About Stop Child Poverty

The plight of children in need has always been very close to my heart. I remember when I came face to face with extreme poverty for the first time - it was Easter 1988 and at 18 years of age I stood at the edge of a lake with tears running down my cheeks.

From where I was standing I could see the village where I had been for much of the day. The images of malnourished children and emaciated adults kept playing like a slide show in my mind. I had been in the highlands of Papua, New Guinea for the previous five weeks where I had been volunteering with an organisation that provides radio communications and technical services to remote and isolated groups.

Over the Easter weekend I had traveled with a few friends to visit some remote villages near Lake Kutubu. To get there we had flown for one hour, tramped through a tropical jungle for four hours, and then spent a further two hours on the lake in a hollowed out log. We were then welcomed like family as we arrived at the village. I will never forget the smiles on the children's faces despite the rust colour of their hair, a clear sign of malnutrition.

Although I did not realise it at the time, the decision I was about to make would significantly alter the direction of my life. As I wiped away the tears, I began to focus on what I could do to help create a world where all children, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or location had the opportunities to grow and develop as intended.

The focus of the Stop Child Poverty campaign is to raise awareness of child poverty worldwide, and to help everyday world citizens make a difference in the lives of children in need. Stop Child Poverty works to promote the United Nations Millennium Development Goals to halve extreme poverty by 2015.

World leaders in developed nations pledged to increase support to developing countries to reach the goals by 2015. With less than a decade to go, many developed countries are not following through with the promises they made.

The campaign aims to keep governments on track by reminding them that citizens are deeply concerned about the welfare of developing countries. Along with helping governments reach the Millennium Goals, the Big Push will also urge world leaders, policy makers and global citizens to look beyond 2015 to a world that embraces the rights of children to live a full, happy, and healthy life.

Thanks for joining the campaign.

Yours for the distance!

Colin Salisbury
Executive Director
Global Volunteer Network

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