The October 17 logo
'They pledged their solidarity with all people who, throughout the world, strive to eradicate extreme poverty.'

Today, October 17, is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

The UN officially recognised the day in 1992 but the date was set in France in 1987, when 100,000 people from around the world gathered in Paris, France, to see Father Joseph Wresinski, founder of ATD Fourth World unveil a commemorative stone in the Trocadero Human Rights Plaza in Paris.

Fr. Wresinski was born to immigrant parents in a poor neighbourhood of Angers, France. He grew up in a family which suffered from great poverty and social exclusion. In 1946, he was ordained and in in 1956, he was assigned by his bishop to be a chaplain to 250 families placed in a emergency housing camp in Noisy-le-Grand, near Paris.

In 1957, Wresinski and the families of the camp founded the first association that was later to become ATD Fourth World. They replaced soup kitchens and the distribution of old clothes with a library, a kindergarten and a chapel. Joined by the first few volunteers, he soon created a research institute on extreme poverty that brought together researchers from different countries and disciplines.

The commemorative stone reads: 'October 17, 1987. On this day, defenders of human and civil rights from every continent gathered here. They paid homage to the victims of hunger, ignorance and violence. They affirmed their conviction that human misery is not inevitable. They pledged their solidarity with all people who, throughout the world, strive to eradicate extreme poverty.'

The stone also contains a quote from Fr. Wresinski: "Wherever human beings 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."'

Fr. Wresinski died in 1988. Since 1987, 13 replicas of the stone have been unveiled across the globe.

The October 17 website contains general information about the movement, downloadable resources, messages of support from around the world, and reference documents including Fr. Wresinski's address on October 17, 1987

Today, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that a world mired in despair of poverty 'will not be a world at peace'. Read his annual message.

The UN Development Programme, contains a message from its Administrator, Mark Malloch Brown.

He argues that even though Millennium Development Goals, set three years ago, are being, and can be, broken, unless a global push takes place, the ultimate goal to halve extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 might not happen.

Events are taking place around the world to mark the day, including the UK. In London, a series of events is taking place under the banner Sounding Our Against Poverty. Goldsmith's College hosts a debate and churches are being asked to ring their bells as a symbolic action against poverty.

In Hull a 'ringing out and speaking out' event takes place at St. Mary's Lowgate and in Liverpool, a neighbourhood-themed meeting and debate is taking place at Liverpool Town Hall.

In Dublin a commemoration will take place at The Famine Memorial at Custom House Quay.

The definition of global poverty applies to those who live on less than one dollar a day. But the definition has many interpretations.

In a report out today, Wales still has some of the worst areas of poverty in the UK.

Research by Oxfam Cymru and the Anti-Poverty Network Cymru (APNC) warns that despite measures taken by the Welsh Assembly Government, a child born in Wales could remain one of the poorest in the UK throughout its life.

The report, called 'From the Cradle to the Grave', used statistics gathered from a variety of sources including Help The Aged, Save the Children, Citizen's Advice Bureau and the Welsh Assembly.

They revealed that Wales has the highest number of children living in poverty and that at the other end of the spectrum, a majority of pensioners in Wales depend on the state pension and other state benefits as their main source of income.

Earlier this month, a senior politician on the island of Guernsey denied that poverty is a growing problem on the island.

Deputy Andrew Sauvarin, President of Guernsey's Civil Service Board, said claims made by the Transport and General Workers Union had been "grossly exaggerated".

The TGWU said that the minimum public-sector wage of £228 per week was £69 below the figure, calculated in 2001, as above the poverty line.

The government has set a target of 2004 to cut child poverty by 25% but experts from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation have warned that the ultimate goal of eradicating it in the UK by 2020 will be difficult.

The World Bank Group website hosts a 'poverty basics' article with statistics, definitions, recent trends and progress reports on Millennium Development Goals

Developments, the magazine of the Department for International Development has a piece written by Channel 4 news presenter Jon Snow who is currently in Iraq filming a new series of programmes for the channel, starting on Sunday talks about his time as a VSO teacher in Uganda and his concept of poverty.

Christian Aid campaigns against poverty through its trade justice campaign, demanding that the rules about trade are weighted in favour of the poor. The website's campaigns index contains actions, news and features.

Other notable events have taken place on October 17 and you can recall some of them here.