World Record Broken: Over 110,000 Americans Participate in “Stand Up” Against Global Poverty
Washington, DC–Today, ONE joined with the Millennium Campaign to announce that 110,332 Americans came together on Sunday, October 15th to “STAND UP” in the fight against global poverty, part of a national and global official world record for the largest number of people ever to stand up for a cause.
The Guinness World Record for the most people to ‘Stand Up Against Poverty’ in 24 hours was set in this record 24 hours from October 15-16th, 2006, with a total of 23,542,614 participants in 11,646 events around the globe. At each event, people stood up to join together with the world’s poorest people and ask that governments take urgent action to end poverty and inequality and to meet and exceed the Millennium Development Goals.
Across America, ONE volunteers, faith leaders, students, community members and voters from both sides of the political aisle came together to “STAND UP” at over 676 local events and “house parties” in all 50 states on Sunday. ONE supporters also joined together on this day to “pledge ONE vote” not for a candidate or party–but instead to help send a message to all candidates that we can make a better, safer world for us all. ONE volunteers took action at Sunday’s “house parties” by contacting elected officials and the headquarters of candidates running for office to ask what steps they will take to help fight global AIDS and extreme poverty.
“Decisions made on Capitol Hill have the power to save lives in the world’s poorest countries and ONE is working to start to make the over 1 billion people living on less than $1 a day part of the election conversation,” said Meighan Stone of ONE. “ONE’s more than 2.4 million supporters are sharing the message that ONE is a campaign in which Americans do not have to take a side–there is only ONE side in the fight against global AIDS and extreme poverty.”
Other highlights across America and world included more than 10,000 AIDS walkers participating in a “Stand-Up” to kick-off the Atlanta AIDS Walk, services in schools and places of worship across America and Africa, crowds in soccer stadiums across Spain and Mexico, over 1,000 cyclists carrying the “Stand Up Against Poverty” message across 100km in Sri Lanka, cricket fans standing together in Jaipur, India and a huge gathering in Times Square New York City.
“Together we have set an incredible record for the largest number of people standing up to demand action on poverty,” said UN Millennium Campaign Executive Coordinator Eveline Herfkens. “But the record we really want to break is the world’s record of breaking promises and ignoring the poor. We don’t want to record numbers of people dying of poverty every year. This is the great issue of our times, let us become great by dealing with it decisively.”