POVERTY ERADICATION DAY

Homeless band thrills audience @ ebony’s poverty day

 By Hakeem Babalola

Men, women, children even animal enjoyed themselves when PERON, an homeless Band, gave a thrilling performance at the World Poverty Eradication Day organised by Ebony Organisation to bring awareness to the plight of the poor people as initiated by the United Nations in 1987. 

The event which is the first of its kind in Hungary took place at TŰZRAKTÉR on Sunday October 17 and was attended by various organisations including NGOs (Non-government Organisations).

African News Hungary gathered from the participants that the inclusion of a homeless Band in such an event to bring awareness to the eradication of poverty is highly thoughtful. The PERON Band is said to be living at Oltalom Egyesület. 

Apart from stage performance which featured but not limited to Panther Patrick Magic Show, Arab Folklór, Hare Krisna; there were different programmes like Fair trade, African Dance workshop and film show, collection of million pair of shoes, children’s programme and more. Meanwhile DJ Bishop rapped up the night with mixture of titillating songs. 

African News Hungary posed questions to the organisers and participants about the positive effect the marking of Poverty Day likely to have especially on the poor people.

Miriam Ekuidoko

The Ebony organisation believes it is the individual efforts and not governments or politicians that can help eradicate poverty. “It is a good opportunity to create awareness as you can see that we have managed to bring organisations together under one umbrella,” explains Mariam Ekuidoko who with her husband - Frank - appears determined to reorient Hungarians regarding African culture and arts.  

She adds: “It is important to show that everyone should take action against poverty. I don’t think the government is aware of today’s event but then it is not only the duty of governments or politicians rather the common responsibility of the society. We should not wait for the government to do something about poverty. We have to take action by ourselves. If we wait for the government, nothing is going to change”. 

Evelin Varga says it draws attention even though many rich people do not realise that there are people who can’t feed themselves, adding that it’s important to show people how to help through different organisations present here today. 

Another participant, Edit Sikos points out that the Poverty Eradication Day is significant in the sense that it brings people of different cultures together to learn how to help. Sikos adds that when people have the same focus and interest then they can achieve a lot. 

In attendance were Amnesty International, Hare Krisna, Sahara Foundation, Far From Home Foundation, TAITA, FAO, Hungarian Africa Platform and many others.