Shufat Stands Up!

1,716 girls aged between five and fifteen years of age at Shufat Girls’ School in Shufat refugee camp in Jerusalem on 15 October, sang out at the top of their lungs: ‘no to poverty!’ They would be joined, in the next 24 hours, by nearly half a million children from UNRWA schools in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.

Their exclamation came after their Headmistress read out the pledge calling for 189 world leaders to remember their promise to take action to halve world poverty by 2015. The 24-hour period of ‘Stand Up Against Poverty’ over 15 – 16 October is part of a month of activities across the world to raise awareness of the Millennium Development Goals and to publicly demonstrate to world leaders the growing global support to make poverty history.

The girls of Shufat Girls’ School stood for one minute in recognition of their own poverty as well as the poverty of millions of other children around the world, where in many cases the children do not even have schools to which they can go. Palestinian families, however, are faced with their own difficulties: unemployment is above 23 percent and 46 percent of the Palestinian population lives in poverty. ⁽¹⁾

The girls were eager to participate in such an event, and had been waiting in anticipation of the final countdown all morning. The media that arrived to capture their reminder to bring world poverty to an end made the day all the more enthralling for the girls – their presence confirmed that other people were interested in what they had to say and the way they wanted to say it.

As part of the morning’s activities, some of the girls were asked to write their own experiences of poverty:

Sajeda in the 7th grade:

‘Unemployment causes poverty and a society which has poverty in it is full of troubles - such as begging…The poor are not just those who are financially unable but the ones who lack knowledge too.’

Jameela in the 10^th grade:

‘I say no to poverty, but being poor is not shameful. We need to cooperate and help each other through charity. Poverty makes kids and youth homeless and it causes starvation and it displaces families.’

Salma in the 3^rd grade:

‘Poverty makes kids very shy because if they are asked to do something and they do not have the money to do it they will feel shy and guilty’

Hadeer in the 3^rd grade:

‘I hope peace will come to our land, and people will find work’

These comments identify the fears and worries of the girls in Shufat Girls’ School. Hopefully ‘Stand Up’ will help to ensure that their concerns have been heard by those who can make a difference.

On 15 & 16 October, over 23.5 million people in more than 100 countries worldwide ‘stood up’ against poverty to remind policy makers of their promises to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 and to help the billions living in extreme poverty. The participants in the action set an official Guinness World Record for "the largest single coordinated movement of people". Launched by the United Nations Millennium Campaign, ‘Stand Up Against Poverty’ is an initiative designed to coincide with Global Call to Action Against Poverty month of global mobilizations around the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.