-poor devel­op­ment, focused on food secu­rity. The event will be hosted by a Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment who is Chair­man of the Pub­lic Accounts Committee.

In Nige­ria, thou­sands of peo­ple are expected to attend var­i­ous con­certs over the three-day mobi­liza­tion by per­form­ers includ­ing Sarah Mitaru and Femi Kuti, who will honor the life and work of renowned African musician/AIDS activist Fela Kuti. The per­form­ers will explore the MDGs and the issues of social injus­tice, exclu­sion and poverty through song and dance. They will also sign a peti­tion demand­ing account­abil­ity and trans­parency in their gov­ern­ments in order to achieve the MDGs.

In Zim­babwe, res­i­dents from Harare’s high den­sity sub­urbs are expected to par­tic­i­pate in a sports gala orga­nized by Trans­parency Inter­na­tional, where 20 teams will com­pete in soc­cer, vol­ley­ball and net­ball games. The activ­ity will pro­vide the res­i­dents of the sub­urbs with a plat­form to hold their lead­ers account­able for their promises to end poverty.

In the Philip­pines, the Mil­len­nium Cam­paign will launch an “I Vote for the MDGs” cam­paign dur­ing “Stand Up” by sur­vey­ing cit­i­zens about the issues they want their lead­ers to pri­or­i­tize, in prepa­ra­tion for the May 2010 national and local elec­tions. Results of the sur­vey will be pre­sented to the country’s pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates dur­ing a forum on Octo­ber 20.

In India, cit­i­zens will gather at India Gate on Octo­ber 16 to light a lamp to sym­bol­ize the dis­per­sal of the dark­ness of poverty and illit­er­acy, against the back­drop of the fes­ti­val of lights that begins on Octo­ber 17th across the coun­try. At the event, orga­nized by the National Con­fed­er­a­tion of Dalit Orga­ni­za­tions, intel­lec­tu­als, Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment, civil soci­ety and youth groups will demand imple­men­ta­tion of the Urban Employ­ment Guar­an­tee Act to pro­vide liveli­hood oppor­tu­ni­ties to mil­lions of peo­ple liv­ing in poverty in urban slums across the country.

Also in India, from Octo­ber 16–18 cam­paign­ers from Wada Na Todo Abhiyan will launch the sec­ond phase of the “9 is Mine” cam­paign across more than 100 Par­lia­men­tary con­stituen­cies, demand­ing func­tional health cen­ters and schools in every vil­lage, town and city of the coun­try. Across bus stands, schools, hos­pi­tals, rail­way sta­tions, bazaars, parks and places of wor­ship, the pub­lic will be asked to assess the func­tion­al­ity of their health cen­ters and schools.

In Bangladesh, tens of thou­sands of peo­ple are expected to attend a mas­sive rally at Banga­bandhu National Sta­dium in Dhaka on Octo­ber 17, inau­gu­rated by Prime Min­is­ter Sheikh Hasina. The rally will encour­age the gov­ern­ment to make fight­ing poverty a major goal of Vision 2021, the long-term plan being devel­oped in advance of the country’s 2021 Golden Jubilee. The event will be tele­cast on 10 screens in other pub­lic places through­out Dhaka.

In Nepal, the Pres­i­dent will read a Stand Up Pledge with mem­bers of the Con­stituent assem­bly at an event orga­nized by the National Plan­ning Com­mis­sion and UN in Nepal at the President’s Offi­cial res­i­dence, broad­cast live on national tele­vi­sion. This will be fol­lowed by a con­cert hosted by the Mil­len­nium Cam­paign and Art of Liv­ing, where thou­sands of peo­ple are expected to gather in a large open-air the­atre in the heart of Kath­mandu on Octo­ber 16 to Stand Up for peace and the reduc­tion of poverty in Nepal. The con­cert will fea­ture folk songs, reli­gious songs set to the tune of rock music and per­for­mances by some of Nepal’s top singers.

A report will be launched on MDG progress at a poverty hear­ing in Peru on Octo­ber 17, bring­ing together rural cit­i­zens to call on their gov­ern­ment to com­bat mater­nal and child mor­tal­ity and assure health­care for women. An “alter­na­tive bud­get” with a con­crete plan for how the gov­ern­ment can achieve the MDGs will be pre­sented to Parliament.

Across Europe, on Octo­ber 17 from 7:00–9:00 PM(GMT + 1 hour), radio sta­tions will simul­ta­ne­ously play Bob Marley’s song “Get Up, Stand Up.” The song will also be played often through­out the three-day mobi­liza­tion in Europe, remind­ing audi­ences of the mobi­liza­tion hap­pen­ing across the globe.

On Octo­ber 16–17, the cities of Barcelona, Munich, Paris and Milan will be awarded with the “MDG Com­mit­ted City Seal” for their role in pro­mot­ing the Mil­len­nium Devel­op­ment Goals in their cities. Through a part­ner­ship between United Cities and Local Gov­ern­ments (UCLG) and the Mil­len­nium Cam­paign, UCLG mem­bers across the world will show their com­mit­ments to the MDGs by dis­play­ing large white ban­ners on City Halls and other gov­ern­ment buildings.

In New York City, cit­i­zens will Stand Up and Dance on Octo­ber 16 at a Fri­day evening party orga­nized by Mercy Corps and the ONE Cam­paign to pres­sure the United States Con­gress to pass the Roadmap to End Global Hunger plan.

At McGill Uni­ver­sity in Canada, the entire foot­ball sta­dium will be asked to Stand Up against poverty at the university’s home­com­ing game on Octo­ber 17.

Like

Unlike