By Diana Skelton (France) Have you ever heard it said that “poverty is a powder keg”? That image has been used by leaders like Bill Clinton and Desmond Tutu in an attempt to spur society to overcome poverty — a worthy goal. But unfortunately that same image feeds the stereotype of the poor as violent,…
By Matt Davies (Mexico) I was recently reading an article by members of Social Watch about the UN post-2015 development agenda which will see the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) replaced by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – a change cynics might say that goes little further than one letter in an acronym. However, the process…
By Matt Davies (Mexico) I have recently returned from Guatemala where I spent two weeks accompanying ATD Fourth World‘s team as they began thinking about their priorities for the coming year. It was also a period of visiting the neighbourhoods, in Guatemala City and Escuintla, a city near the Pacific coast, where the team’s presence…
By Diana Skelton (France) Too often ignored, the intelligence of people living in extreme poverty, and the way their experience shapes their understanding of the world, can be invaluable tools for social change. To give just one example of this, I am very struck by the way our members in South America look at the…
By Guy Malfait – The Philippines I still remember my mother, returning one day from the bakery, all turned up side down – a poor woman named Andrea (“And even more, a woman of ill repute!” added my mother) had made a scandal after the baker had “given” her a loaf of bread from the…
By: Matt Davies (Mexico) At the end of September, the General Assembly of the United Nations held a special event on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The eight MDGs were launched in 2000 in order to provide a framework for the international community to eradicate poverty, ranging in thematic areas from poverty and hunger, education,…
By: Diana Skelton (France) Humanity can end the devastation caused by AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, polluted water, failed crops and other crises linked to poverty. Jeffrey Sachs convinced the world of this a decade ago. In charge of the United Nations Millennium Development Project, he insisted to world leaders that their efforts could indeed end poverty.…
“Chiapas has a large indigenous population. 78% of its people are considered poor, and 30% live in extreme poverty. The Millennium Development Goals are incorporated into the constitution of the state of Chiapas. “In 2013, Participate documented the views of indigenous people on how the Millennium Development Goals have affected their lives.” Video reproduced courtesy…
By Mariana Guerra (Brazil). (This post originally appeared on Participate2015.org) Awêre para Kisile – “That everything goes well for those who don’t have a name yet” What do we have in common? We, caboclos, ribeirinhos (riverside-dwellers), people of African descendants, youth, slum-dwellers, Indians, men and women, human beings, assembled at the Tijuca Forest, in the month…
Together in Dignity 