October 16-18

In this page :

• What is Stand Up?
• Why? 
• Echoes from the four corners of the world!
• How to organize a Stand Up event
• How to convey the results
• Some ideas for taking action
  • For a really special Stand Up event
  • To take action
• Resources

What is Stand Up?

STAND UP AND TAKE ACTION is a global movement of people determined to speak out against poverty and to demand that world leaders keep their promises to end poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

On October 16-18, millions of people will stand up and take action in support of the Millennium Development Goals. Last year more than 116 million people people responded to the call – that’s nearly 2% of the entire world population! In 2007 Stand Up broke the Guinness World Record for the biggest coordinated movement of people ever. Of that number, Oxfam-Québec and its youth division, CLUB 2/3, accounted for more than 12 000 people!

This year, you can help us beat that record and send an even stronger message to our governments. The time for discussion is over -- now it's time to take action!

Why?

In the year 2000, the leaders of member countries of the United Nations adopted the Millennium Development Goals, setting out eight concrete and realistic objectives for reducing extreme poverty by 2015. As that deadline approaches, we are going to have to redouble our efforts if we are to achieve those goals. Even today, for example, around 1 billion people have to live on less than a dollar a day.

Echoes from the four corners of the world!

All around the world people will stand up and take action to remind our leaders to keep the promises they made in 2000. Here is a snapshot of some activities planned in various parts of the world:

• The Stand Up pledge will be heard from the highest point on Earth - activists are going to read it out from the top of Mount Everest.
• In Uganda, 5000 students will take part in a public debate about the MDG aboard a ship in the Indian Ocean.
• In India, the Stand Up campaign will be the theme of a literary competition organized by young people in the city of Patna.
• In Edmonton, a group of students is hosting a media event on campus, where they are going to wrap hundreds of tree trunks with white bands and proclaim the Stand Up pledge.
• In California, 1 200 people will stand up together in the pattern of an enormous peace sign and will then take part in a kite-flying festival to raise money for development projects that will help children in Afghanistan and Guatemala.
• In Poland, hundreds of spectators are going to stand up at a concert of noted musicians in Warsaw.

How to organize a Stand Up event

• You can design your own Stand Up event! Put together a group of people, read out the pledge (see an example here…), and ask the crowd to stand up to help beat the Guinness world record.
• Next, ask everyone to take action against poverty and inequality (here are some ideas).
• To publicize your event you can get Stand Up materials by contacting Marie-Andrée Leblanc at leblancm@oxfam.qc.ca or (514) 937-1614 ext 352.

How to convey the results

Once your Stand Up event is over, go to www.standagainstpoverty.org and register your event, recording the number of people who stood up. You can also register your event before it happens, so it will be publicized at the web site.

If Oxfam-Québec or CLUB 2/3 is supporting your event, mention this in your registration notice.

Think about taking photos of your event and send your success stories to: leblancm@oxfam.qc.ca ! You can also upload your photos at the Stand Up site, where they will be part of a worldwide slideshow. See last year's slideshow.

Remember!
To be counted for the Guinness World Record, your Stand Up event must take place on October 16, 17 or 18 before 7:30 PM.

Some ideas for taking action

Make your Stand Up event a creative happening and invite participants to make a concrete gesture! 

For a really special Stand Up event:

• Wear white, the symbolic colour of the antipoverty campaign, and ask everybody attending your event to do the same.
• Get people to stand up in a pattern that forms a word (e.g. " S-T-A-N-D-U-P”) or a symbol (e.g. the peace sign).
• Wear T-shirts with some statistics (e.g. 1 400 women will die in pregnancy or childbirth today).
• Wrap buildings, trees or statues with white bands.
• Make up big banners that people will riase when they Stand Up, with keywords like "climate change", "infant mortality", or "solidarity".
• Line up a local artist to perform (a singer, dancer, percussionist, or painter) as part of your Stand Up event.

To take action:

• Support Oxfam-Québec's "Make your mark, change the world!" which calls on governments to negotiate a fair and equitable post-Kyoto agreement that respects the rights of people in the South -
  • Sign the petition
  • Pass the word at your event (paper petition) ;
• Organize an improve contest on the MDG theme.
• Host an Oxfam hunger banquet -- an excellent way to raise funds for development project and to let your participants experience the planet's inequalities firsthand.



• Conduct "flash mobs" on one of the eight MDGs or on climate change, which affects the world's poorest people.
• Screen a documentary film on the antipoverty campaign and then host a debate on the issues raised (Oxfam-Québec has a number of documentaries that you can borrow free-of-charge).
• Wear and hand out the white bracelet, the international symbol of the antipoverty campaign.
• Invite participants to make a donation and help Oxfam-Québec in its campaign against poverty.
• Arrange for an awareness raising workshop in your school or university (Oxfam-Québec offers several kinds).
• Organize a presentation/debriefing by a volunteer or intern just back from the field.
• Organize an artistic event, e.g. a painting competition on the theme of poverty or climate change.

Resources

For the STAND UP AND TAKE ACTION 2009 promotional video.

See also this brand new video !

To download the STAND UP pledge or poster:
see the bottom of this page

For a map of worldwide events in 2008:
www.standagainstpoverty.org/en/photos

For the best pictures from last year's STAND UP:
www.flickr.com/photos/standagainstpoverty/sets/72157607985213842

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	STAND UP poster	810.07 KB
	STAND UP pledge	72.22 KB