KU News Release

KU groups work to raise awareness of global poverty

LAWRENCE — Several student organizations and departments at the University of Kansas will host events in conjunction with End of Global Poverty Week, which takes place Oct. 15-19.

At the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, 189 nations promised to improve the lives of more than 1 billion people living in extreme poverty. An eight-point plan with targets to end poverty by 2015 was established. However, little has actually been done, and some of the world’s poorest people are worse off today than they were seven years ago, said Jessica Bergman, a senior from Louisburg and president of the KU Millennium Development Goals Organization.

“Everyone has a stake in the well-being of the world’s citizens, and everyone has a stake in the Millennium Development Goals,” said Bergman. “Even if it is just one week, students can make a difference through donations or increased awareness. Every student can have a global impact.”

“Silent Killer,” a one-hour documentary that highlights the sorrows of those who live in extreme hunger, will be shown at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 16, at Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union.

On the worldwide End Global Poverty Day — Wednesday, Oct. 17 — KU students and staff are asked to join the Stand Up Campaign, a global initiative to raise awareness of the Millennium Summit. Last year, more than 23.5 million people across the world participated. This year, Delta Force, a Student Senate coalition, and others will stand on Wescoe Beach for 24 hours beginning at 9 a.m. Demonstrators will also ask students to sign the Pledge Against Poverty.

The week will continue Thursday, Oct. 18, with “The UN in Action,” a brown-bag lunch with Alassane Fall at 12:30 p.m. at Nunemaker Center. Fall has worked for the United Nations in Geneva on the High Commission for Human Rights, Treaties and Commission Branch; the International Institute of Humanitarian Law in Italy; and the Senegalese Foreign

Ministry, Europe-America and Oceania Department. Later that evening, Abe and Jake’s will host a Party to End Poverty from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Cover is $3 for those 21 and older, $5 for those aged 18-20. All proceeds will benefit the Nothing But Nets campaign, started by Sports Illustrated writer Rick Reilly to provide anti-malarial bed nets to children in Africa, where more than 3,000 children die of the disease every day. The NBA and Bono support the program, among others.

The week will conclude with the GuluWalk, hosted by KU for Uganda. GuluWalk is a benefit to raise awareness of the 21-year-long civil war in northern Uganda. Registration and check-in begin at 5:30 p.m. at the Big 12 room in the Kansas Union. The walk will conclude with a talk by KU for Uganda’s founder, Rebekah Heacock, and refreshments.

The Spencer Museum of Art exhibit “Picturing Poverty,” will be on display through Oct. 23 in the learning gallery on the museum’s main floor.

Throughout the week, student housing facilities will have donation jars for the Nothing But Nets Campaign. Six student organizations will have tables on Wescoe Beach to hand out solidarity ribbons Tuesday-Friday.

End of Global Poverty Week borrows its name from New York Times bestseller “The End of Global Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time” by economist Jeffrey Sachs. For more information, e-mail mdgorg@ku.edu.

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