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[8 December 2006] - The theme of the 2006 Human Rights Day is “ fighting poverty, a matter of obligation not charity”. Poverty is not a matter of fate, and Terre des Hommes calls on governments to fulfil the commitments they made to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, as a response to the world's main development challenges. But six years on, by and large, aid has not been delivered in sufficient quantity, and the conditions necessary for aid to yield optimal results have not been created. Terre des Hommes has played its part in fighting child poverty for more than 40 years. It runs 1215 projects in 64 countries to improve the living conditions of underprivileged children, and to offer them prospects for a better future. About half a billion children, representing about 40 per cent of all children living in developing countries, are currently struggling to survive on less than $1 a day. Poverty is the main cause of millions of preventable child deaths each year; it also causes tens of millions of children to go hungry, miss school or be exploited through labour and trafficking. Impoverished children become transmitters of poverty, as parents, to the next generation, and yet the worst manifestations of poverty could be eradicated in a few decades. Through the investment of a modest share of the world’s annual income, all children could be provided with a minimum standard of living, including access to adequate food, safe water, primary health care and education. In September 2000, world leaders gathered and committed to the Millennium Development Goals, which were to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, and combat diseases such as HIV and AIDS, by 2015. And yet, six years on, the aid shortfall for financing the MDGs is set to increase from $46 billion in 2006 to $52 billion in 2010. If this trend continues the MDGs will have no chance of being met. Terre des Hommes calls on all states to meet their commitments, which represent an unprecedented chance to make a lasting impact on child poverty, and calls on the UN to set up a real monitoring mechanism to accelerate the advancement of commitments. Civil society also plays a part in the fight against poverty, and Terre des Hommes runs 1215 projects in 64 countries to implement the fundamental rights of children, and to protect them from violence and exploitation. In Haiti, for example, Terre des Hommes has committed itself for over ten years to the struggle against child malnutrition and to the promotion of basic health services. In the Ivory Coast, Terre des Hommes runs a project to prevent high-risk births, and works in collaboration with basic sanitary services. In Burkina Faso, Terre des Hommes is trying to break the cycle of poverty whereby children are forced to work and are unable to attend school: financial loans enable women to run income-generating activities, and thus send their children to school. All Terre des Hommes projects are rooted in a rights-based approach, which aims at providing equal chances for all, and puts the best interests of the child at the centre of its activities. Further information