Occupational Therapy students from Curtin recently participated in a noisy two-hour lobby and activism workshop led by Oxfam Australia. The workshop culminated in a Stand Up event, a global movement of ordinary people taking a stand to tell world leaders to do more to eradicate poverty. Last year’s event attracted 173 million people worldwide including over 200 000 Australians.

Stand Up was held between September 17 and 19, just before world leaders met in New York to discuss how they can increase their efforts to ensure the MDGs are met. The theme of this year’s event was Stand Up and Make a Noise for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the 8 global goals that world leaders have agreed to achieve in an effort to halve poverty by 2015.

After the workshop, associate lecturer Kirrily Manning took the students around the campus chalking anti-poverty slogans, finishing outside the Vice Chancellor’s office where they gathered for a soap box talk. Ms Manning said ”It was fun and a good learning opportunity.”

Visit Make Poverty History for further info on Stand Up.