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Johnny Ocean, a 27 year-old from New York City cannot read or write at his age level. He has always experienced the inequities of living in poverty. “If we don’t feel comfortable, chances are we won’t go to school, end up in jail or get stuck in low-paying jobs and stay in the cycle of poverty.” Mr Ocean told his story of poverty during the commemoration of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (October 17) at UN Headquarters, New York. Focusing on the theme Moving from Humiliation and Exclusion to Participation Mr Ocean’s statement encompassed the key messages of the commemoration – to eradicate poverty by empowering those experiencing social exclusion.
In his keynote message, Deputy Secretary General for the United Nations Jan Elisasson addressed Mr Ocean’s experiences and explained that poverty affects access to health, education and other essential public services. He identified poverty as a cause and consequence of social exclusion and that exclusion is a driver of social unrest, emphasizing the need for wider community involvement beyond those directly affected by poverty. Mr Eliasson also identified the importance of abandoning attitudes that ignore the issue of poverty and encouraged everyone to ask how they can help to end poverty.
The commemoration stressed the importance of empowering those experiencing poverty to take the lead in its eradication. A video message from a Mauritian woman, working with ATD Fourth World to address poverty within her community, spoke about how certain NGO’s “come and impose things we do not agree with. It is not for them to lead but for us to lead. When things are imposed without the help of the poor, nothing good comes.”
Patrick Luben, a poet and Human Rights activist, emphasized the importance of not being a bystander in efforts to end poverty. He explained that to ignore the issue of poverty was the denial of human rights. Marlon Walron, community and HIV/AIDS activist spoke about social exclusion and poverty eradication with a slogan originally used during the AIDS epidemic of the early nineties: “Silence equals death, let us not live in silence” encouraging conversations about poverty to continue.
A highlight of the event was a musical performance from Sparsh Shah performing the Michael Jackson song Heal the World. He encouraged the audience to participate by clapping and eventually rising from their seats, capturing the essence of the event’s message: working together is essential to ending poverty.
Follow the online conversation on the UN International Day for the Eradication of Poverty by using #ENDPOVERTY
Learn more about our work on poverty eradication at social.un.org/poverty
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