Poverty

“The best prevention against poverty is education”. This is one of the principles expressed on the website www.zeropoverty.org which supports the Caritas Europe’s campaign against poverty and social exclusion.

Such campaign (presented yesterday in the premises of the European Parliament, in Brussels) has officially started: on the website, people may subscribe to the petition which lists four main goals (eradicate children’s poverty, increase social security, increase the supply of personal and health-care services, increase employment), learn about the many activities planned by Caritas in 2010, proclaimed by the EU as the Year Against Poverty, find tools and materials for local action. In addition, the website lists 13 concrete “missions” which all European citizens are invited to take part in.

They include: the task of “speaking of poverty”, make its many aspects known by involving in particular the young; buy fair trade products; replace a birthday present with a donation to some non-profit organisation; support local trade by shopping in local shops; buy a “street paper”.