United in respect and support for families!
Dear friends,
Thank you all so much for your energetic participation in our October 17 theme consultation process earlier this year. Your contributions, your thoughts, your words of wisdom are very much valued and they always inspire us in preparing our annual October 17 statement.
In serving as a bridge between the Forum members and the United Nations, we do our best to make sure that your voices are heard at the highest levels and that the theme of the global commemoration is the one chosen by you. The process is not always easy but rest assured that slowly but surely, the political leaders are starting to talk about the issues you want to talk about.
As you know, poverty as people experience is often unknown or not well understood by the decision makers. The current poverty measures (including the multidimensional poverty index (MPI) that still only focus on income levels, education and access to basic infrastructure services like drinking water and sanitation are woefully inadequate. You have shared with us about the importance of understanding the hidden dimensions of poverty and because of our joint work, we are able to start highlighting these hidden dimensions, particularly social and institutional maltreatment experienced by people living in poverty to the decision makers and the pressing need to end it.
Our focus in 2025 will be on “ensuring respect and effective support for families” so that children and people living in poverty can eventually escape poverty. The sad reality is that no matter how hard parents try, their children experience the same deprivation and poverty can sometimes lead to family separation. Extreme poverty, hunger and destitution may drive children into the streets or force parents to entrust their children to orphanages or to work in domestic service. In some situations, a mother may have to leave her children unsupervised while she works long hours so that she can feed her family. Poverty is not neglect and yet in some countries children are removed from their home not due to physical abuse or parental wrongdoing, but because of financial hardship and deprivation. Despite the diversity in contexts and despite all the forces separating them, experience has shown that the majority of parents and children would prefer to stay together and support one another in the face of destitution. We hope that our 2025 focus on supporting families in poverty will help recognise the enormous efforts parents make for their children and in calling for respect and effective support for families.
In the consultation a number of you rightly reminded us that there are many hard-working and well-intentioned professionals within institutions who find themselves trapped – having to conform with regulations that are counterproductive and not helpful. There are also many wonderful people in our society who want to do good. When we talk of social and institutional maltreatment, we are not apportioning blame, we are appealing for a better understanding. October 17, after all is a day for understanding and togetherness. A day that reminds us that we all need to work together. It’s a day to energise and a day to mobilise.
So, please tell us what you will be doing this October 17 – share your activities and photos with us. This way we know that we are not alone. Let us be inspired by our actions all over the world from the most remote villages and hamlets to the busy global cities of New York or Paris. October 17 is our day. Together we can and we will end poverty.
Aye Aye WIN, President of the International Committee for October 17