On Saturday, October 17, Booth College will join millions of people around the world who will “STAND UP” against hunger and poverty as a global event in which citizens urge their leaders to keep their promises to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and to work locally to ensure food security. Last year, more than 116 million Stood Up and Took Action to end poverty, setting a Guinness World Record. As part of the Winnipeg “STAND UP” event at Booth College, youth leaders from around the province will sign the Micah Call which is a pledge to work together for the holistic transformation of our communities, to pursue justice, be passionate agents of hope for and with the poor and to hold our leaders accountable in securing a more merciful world.

“Food insecurity is as real to hungry children in Winnipeg as it is to children living in Africa or India. We need to pledge our commitment to respond to the suffering of both,” says Sherrie Steiner, Director of Booth College's Urban Service Learning Program and Associate Professor of Sociology. “We care about the 14 million children, women and men racked with starvation and malnutrition in Africa. We also care about the children living in the shanty villages of India. We also care about the 47,000 children living in poverty in Manitoba.” As of 2006, Manitoba has the third-highest child poverty rate in Canada, with 12.4% of Manitoba children living under the after tax low-income cut-off (LICO).

Kent Dueck knows the plight of Winnipeg's most marginalized people all too well. As the founder of Inner City Youth Alive (an agency affiliated with Booth College's Urban Service Learning program), Kent has worked for 23 years as an urban minister to youth in Winnipeg's North End. Over the decades, he has witnessed the destruction that poverty, gangs and drugs have had upon Winnipeg's youth. Dueck knows first hand the countless children whose dreams have been dashed by the isolation and inequality caused by poverty.

Sherrie Steiner and Kent Dueck will join approximately 300 youth leaders from across Manitoba as part of the “STAND UP to Make Poverty History” challenge this weekend in Winnipeg. STAND UP is a United Nations Millennium Campaign and a Make Poverty History challenge to ensure that governments worldwide recognize a unified commitment to work together to end poverty and inequality. “Make Poverty History” supporters will also be marking the United Nations International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on October 17, 2009.

Booth College is a Christian University College sponsored by The Salvation Army that brings together faith, rigorous scholarship and a passion for service. The College educates students to understand the complexities of our world, to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to be active contributors to society, and to know how to bring hope, social justice and mercy into our world.

Find out more by visiting boothcollege.ca.