17 October 2006
Standing Up Against Poverty in the North
Oxfam campaigner in Leeds Nick Martlew tells us how he Stood Up Against Poverty for World Poverty Day, and played his part in the huge world record attempt.
Just a few hours ago I was in Millennium Square in Leeds thinking, 'this is just going to be embarrassing'. I was stood on the steps of the Civic Hall with a City Councillor, another Oxfam Campaigner, and a guy called Adrian from the council. As things stood we weren't going to contribute greatly to any world record attempt, certainly not the Stand Up Against Poverty world record attempt (see www.standagainstpoverty.org).
It's early in the afternoon the same day. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
I'd been working with Adrian to muster a council presence for Stand Up and we got one: 50 or so people just appeared out of nowhere, obviously responding to some Council-funded bugle that only those on the city payroll can hear. The Councillor, a certain Richard Brett who'd seen devastating poverty in Nepal, read the pledge and there you go: one Stand Up event, complete with good weather.
But that was only the prominent, media-alluring tip of a larger northern Stand Up iceberg. Ten days or so ago I'd prodded Guppi, a friend and fellow Change graduate, into doing a Stand Up event at Leeds University. They got another 52 people to form a human white band around some people holding up STAND UP in enormous black letters. A simple idea like Stand Up, taken and spun into something so imaginative is simply inspirational.
And there's more. The iceberg goes deeper. Or wider. Or something. I'd been in touch with faith groups across Yorkshire and the North East and yesterday worshippers of many stripes, from Baptists to Baha'I, stood up against poverty. An Oxfam shop hosting an Oxjam gig got one of the bands, The Lodger, to get the whole packed crowd to Stand Up. And I was informed that some students in Newcastle were going to do a Stand Up moment, then go and wrap the Angel of the North in a human white band. Over 70 people took part in that one.
For these I was just sorting out the press articles and radio interviews, compiling the plans, the numbers, the photos. Working with other groups means a whole lot more can be done to campaign against poverty, but I've found it's an overwhelmingly inspiring process. Iceberg shmicemerg. The North was sizzling with Stand Up this weekend.
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Nick Martlew was born in Malaysia. This is his interesting fact. A graduate of Oxford and Sheffield, Nick then sold his soul to Oxfam for the price of lunch and travel. As a campaigns volunteer in Leeds he took part in the Change programme and he is now an intern, researching Oxfam's humanitarian protection work.
Ideally, Nick would like to be paid, perhaps even in a job he enjoys, like in advocacy or speech-writing.
Until then, he is editor of 
