Today, we saw hundreds of Make Poverty History volunteers come together to distribute 50,000 copies of a free newspaper to commuters to coincide with the commencement in Melbourne of the United Nations Department of Public Information conference on global health.

EMC (Every Minute Counts) is a tabloid style free newspaper aimed at making the issues surrounding poverty and development accessible to everyone. Whether your interest is in news, celebrities or the astrological form of the stars, there is something for everyone in EMC.

So far, we’ve distributed 30,000 copies of EMC across Melbourne at Southern Cross, Melbourne Central and Flagstaff railway stations and in Swanston, Bourke and Elizabeth Streets. Another 20,000 copies are being given out in major capital cities around Australia.

The Making Health Global UN conference in Melbourne is the last step towards the UN General Assembly meeting in September which will review progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and halving poverty by 2015. This is the first time that the UN has held a meeting in Australia and only the third time in 63 years the conference has been held away from New York City.

In 2000 the countries of the world, including Australia, agreed to eight MDGs that would cut extreme poverty in half. The goals included reducing hunger, providing primary level schooling for all children, cutting child and maternal mortality rates and providing people with clean water and sanitation. While some significant progress has been made on these goals they remain seriously off–track.

Check out the online version here, where you can also view the print version.