FTF participates in the UN International Day for the Eradication of Poverty 2006

The GCAP Feminist Task Force participated in the commemoration of the United Nations International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on Tuesday, October 17, 2006 at the UN Headquarters in New York.  The commemoration included a ceremony at the Poverty Stone in the UN Garden sponsored by the UN and the International Movement ATD Fourth World (although rain caused the ceremony to be moved inside).  The ceremony brings people living in poverty to the UN, where they speak directly on behalf of themselves and their community’s experience. The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty seeks to promote increased awareness of the need to eradicate poverty.  Established on 22 December 1992, it invites Member States and civil society every year to devote the day to presenting and promoting concrete activities to eradicate poverty.  Josephine Grey of Low-Income Families Together (LIFT), a Feminist Task Force partner from Canada, spoke about poverty in the North and Rosa Lizarde, the North American Feminist Task Force representative, called for gender equality to end poverty and bringing awareness to the issue of women living in poverty.
The Feminist Task Force also co-sponsored a panel discussion in partnership with the International Movement ATD Fourth World and the UN NGO Subcommittee on Poverty entitled, “Speaking Up Against Poverty:  Hearing the Voices of the Poorest.”  
International speakers addressed the importance of partnership with people living in poverty.  The speakers included Josephine Grey, co-founder of LIFT and a GCAP-FTF partner from Canada.  Josephine highlighted issues relating to poverty in the North, Canada in particular.  She provided a historical context to increasing poverty explaining that radical changes over the past two decades have affected the economic stability of the North American society.  In Canada, government policies have eliminated social and humane policies and pushed rapid privatization of public infrastructure services.  Josephine explained how women bear the brunt of the effects of regression. She spoke about her own situation, how domestic violence pushed her to homelessness as a single mom of three, and explained how bureaucratic messes trapped people into poverty.

UN Church Center
777 UN Plaza, 2^nd Floor
New York
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
4:15 pm -5:45 pm

Panel discussion:  “Speaking up against poverty:  Hearing the Voices of the Poorest.”
International speakers will address the importance of partnership with people living in poverty.
Co-sponsored by the Feminist Task Force of the Global Call to Action against Poverty, the International Movement ATD Fourth World and the UN NGO Subcommittee on Poverty. All welcome.
Josephine Grey, LIFT Sponsored by the Feminist Task Force-GCAP
Josephine Grey is a human rights activist, a widow and mother of four who has been active in the struggle for economic and social justice for over 20 years. Because of her experience of poverty and homelessness, she became a founder of Low Income Families Together (LIFT) in Toronto, a resource centre run by and for low-income people since 1986. LIFT does community education on human rights, economic and political literacy, (including teaching resources from comic books to videos), sponsors community projects and helps provide a voice for low-income people to the media and government. Through LIFT, she was deeply involved in government reforms of social assistance in the early nineties.