Each year the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection supports small public awareness initiatives to promote awareness of the Day and to support the work of the Irish 17 October Committee in networking with the groups responsible for the various commemorative initiatives and projects nationwide. Please follow the work of the Irish Committee at www.17october.ie to see examples of previous projects.
Applications are now being invited from groups or organisations for the Funding Initiative for the United Nations International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17th October 2017.
This funding is open to anti-poverty organisations and groups working with people experiencing poverty at national or local level.
The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection will not accept applications from profit making or trading companies, individuals, local and community development programme companies, local authorities or statutory bodies or any bodies outside the Republic of Ireland.
Please find the Application form here and Brochure here.
This year’s theme – Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the United Nations theme for 17 October, 2019 is:
“Acting together to empower children, their families and communities to end poverty.”
It is important that the theme for this year is reflected in any project application. Please visit www.overcomingpoverty.org and United Nations 17 Oct homepage over the coming months to stay up to date with resources which are available and any other news.
About the Day
The annual United Nations International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (UN Day) 17 October is a day to express friendship and solidarity with people who have to live with poverty and social exclusion every day of the year in Ireland, Europe and around the world. On the 17th October 1987, in the presence of 100,000 people from every socio-economic background and continent, Fr. Joseph Wresinski unveiled a commemorative stone at the Human Rights Plaza in Paris. This message is engraved on the stone:
“Wherever men and women are condemned to live in extreme poverty, human rights are violated. To come together to ensure that these rights be respected is our solemn duty.”
Similar stones are now located in 50 cities and places around the world, including Dublin, and have become rallying points for people from all walks of life. They gather to bear witness to the most vulnerable people in the world and to make a personal commitment to join forces with them in abolishing poverty and social exclusion. In 1992, the United Nations declared October 17 “International Day for the Eradication of Poverty”.
The deadline for applications is 12:00 noon, Friday 26th of July 2019.
Further information and the background on the International Day can be found here.