Unacceptable Australian levels of poverty despite great wealth was the key contribution made to The UN Day for the Eradication of Poverty international committee from Toni Wren, Single Mother Families Australia Principal Adviser and former Anti-Poverty Week Executive Director.
Coming from 13 countries, speaking different languages and working to end poverty in many ways we work on the United Nations Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Last year, I was honoured to be the first Australian to join the Committee.
It was inspiring to meet others who from the Philippines, France, Ireland, Rwanda, Belgium and the US, all with a common goal of eradicating poverty. The Committee encourages countries to include and feature people with lived and living experience of poverty as they acknowledge October 17 each year.
Many of Australians, including myself, who have participated in Anti-Poverty Week aren’t aware of the history. The inspiration to mark and call for poverty eradication across the world each year came from French priest Father Joseph Wresinski.
His passion was inspired working in the late 1950’s in one of the most deprived areas in Paris – the slums of Noisy de Grand on the outskirts of Paris.
He believed that people living in poverty deserve dignity and hope and that it was his duty and privilege to live and work with them. His work also inspired the organisation All Together in Dignity which now operates in 35 countries.
On October 17 1987, 100,000 people from all backgrounds responded to a call from Father Wresinski to come together in Paris to celebrate what he named the first World Day for Overcoming Extreme Poverty.
The gathering was at the Plaza of Human Rights and Liberties at the Trocadero, Paris. It was chosen as it is where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948.
A Commemorative Stone was laid on that day, the text of which includes:
“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”.
More than 60 similar Commemorative Stones have now been laid in countries including the Philippines, Ireland, Italy and the United Nations Plaza in New York.
Five years after the laying of that first Stone and following advocacy by Father Wresinski, the United Nations General Assembly declared October 17 the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.
We visited the Plaza on 5 June, collectively read the text aloud and reflected on the millions of people around the world living in poverty. It was a sobering event.
Our Rwandan Committee member read the testimony of two women who have started their own agricultural business lifting them and their children out of poverty.
We visited Noisy le Grand where work to eradicate poverty continues. Providing safe housing is integral to this work, in particular housing for individuals and families. Many of them are seeking asylum or have been granted refugee status.
Women and children who have fled domestic violence also make up many of those housed and supported there. We also saw the large number of services for children including music, drama and art classes and a well-stocked library undertaken by the community and All Together in Dignity.
I was invited to speak to the Committee about Australia and Anti-Poverty Week here. I spoke about the unacceptable levels of poverty and inequity in Australia despite our great wealth. Our Irish committee member, who himself has lived in poverty and now just above it, commented wisely, “Poverty speaks all languages.”
We also drafted the Villarceaux Declaration which will be presented to both senior officials and representatives of countries at the United Nations to mark the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.
In that we assert that “Poverty is produced and reproduced by poverty choices. Poverty persists, in rich and poor countries alike. Poverty can be overcome”. This requires the co-design of policies with people living in poverty, whose knowledge and experience are indispensable.”
We also welcomed the 2026 focus of October 17 on achieving safe homes for all. A safe home is not only a roof. It is a place where people can live without fear, hunger, humiliation or exclusion; a place connected to rights and community.”
This is very apt for Australia where far too many people live in unaffordable, insecure, unhealthy and unsafe homes.
The five days has given me renewed energy to fight for a better Australia and a better world. Despite coming from different parts of the world, speaking different languages and working to end poverty in many ways, it was clear all committee members are united to ensure we do not “grow comfortable with the uncomfortable” – another simple and yet profound phrase from our Irish poet.
Toni Wren is former Executive Director of Anti-Poverty Week and now Principal Adviser Single Mother Families Australia